India lost 220 languages in last 50 years, survey finds
August 09, 2013 - India has lost around 20% of its languages in the past five decades,
a survey by the Vadodara-based Bhasha Research and Publication Centre has revealed.
The country had 1,100 languages in 1961, but nearly 220 of them have disappeared,
said Ganesh Devy, writer and lead co-ordinator of the survey called the People's Linguistic
Survey of India (PLSI). The survey was carried out over two years from 2011. "We
have found 780 languages and must have missed about 100 or so. That makes it close
to 880 languages. The rest have disappeared. It's a sad loss," said Devy. Most of
the lost languages belonged to nomadic communities scattered across the country. "Were
they alive, they would have been spoken by 3% to 4% of Indians, that is around five
crore people," Devy said. The main reasons for the disappearance of these languages
are a lack of recognition, displacement of communities, the absence of a livelihood
option for speakers and stigma against what are considered 'under-developed' mother
tongues, he said. "The absence of a policy on language conservation completed the
process," he added. The census of 1961 had recorded 1,652 languages in all, but
taking into account the fact that variants of many languages had found a place in
this list, the number was later brought down to 1,100. In 1971, the census had listed
only 108 languages due to the central government's decision to document only those
which had more than 10,000 speakers. All other languages were included in the 'others'
section. The practice continues and many languages remain forgotten. The PLSI, however,
hasn't gone by the government norm; it listed all languages. A Marathi volume on languages
in Maharashtra, called 'Maharashtratil Bhasha', put together by the institute, will
be released in Pune on August 17. There are 49 more such volumes as part of the survey,
which will be released in New Delhi on September 5. (Source: TOI)