LANGUAGE IN INDIA

HINDI AND INDIAN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY
A SURVEY FOR FUTURE LITERACY
V. K. Sunwani, Ph.D.

INTRODUCTION

India is a land of much diversity. One such is its diversity of language. There are several language communities in India and each language community follows its own language and intra community culture. Yet that does not separate it from the pan Indian culture: it emphasizes and underlines both. The multilingual and multicultural fabric of India accommodates a great many differences in its geographical boundaries.

Unity in Diversity has now become a cliché; perhaps what is now India’s strong and integrating point is its plurality and multilingualism. The richness that bilingual and multilingual students bring from their communities to the classroom is a point worth examining and strengthening their personal practice in language, Sanskrit language and literature date back to more than 5000 years. So does Tamil, to approximately 4000 years. At the same time there are some Indian languages that did not have written forms until recently, e.g. Lushai, Ao, Khasi, Garo, Santhali, Ol Chiki, Konkani, to name just a few.

DIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES

Further, the number of its speakers emphasizes the diversity of languages in India. Speakers of different languages vary. Their number, because of the migrating population, also changes. 40% of the people speak and understand Hindi to a considerable extent that gives it a numerical strength of 250 million speakers. And Andamanese, spoken in some areas of the recently tsunami affected group of islands is spoken by a handful. And yet Andamanese is as important as Hindi in the lives of people concerned; the peoples the two languages are serving, irrespective of their number.

THE NUMERICAL STRENGTH

On the world stage, we have some tribal and aboriginal languages whose populations may be larger than those of speakers of some European languages. Bhili and Santhali, with a speaking population of 4 million can easily outnumber the speakers of say, Italy orBulgaria, or the 2 million Gondi speakers are hardly a match for the Norwegians. My references to the countries are in the highest terms; they are all referred to in a very respectful manner.

Briefly, all over India some 50 languages are taught in various schools. Newspapers in 90 different languages are published in the country, radio programmes are broadcast in 71 languages, and on a modest estimate, films are produced in 15 Indian languages which have a sizeable viewer ship. And that is a land and a country one should be proud of – offering a salad bowl, tossed salad, language salad, Mexican potpourri, language pakora tempura, bhaji greens, saag sarson ka a la Indian languages.

To put it differently, Indian languages are derived from diverse language families.

NO INDIAN LANGUAGE CAN STAND ALONE!

None of the major languages, including Hindi or English, can stand alone. They have to be complementary, one to the other. All the more, in case of Hindi, since it is the official language of the Republic of India, of which one has to and should be justly proud. In this very diverse linguistic scenario, when English alone is not sufficient, language learning has to be propelled to the top of the educational agenda.

The idea, then, emerges that teaching languages is not isolating, as many of us would believe overseas. In non-Hindi speaking countries, even Hindi speakers use a mix of languages as help and comfort to the audience.

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