Context: The state education department has been asked to establish academies for the promotion of the Surjapuri and Bajjika dialects on the model of the Hindi and Urdu academies by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
For Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Angika, Magahi, Bangla, and South Indian languages, there are already eight academies or operational organisations in Bihar; the government's choice regarding Bajjika and Surjapuri takes note of the two dialects that had been overlooked.
About Surjapuri dialect:
- Most of Seemanchal, including the districts of Katihar, Purnia, and Araria, in northeastern Bihar, as well as Kishanganj, speak Surjapuri.
- The dialect, which combines Hindi, Urdu, and Bangla, is also used in adjacent regions of West Bengal.
- The no longer-existing Surjapur pargana is where the name Surjapuri originates. Surjapur, however, is a toll booth that is located halfway between Kishanganj and Purnia.
- Among speakers in some regions, it is known as 'Deshi Bhasa'.
About Bajjika dialect:
- One of the five dialects used in Bihar, called Bajjika, is a combination of Hindi and Maithili. Bajjika has been classified as a dialect of Maithili.
- It is primarily spoken in Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, and in some areas of Sitamarhi, Sheohar, and Samastipur.
- Bajjika is also spoken by a major population in Nepal, where it has 237,947 speakers according to the country's 2001 census.
- Compared to other dialects like Bhojpuri and Maithili, Bajjika is less well-known. During the second Nitish Kumar administration (2010–2015), the Bihar education department had considered teaching up to Class 5 in regional dialects, but nothing came of it.
- In the 1950s, debates over Bajjika's status as a minority language began. The Angika and Bajjika speakers made demands for the recognition of their languages in response to the Maithili speakers' demands for a separate Mithila state in the 1960s and 1970s.
