With declaration of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for a research institute at Ghens in Bargarh district on Kosli language and literature named after famous poet Padma Shri Haladhar Nag, the people of Sambalpur and many other parts of western Odisha have expressed dissatisfaction over the nomenclature of this age-old language.
The language spoken all over western Odisha is ‘Sambalpuri’ and never ‘Kosli’ or ‘Sambalpur Kosli’, opine people of Sambalpur and also a good number of linguists of the region.
Hence, the CM’s declaration while felicitating Haldhar Nag in Bhubaneswar for a research institute in Kosli language is nothing but to hurt the sentiments of the people here, said Sukanta Kumar Kar, an elite citizen of Sambalpur and proprietor of the Sukhdukh Publication, a leading publication house of the State. “We the people of Sambalpur demand that the Chief Minister change his self-designed nomenclature to Sambalpuri instead of Kosli, failing which there will be virulent protests from every corner,” warned Kar.
Giving the background of the Kosli language, Kar said that in the year 1982, late Prayagdatta Joshi of Kalahandi district in Saptarshi magazine published by the Sambalpur University had opined that Sambalpuri is spoken all over western Odisha. i.e., the Kosal region. Hence, it should be named as Kosli instead of Sambalpuri. And since then, the word Kosli came to picture but without any rhyme and reason, argued Kar.
“A research institute is a welcome step, but it should be on Sambalpuri language,” said Pramod Kumar Mishra, another intellectual of the region now staying in Bhubaneswar. Mishra’s articles have found place in several Odia newspaper earlier protesting the name as Kosli.
People of coastal Odisha also know the language as Sambalpuri and never Kosli. “During my childhood days, we were listening to Sambalpuri songs from radio. But later, we are listening about Kosli which is still unacceptable as well as a new word for us,” said Sanjukta Mohanty, an advocate with her permanent resident now in Sambalpur but born and brought up in Cuttack.
Further, people here opine that after changing the language from Sambalpuri to Kosli, there may be efforts to change the world-famous Sambalpuri saree to ‘Kosli saree’, Sambalpuri dance to ‘Koshali dance’ and so on.