Piyong Temjen Jamir: A Hindi scholar and teacher, Padma Shree awardee from Nagaland

By Kallol Dey | Indian Express

In 2006, a Naga educationist in full traditional regalia received the Ganga Saran Award from the hands of then president of India APJ Abdul Kalam. The memory hangs framed prominently on the wall of the awardee’s home on the outskirts of Dimapur town. Twelve years later, the same Naga personality was on stage in Delhi, his attire again proclaiming his Naga identity, receiving the Padma Shree from President Ram Nath Kovind.

Now 86, Jamir’s dedication to promotion of Hindi and also social service have been acknowledged with 14 awards over the past few decades. (Express Photo)

Battling stigma, threats, and ignored by his own people, Piyong Temjen Jamir, the lone single-minded crusader of Hindi language in Nagaland, probably wants to send a message to his critics that his identity as a Naga has not been compromised by his love for the Hindi – a language not favored for long in Nagaland as well as many parts of northeast India during the peak of separatist movements.

Now 86, Jamir’s dedication to promotion of Hindi and also social service have been acknowledged with 14 awards over the past few decades. And the man, reverently addressed as Guruji, has always draped himself in traditional weaves for each award or even for any photo for the media.

Jamir, the principal of Rashtrabhasha Hindi Shiksha Sansthan, located in Nagaland’s cosmopolitan town of Dimapur, was recently awarded the Padma Shree for distinguished service in the field of literature and education. An honour well deserved, as anyone who had witnessed Jamir struggle through his life to promote Hindi in the state, would say.

“Hardly anybody had any interest in Hindi and I was looked down upon by my own people and in my own village because I taught Hindi,” Jamir recalls of his early days as a Hindi teacher in his home state in a tête-à-tête with indianexpress.com.

“I became a pariah among my own people, but my love for the language and that we can create a script for our native language better with Devnagri kept me going against all odds.” “But,” he adds with a smile, “even I do not understand how I came to love this language so much.”

Jamir published articles in local newspapers putting forth the argument that Devnagri was more suited to script the tonal and rhythmic language of the Naga tribes than the Roman script. Substantiating, he points out the phonetic similarity between Sanskrit and Asian Pacific language.

The educationist was issued threats on more than one occasion by separatists fighting for independent Nagaland. “The undergrounds threatened me. They didn’t like me teaching and promoting Hindi as it was perceived as the language of the oppressors. If India doesn’t give us independence, we won’t allow Hindi to come here, they said. I made many enemies,” he says.

The octogenarian recalls, “Uss dino me koi Hindi ko pyar nahi karta tha; Hindi wala ka matlab hai chota aadmi (Those days nobody used to love Hindi. The term Hindi-walla was an expression of contempt).” But, Jamir persisted.

Starting with three students – two relatives and one a friend’s son – in a thatched accommodation and then shifting to the sprawling current site of the Rashtra Bhasha Hindi Shiksha Sansthan or Hindi College, the journey of Piyong Temjen Jamir has been a long and testing one.

Jamir’s tryst with Hindi began in 1963 when he left his native place to learn the language at Wardha in Maharashtra. He had attended a regular school till class VI in his village of Longsa, Mokokchung district, but lost interest in studies and more interested in farming, the main occupation in Naga villages.

After completing the course in Hindi at Wardha, he stayed back for two more years to acquire more knowledge of the language. “Others couldn’t stay there for even a year due to the heat, but I stayed for seven years. I was resolute. I wanted to learn to speak Hindi properly,” he says.

Coming back to Nagaland, he got a teacher’s post in Tuensang later left for Agra in 1973 to acquire B. Ed degree. Back to his state again, Jamir worked as an instructor in the Hindi Training College, originally established as a branch of the Wardha institute in 1962 in Dimapur as Rashtra Bhasha Vidyalaya.

Frustrated by the disregard for the language among the local populace, he resigned from the college in 1982 and contested in the state assembly election unsuccessfully. “I was a broken man after my election defeat but my family supported me and urged me to carry forward my profession as a Hindi instructor. From 1982 to 1987, I lived on the earnings of my wife and daughter,” Jamir says.

In 1984, the Wardha institute withdrew its sponsorship of its branch in Dimapur and the then-incharge of the college coaxed Jamir, who was also in the managing board of the institute, to take over the institution as its owner. In 1988, resolute to revive the college, he shifted location and changed the name to Rashtra Bhasha Hindi Training Institute.

Jamir had also taken his young wife, Pangertula Jamir, to Wardha to train her in Hindi and she became his pillar throughout the days of struggle. Jamir recalls how his wife faced off the undergrounds when they threatened him. “She is a strong woman and this journey would not have been possible without her. She gave me courage to go ahead with my plans for the institute,” Jamir says.

Jamir says promoting Hindi has also helped him serve the society in many ways, including get local youths employed. “One of my first students was a girl whose husband had left her and their kids. She liked the language. I sent my wife to teach her at home and I helped her pass her exams. Then she got the post of Hindi teacher in her village.”

As the number of students grew, Jamir made trips to the state education directorate to seek jobs for students of his institute who had completed the course. “Those days, there were so many non-locals holding ad-hoc posts of Hindi teachers in government schools. I made frequent visits to the directorate in Kohima and insisted that the local Hindi graduates be given the jobs.

“Those early days, one would be appointed Hindi teacher even if that person could speak Nagamese (a creole language in Nagaland combining Hindi, Assamese and Bengali).

“Hindi ke seva karte huye logon ka sewa bohot kiya maine (While promoting Hindi, I have served a lot of people),” Jamir says. “That’s why the Lord has looked after me and my family’s well being,” he adds.

An avowed follower of Mahatma Gandhi, it was no surprise hence when he was dubbed as Mahatma Gandhi of Nagaland and Father of Hindi in Nagaland. But he is yet to get due recognition from his own brethren.

More than 2000 Hindi teachers in Nagaland have been trained under the tutelage of Piyong Temjen Jamir. Today, Jamir’s children teach Hindi. His eldest son Wallen Jamir has taken over his father’s institute.

In a felicitation programme organised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate Janjati Shiksha Samiti (JSS) of Nagaland, the octogenarian made a quite entrance wearing the Ao Naga motifs on a traditional waist coat flanked by members of his family.

As one enters the sprawling grounds of the Hindi College run by the Jamir family, two structures are visible on either sides of the gate. On the left is a church, and on the right stands tall a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. And the classrooms humming with the enthusiastic sound of students getting schooled in Hindi, a language much less resisted now, and more accepted as an avenue for gainful employment.