LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

THE INDIAN EXPERIENCETHE INDIAN EXPERIENCE

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTEUROPEAN PARLIAMENTBRUSSELS BRUSSELS

By Dr. Anita Bhatnagar Jain, By Dr. Anita Bhatnagar Jain, IASIASJoint Secretary, Ministry of HRDJoint Secretary, Ministry of HRD

Government of IndiaGovernment of India

77thth Dec, 2010Dec, 2010

DEMOGRAPHICS OF INDIA

• 1.17 billion people• Second most populous country in the world• 17.3% of the World’s population• Expected to surpass China by 2050• Demographic Dividend : 50% population below the age

of 25; 65% below the age of 35• In 2020 average age of an Indian will be 29 years

• Area - 2.4 % of the world land• Rural population 72.2% with 638,000 villages• Urban population 27.8% with 5,100 towns and 380

urban agglomerations

Diversity – Collective differences

� Racial Diversity - 1. Negritos2. Proto-Australoid3. Mongoloids4. Mediterranean5. Western Brachycephals6. Nordic

� Religious Diversity – Various religions and their sects330 Million Gods and Goddesses recognized in Hinduism

� Caste Diversity – Varna specialized functionsJati: Hereditary status 3000 jatis

� Linguistic Diversity

Diversities

Unity – Integration oneness� Geo-political present as well as historical � Institution of pilgrimage - temple culture�Tradition of accommodation

Elastic character of Hinduism, open, apathy to conversion

�Tradition of inter-dependent jajmani systemFunctional inter-dependence of caste

�Historical traditions, composite culture model, secularism

Bonds of Unity

Census 2001-Mother tongues

Raw returns declined from 10,400 in 1991 to 6661 but number of languages/mother tongues increased. Thus, Census 2001 with 234 Mother Tongues grouped under 122 classified languages as against Census 1991 figures of 216 Mother Tongues grouped under 114 languages . Mother tongues with less than 10,000 speakers are not listed which leaves out the most endangered lot. In 2001 8 languages show declining population. All states have become more diverse indicating wide spread mobility.

S. No. S. No. ItemItem NumberNumber

1.1. ‘‘ Raw returns of Mother TonguesRaw returns of Mother Tongues 66616661

2.2. Rationalized grouping of Mother TonguesRationalized grouping of Mother Tongues 35923592

3.3. Classified Mother TonguesClassified Mother Tongues 16351635(out of 3592)(out of 3592)

4.4. Unclassified Mother TonguesUnclassified Mother Tongues 19571957(out of 3592)(out of 3592)

5.5. Identifiable Mother Tongues (returned by more Identifiable Mother Tongues (returned by more than 10,000 speakers) than 10,000 speakers)

234234

6.6. Mother Tongues returned by more than 10,000 Mother Tongues returned by more than 10,000 people but not published due to 1976 CCPA people but not published due to 1976 CCPA

restriction & other reasons. restriction & other reasons.

6868

Linguistic Diversity

Family-wise Grouping of the 122 Languages (with 234 mother tongues)

Language Families % of Population

No. of Languages

No. of Mother Tongues

Indo-European (pre-dominantly Indo-Aryan)

76.86 % 24 109

Dravidian 20.82 % 17 27

Austro-Asiatic 1.11 % 14 21

Tibeto-Burman 1 % 66 76

Semito-Hamitic 0.01 % 1 0

• The Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic comprising only 2 % population contribute to over 70 % of India’s linguistic diversity.• Among the 22 scheduled languages, 15 are Indo-Aryan, 4 Dravidian, 2 Tibeto-Burman and 1 Austro-Asiatic. Bodo and Santhali are less developed.

Languages of India in the 1931 Census

1971 2001

Language % %

1 Hindi 36.99 41.032 Bengali 8.17 8.113 Telugu 8.16 7.194 Marathi 7.61 6.995 Tamil 6.88 5.916 Urdu 5.22 5.017 Gujarati 4.72 4.48

8 Malayalam 4.00 3.69

9 Kannada 3.96 3.21

10 Oriya 3.62 3.2111 Punjabi 2.57 2.83

Scheduled Languages in Descending Order of Speakers’ Strength (2001 Census)

1971 2001

Language % %

12 Assamese 1.63 1.28

13 Maithili 1.12 1.18

14 Santali 0.69 0.63

15 Kashmiri 0.46 0.54

16 Sindhi 0.31 0.28

17 Konkani 0.28 0.25

18 Nepali 0.26 0.24

19 Dogri 0.24 0.22

20 Manipuri 0.14 0.14

21 Bodo 0.10 0.13

22 Sanskrit 0.00 0.00

Distribution of 100 Non-Scheduled Languages(spoken by more than 10,000 speakers)

Classical Languages

Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu have been declared to be the classical languages of India.

In the year2006the Government of India declared that the following are the criteria to determine the eligibility of languages to be considered and declared as classical languages.

� “High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years

� A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers

� The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community

� The classical language and literature being distinctfrom modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.”

As provided by the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, they are defined as groups of individuals residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language or script of their own. The language of the minority group need not be one of the 22 languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule. They mean any group or groups of people whose mother tongues are different from the principal language of the state.

