Editor,
According to the 1961 census, India was hosting 1,100 living languages at that time. However, a 2017 study carried out by the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre in Vadodara, under the title ‘People’s Linguistic Survey of India’, arrived at the conclusion that India has seen the death of 250 languages in the last 56 years. Also, the study has foreseen the death of another 400 languages in the next 50 years. So India would be then left with merely 450 languages within its geographical boundary.
Going at this rate, it means that in just over a century, India is set to witness the unfortunate loss of 650 languages, with each year killing an average of 6.5 tongues.
Extinction of hundreds of languages indicates the disappearance of diversity from the face of the Earth. With the loss of languages, we lose entire societies, their cultures, and storehouses of indigenous wisdom. The authorities concerned should rise to the occasion to rescue dying languages and cultures to keep heterogeneity and the spirit of ‘equality of all languages alive; else it will not reflect the Indian democracy in a glorifying light.
Mother tongue remains the most basic identity of an individual or a community. If it does not get its due place under the sun, then the community which speaks it is bound to meet its doom. This is primarily the reason behind the UNESCO’s decision of designating 21 February (a red-letter day of Bengalis fighting against Urdu imperialists in erstwhile East Pakistan) as the International Mother Language Day, thereby stressing the importance of mother tongue in one’s life.
Just as a child cannot be detached from their mother, it would be nothing but a crime if any community gets robbed of its mother tongue just because it does not enjoy any political, economic, numerical and muscular advantage, strength, clout and influence.
In 2010, the last speaker of the Aka-Bo language passed away in Great Andaman, along with the tradition and culture associated with the language. She was named Boa Sr, and this speaker of one of the world’s oldest languages met her end on Republic Day (26 January), which is certainly not a very good advertisement of the Indian republic constitutionally, based on the noble concept of democracy, ie, equality of all.
However, there lies no utility in crying over spilt milk. But if we try to regard ourselves as civilised, then we should definitely ensure that such scandalous history of literally fatal indifference to marginalised languages and their speakers do not get repeated in the future.
Protection and promotion of each and every language of India should be the urgent need of the hour. So, the union government should see to it that all funds related to promotion of languages do not get usurped by Hindi only. After all, the right of any other language (be it scheduled or non-scheduled) in India is not a bit lesser than Hindi.
Thus, if an equitable distribution of central resources is ensured, it would benefit the cause of all languages and dialects (specially the endangered ones) of the country to a great extent.
Kajal Chatterjee