The director of research, government of Arunachal Pradesh, Batem Pertin, said the Asam Sahitya Sabha can still play a pivotal role in retaining Bor Asom — the erstwhile colonial Assam province comprising all the existing states of the Northeast — through literature.

He said this on Monday while attending the Ambikagiri Raichoudhury Memorial second open session and Dr Indira Goswami National Award distribution ceremony held in accordance with the 75th Sabha conference at Sualkuchi.

Pertin, who is also the general secretary of the Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society (APLS), said: “Apart from literary activities, the Sabha must strengthen the inter-state communal ties in the Northeast bringing all the ethnic literary bodies under a single forum.”

He told this correspondent that the proposal submitted jointly by the APLS and the Sabha to the government of Arunachal Pradesh for approving Assamese as the third language, was under consideration. “I also urge the Sabha to organise literary activities in the remote districts along the Assam-Arunachal border to revive the age-old relationship of both the states,” Pertin said.

Highlighting that there are hundreds of smaller literary bodies for every ethnic community in the Northeast, Pertin said: “The Sabha must play a parental role in uniting these ethnic literary bodies.”

Stating that music maestro Bhupen Hazarika’s statue at Bolung village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Dibang Valley district had become a centre of tourist attraction, Pertin said: “The government of Arunachal Pradesh has also decided to construct another statue of him in Itanagar.”

Stressing that the APLS had started conglomerating different ethnic literary bodies in Arunachal Pradesh, Pertin said Sabha must raise funds for functioning as an umbrella body for the entire literary organisations of the Northeast. “No difference exists in literature irrespective of caste, creed and religion. So, unification of the Northeast can happen only through literary participation and togetherness. The Asam Sahitya Sabha is the right platform to let us realise this in reality,” Pertin said.

He said the Sabha could also end ethnic conflict in the Northeast if it expanded sharing of thoughts through literature.