Linguistic Minorities

Language planning:

"Language planning may be defined as deliberate, institutionally organized attempts at affecting the linguistic or sociolinguistic status or development of language“[Moshe Nahir 1985]

Paradigm statement “To Plan Language is to Plan Society”(Cooper,1989)

The Indian Constitution promotes linguistic diversity, and accords constitutional

protection to the multilingual nature of India.

� Article 120 is concerned with the language choice of debates in the Indian Parliament,

where, besides Hindi and English (the main languages of debate), a member may be

permitted to use his or her mother-tongue.

� Article 345 of the Indian Constitution states very clearly that “Subject to the provisions of

article 346 and 347, the Legislature of a State may be allowed to adopt any one or more of

the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all

or any of the official purposes of that State:”.

� Under Art 347, the President may even direct a language to be “officially recognized

throughout that State or any part thereof for such purposes as he may specify”, provided a

substantial population speak it.

The Constitutional Provision for

Multilingual India

� The most important support for the minor languages come from the ‘Cultural

and Educational Rights’, and its seventh Amendment in 1956, namely that if

“Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof

having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to

conserve the same”.

� Article 350 also allows these minority communities to express their

grievances in their own languages. Besides, it enables these smaller communities

to avail of educational opportunities in their mother tongue. India thus allows

equality of opportunity for all groups and sections of our linguistic communities,

which acts as a guarantor and a levelling force.

� As it is not at the cost of linguistic pluralism that our national languages must

grow, Article 350B institutes a ‘Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities’ in India.

The Constitutional Provision for

Multilingual India (contd)

In 1950 there were only 14 languageslisted under 8th Schedule of the

Constitution but presently out of 122 there are22 [93 mother tongues-96.56%

population]: 15 Indo-Aryan; 4-Dravidian; 2-Tibeto-Burman & 1-Austro-Asiatic

100arenon-scheduled languages [141 mother tongues-3.44% population]

English is not included in the 8th schedule but is the official language or

associate official language in several states like Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh,

Meghalaya

Hindi is theofficial language and English the associate official language of

the Indian Union

Out of 22 scheduled languages: 15 are official languages of different states -

Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Konkani,

Kannada, Malayalam, Nepali, Tamil, Telugu &Manipuri;

Status and Function

1 of them, i.e., Bodo-is an official languages in parts of the Assam state

6 of these 8th schedule languages haveno official status-Sanskrit, Sindhi,

Maithali, Kashmiri, Dogri, Santhali but are taught in schools

BUT 4 non-scheduled languages are associate official languages of

Northeastern states-Mizo in Mizoram, Khasi & Garo in Meghalaya, Kok

Borok in Tripura

There are 15 major writing systems and several minor ones based on

three sources: Brahmi; Perso-Arabic and Roman

•87 mother tongues in print media

•104 for radio broadcasting

•81/41 in primary education (1970/98)

Minority linguistic groups>20% in half of the Districts

Status and Function (contd)

Promotion in the domain of literacy

and school education

National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005

advocates special focus on linguistic diversity,

mother tongue as a component of multilingual

education strengthening three language formula.

Three-Language Formula

• The first language to be studied must be the mother tongue or the regional language

• The Second language– In Hindi speaking States, the second language will be some other Modern

Indian language or English, and

– In non-Hindi speaking States, the second language will be Hindi or English

• The Third language– In Hindi speaking States, the third language will be English or a modern Indian

language not studied as the second language, and

– In non-Hindi speaking States, the third language will be English or a modern Indian language not studied as the second language

Institutional Arrangement for Language

Development & Management of diversity

Institutional Arrangement :-

� For promotion and development of Hindi as the official language- Kendriya

Hindi Sansthan, Central Hindi Directorate

� For classical heritage languages like Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali and Tamil - Sanskrit

Universities, Central Institute of Classical Tamil

� For Urdu which is seen as the language of the most significant religious

minority and also a marker of composite culture - NCPUL

� For Sindhi which is a stateless language - NCPSL

� For promotion of English and other Foreign languages.

� For promotion and harmonious growth of All Indian languages regardless of

size and status through CIIL

National Translation Mission

A flagship programme under the National Knowledge Commission to make

available Knowledge Text in 69 disciplines in 22 languages. It will

generate high quality translation tools. A national register of 4000

translators has been created.

New InitiativesCHEMISTRY

BOTANY

COMPUTER SCIENCE

ECONOMICS

MATHEMATICS

PHILOSOPHY

PHYSICS

PSYCOLOGY

SOCIOLOGY

MEDICAL SCIENCE

POLITICAL SCIENCE

ZOOLOGY

HISTOY

LAW

Non-Scheduled Languages

Round Table for Protection and Preservation of indigenous Traditional Knowledge and endangered languages chaired by Human Resource Development Minister, Govt. of India.

Proposed Bharat Bhasha Vikas Yojana – a scheme for preservation and development of non-scheduled languages in India – nodal Central Institute of Indian Languages,Mysore.

