-By Yogesh Sharma, Bhuj
Kutch University has planned a shodh yatra as part of its ambtious programme to preserve Kutch's arts, culture and language.
The University also has plans to set up Kutchi chair for the purpose, according to Dr. Shashiranjan Yadav, Vice-Chancellor of the Kutch University.
Dr. Yadav who completed one year in the office of the Vice-Chancellor of the University recently has chalked out number of IT driven programmes for the University besides preserving arts, culture and language through innovative strategies like shod yatra and Kutchi chair. Dr. Yadav is the first Vice-Chancellor of the university named after Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma. Until last year, the University was run by bureaucrats, mainly District Collector.
Giving details of the Shodh Yatra, Dr. Yadav said that it would begin on December 10. In the month long yatra, teams of two to three persons would take up different routes one by one and document information about arts, culture and language of Kutch..Ultimatly, this information will be showcased at a special programme in January end. On this occassion, the Kutch University will also announce setting up of Kutchi chair.
Spelling out his concept of Kutchi chair, he said that this would also help conducting diploma and degree courses in various aspects of arts, culture and language of Kutch. He said that he had plans to involve students of MA Gujarati in promoting Kutchi. 25 marks will be kept in the final examination for the work on Kutchi culture and language. This is however, he said, is at a conceptual stage. Dr. Yadav is however confident that the idea will be integral part of the curiculla of the next academic year.
Kutchi is a mix of Gujarati and Sindhi. However, Gujarati script has been accepted as script for Kutchi language. He said that there were plans to bring out online dictionary of Kutchi language in the next few years.Over the years , the use of Kutchi language has been limited to couple of hundreds of people where upto written Kutchi is concerned. Even the spoken Kutchi is becoming alien to the families which are staying outside Kutch.
The only silver lining , according to Kirti Kharti , is the use of Memans and other communities of Muslims and some communities of harijans. Kirti is the editor of Bhuj based 64 year old leading newspaper Kutch Mitra. Kirti Khatri is the son of the renowned Kutchi short story writer Jayant Khatri. He was the first president of Kutchi Sahitya Academy and his term expired couple of months back.
He suggested that Kutch Univeristy can do a lot in preserving and promoting Kutchi language. He beleives that this can be done by introducing Kutchi language as a subject at college level.
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