Linguistic Diversity

About

• There are 1,632 languages and dialects used by people in India. Up to 22 of these languages have been formally recognised and put on the 8th Schedule of the Constitution thereby ensuring their legal status.
• Our country has diverse languages depending on the geographical locations; and these languages are important in creating regional identities. These regional identities emotionally moved the individuals to struggle to establish states on language basis and Andhra Pradesh is the first state established on the basis of Telugu-speaking areas.
• The State Reorganization commission was established in 1956 and aided in the formation of most states along linguistic lines.

Linguistic States vs National Unity

• On the contrary, linguistic states have contributed to the unity of Indians. Separatist tendencies were blocked out by the creation of linguistic states. In such a case, there would be no trade off between linguistic identities and National identities provided there is proper recognition of all languages.
  • • Ex. There was a civil war in Sri Lanka because of the undermining of the Tamil language.
• The Liberation war of 1971 that saw the emergence of Bangladesh had been a result of conflict between Punjabi and Urdu speakers of west Pakistan and Bengali speakers of the east.
• The linguistic demands usually carry ulterior motives, and these are beyond the identity question.
  • • Ex: South language movements were also a response to caste domination and exploitation in part. Likewise, the Punjabi Suba movement was based on the Sikh identity. The ethnicity, identity and survival debate is also found in tribal linguistic movements.

Pros of Maintaining Linguistic Diversity

• National integration: Linguistic regionalism would be contained by giving recognition to the different regional languages.
• Conservation of traditional knowledge: Conservation of endangered languages of ethnic tribes would also assist in preserving rich intangible heritage and traditional knowledge that has been transmitted in generations. 
  • • Tribal languages are the treasure trove of information regarding flora, fauna and medicinal plants of a particular region. 
    • In most cases, this information is transmitted to the subsequent generations through word of mouth. When a language is dropping, that body of knowledge will be lost entirely.
• Social inclusion Inclusion: Linguistic diversity provides equal access to different language groups in the fields of education, social life and economic development.
• Good governance: The administration should be done in the native languages since it would encourage people to be involved in governance.
• Diaspora network: India has impressive linguistic diversity which would strengthen the network of the diaspora across the borders and enable India to gain soft power.
• Good education: Primary education in the mother language will provide better learning results. Cognitive abilities have been associated with multilinguistic abilities.

Dangers to Linguistic diversity in India

• The report by the People Linguistic Survey of India (PSLI) indicates that over 500 languages in India can become extinct in 50 years. It is also more endangered than any other country in the world with about 190 languages in different stages of being endangered in our country. The reasons are:
• Globalization: Transnational corporations have had an impact on language by having a central common language where English is predominant in the region, and the minority languages.
• Nuclear family culture: Allows less time to learn mother tongue to youngsters especially in situations where both parents are employed and the grandparents in different households.
• Inter-culture, caste and race marriages: In which the couple has a different cultural background the communication language is usually not the mother tongue hence influencing the exposure of the next generation to native language.
• Migration: Towards metropolitans to get a better education and work is a favor to cosmopolitan language.
• Considerable Internet usage: Current communication and business activities are conducted online today, which obliges individuals to consume the digital content in English because the cyber presence of regional languages are insignificant.
• Absence of scripts to tribal languages of fringe groups: There are only 6 tribal languages – Santali, Ho, Soura, Munda and Kui – that are scripted. It is not easy to transmit the language across generations because of the absence of a script.
• Government assimilation policies: States frequently attempt to assimilate the linguistic minorities through the imposition of the majority language on them. 

Linguistic Minorities

• The language minority has not been spelt out in the Constitution. Section 2 of the National Commission Minorities Act has defined the term Minority by referring to religious minorities exclusively. 
• But in the TMA Pai vs state of Kerala case, the SC made the decision that the state, rather than the entire nation, was the unit of the linguistic or religious minority. 
• A report of the National Commission for religious and linguistic minorities indicates that the linguistic minority status of a community is established based on numerical inferiority, non-dominance position within a state and having different identity. 

Constitutional Provisions for Linguistic Minorities

• Article 29: Any section of citizens possessing a language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.No citizen shall be forbidden to enter any educational establishment kept by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on the basis of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.
• Article 30: All minority groups, be it in religion or language shall be granted the right to organize and operate schools of their preference. The state will not discriminate against any educational institution in giving aid to the educational institutions on the basis that the institution is managed by a minority, either on the basis of religion or language.
• Article 345: The legislature of any State is at liberty to absorb under law any one or more of the languages in use in the State.
• Article 347: It is open to the presidential demand that any state govt formally recognise the language, whose popular demand is made by language speakers.
• Article 350 A & B: It will be the duty of each State to make sufficient provision in the teaching of the mother tongue at the primary level of education among children of linguistic minorities.

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