A dispute over language bias is now brewing all over western Odisha. To make Sambalpuri dialect more popular, particularly after the issue of the demand for a separate Koshal State came into being, a few people preferred to call Sambalpuri dialect as Koshali.
This was done with greater interest to create unity among the people of the region and intensify the demand for the Koshal State. But in a few places, people demanded the dialect to be called Koshali instead of Sambalpuri.
Since it is spoken over a vast patch of land including in many districts, it is better to call the language as Koshali instead of Sambalpuri, which looks to have been made after the name of Sambalpur.
A meeting was organised at Kalahandi in this connection where people preferred to call the language Koshali instead of Sambalpuri. But people in Sambalpur opposed the proposal tooth and nail.
“The language of the Koshal region comprising the entire western Odisha is Sambalpuri,” they said. They also organised a meeting to give a message to the people of all other parts that the language here is Sambalpuri, not Koshali.
Well-known educationist Arabinda Mahapatra presided over the meeting and said that any effort to name Sambalpuri as Koshali would be protested. “The effort is made to get nothing but gain political mileage,” Mahapatra said.
Sambalpuri is well known all over the world. “When Rangabati was sung in Moscow, people knew it as Sambalpuri song, not Koshali song. Hence, any effort to diminish its importance would not be tolerated,” many opined and warned of an agitation against the move.