It is indeed heartening to note that of late Odia language has received the Classical status, but that is not enough. A language invigorates nationalism only when it is created, recreated and remains alive in the day-to-day use of the people. The language becomes obsolete and meets its natural death when it remains unused and gets further dominated by other languages, observed Rajya Sabha member Baisnab Charan Parida.
He was inaugurating literary journal Sahityayan at a function held at the Jayadev Bhawan here recently. He further cautioned that if the increased interpolations of other languages like English and Hindi cannot be restricted then Odia language would lose its identity after 20 to 25 years.
Chief guest of the occasion Odisha Sahitya Akademi President Satkodi Hota opined, “The declaration of Odia as a Classical language would remain meaningless so long as we do not lay stress on the use of the language in our day-to-day life.
Earlier a poetry reading session was held wherein poets like Pramod Mohanty, Kamalakanta Panda, Hrushikesh Mallick, Upendra Nayak, Ramakanta Rout, Kamal Kumar Mohanty, Manorama Biswal Mohapatra, Chandra Bijaya Mishra, Debendra Dash, Adhyapak Biswaranjan, Seema Mishra and Niranjan Padhi recited their own creations.
The Sahityayan was unveiled along with the releasing of Bhagyachakra, a collection of short stories by Basanta Kumar Rath; Ananya, an anthology of poems by Kumudini Rath; Bahi and Bahimela of Chandra Bijaya Mishra; and Batrish Simhasan written by Kanak Manjari Sahu.