Union Minister for Development of North East Region (DONER) P R Kyndiah made an appeal to the young generation of North-East to follow the footsteps of Srimanta Sankaradeva. The saint was a great unifier and simplifier with his teachings for love and compassion and free expression of ideas. He was an epitome of humanism, said the Union Minister. The Minister made these remarks while inaugurating the Gauhati University (GU) Centre for Sankaradeva Studies.

“The people of the region are still one emotionally. Asom is a unique place in NE region. It is a gateway to the South Asian countries. The people of the region are now in the process of finding their roots, which lie in the South Asian countries. In these days of globalization, the South Asian countries will also come in a big way to the people of the region,” the Union Minister said.

Former Vice Chancellor (VC) of GU Dr Nirmal Kumar Choudhury said that the Centre should develop itself as an inter-disciplinary one. Its activities should be linked with the Departments of Folklore, English, Hindi and Bengali, besides, Assamese. For he said the Centre also had plans for translating the writings of the great saint and his followers into other Indian languages. Besides, it has the plan too to study the folk tradition of the State, which had influenced the works of the great saint and his followers, he said. He also requested the Centre and the scholars of Sankaradeva studies to ascertain as to which was or were the language or languages Sankaradeva used as lingua franca to talk to the saints of the other regions of the country while on his pilgrimages.

Co-ordinator of the Centre Dr Pradipjyoti Mahanta said that the centre as a long-felt need of the State’s people for undertaking higher studies in Sankaradeva.

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