UNESCO’s Atlas of Endangered

Languages

� Many languages mentioned in this are not in the list of languages of 2001 Census of India

� In the list of non-scheduled languages, those shown endangered include languages which have speakers ranging from 2.7 million to 14,500.

� In the list of non-scheduled languages, there are 38 languages which are not included in UNESCO’s Atlas even though 24 languages have speakers of less than 100,000 and among these 24, there are 8 languages which have less than 25,000 speakers

List of Non-Scheduled Languages-State/UT & No. of SpeakersSl. No.

Language Speakers Major spoken states Whether Endangered as per

UNESCO’s List

1 Gondi 2,713,790 Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra

Yes

2 Tulu 1,722,768 Karnataka, Kerala Yes

3 Khasi 1,128,575 Meghalaya, Assam Yes

4 Mundari 1,061,352 Jharkhand, Orissa Yes

5 Ho 1,042,724 Jharkhand, Orissa Yes

6 Kui 916,222 Orissa, Andhra Pradesh Yes

7 Lushai/mizo 674,756 Mizoram, Manipur Yes

8 Korku 574,481 Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra Yes

9 Miri/mishing 551,224 Assam, Arunachal Pradesh Yes

10 Karbi/mikri 419,534 Assam Yes

11 Ao 261,387 Nagaland Yes

12 Konyak 248,109 Nagaland Yes

13 Kharia 239,608 Jharkhand, Orissa Yes

14 Malto 224,926 Orissa, Jharkhand Yes

15 Adi 198,462 Arunachal Pradesh, Assam Yes

16 Thado 190,595 Manipur, Assam Yes

17 Lotha 170,001 Nagaland Yes

18 Coorgi/kodagu 166,187 Karnataka Yes

19 Rabha 164,770 Assam, Meghalaya Yes

20 Tangkhul 142,035 Manipur Yes

21 Angami 132,225 Nagaland Yes

22 Phom 122,508 Nagaland Yes

23 Kolami 121,855 Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh Yes

24 Dimasa 111,961 Assam, Nagaland Yes

25 Ladakhi 104,618 Jammu and Kashmir Yes

26 Kabui 94,758 Manipur Yes

27 Yimchungre 92,144 Nagaland Yes

28 Sangtam 84,273 Nagaland Yes

29 Chakru/chokri 83,560 Nagaland Yes

30 Hmar 83,404 Manipur, Assam, Mizoram Yes

31 Bishnupuriya 77,545 Assam, Tripura Yes

32 Kinnauri 65,097 Himachal Pradesh Yes

33 Paite 64,100 Manipur, Mizoram Yes

34 Chang 62,408 Nagaland Yes

35 Rengma 61,345 Nagaland Yes

36 Konda 56,262 Andhra Pradesh Yes

37 Parji 51,216 Chattisgarh, Orissa Yes

38 Lepcha 50,629 Sikkim, West Bengal Yes

39 Wancho 49,072 Arunachal Pradesh Yes

40 Bhumij 47,443 Orissa, Jharkhand , West Bengal Yes

41 Koda/kora 43,030 West Bengal, Jharkhand Yes

42 Khezha 40,768 Nagaland Yes

43 Tangsa 40,086 Arunachal Pradesh, Assam Yes

44 Khiemnungan 37,755 Nagaland Yes

45 Maram 37,340 Megalaya, Manipur Yes

46 Limbu 37,265 Sikkim Yes

47 Korwa 34,586 Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh Yes

48 Liangmei 34,232 Manipur, Nagaland Yes

49 Zemi 34,110 Assam, Nagaland, Manipur Yes

50 Nocte 32,957 Arunachal Pradesh Yes

51 Koch 31,119 Meghalaya, Assam Yes

52 Deori 27,960 Assam, Arunachal Pradesh Yes

53 Gadaba 26,262 Orissa, Andhra Pradesh. Yes

54 Juang 23,708 Orissa Yes

55 Anal 23,191 Manipur Yes

56 Maring 22,326 Manipur Yes

57 Balti 20,053 Jammu and Kashmir Yes

58 Sherpa 18,342 Sikkim, West Bengal Yes

59 Tamang 17,494 Sikkim, West Bengal Yes

60 Pochury 16,744 Nagaland Yes

61 Kom 14,673 Manipur Yes

62 Gangte 14,500 Manipur Yes

Total 15,056,430

List of Non-Scheduled Languages-State/UT & No. of SpeakersSl. No.

Language Speakers Major spoken states Whether Endangered as per UNESCO’s

List 1 Bhili/bhilodi 9,582,957 Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,

Gujarat, MaharashtraNo

2 Khandeshi 2,075,258 Maharashtra, Gujarat No3 Kurukh/oraon 1,751,489 Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, West

BengalNo

4 Garo 889,479 Meghalaya, Assam No5 Tripuri 854,023 Tripura, Mizoram No6 Halabi 593,443 Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra No7 Munda 469,357 Orissa, Assam, West Bengal,

JharkhandNo

8 Koya 362,070 Andhra Pradesh, Orissa No9 Savara 252,519 Orissa, Andhra Pradesh No10 English 226,449 Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu No11 Nissi/dafla 211,485 Arunachal Pradesh No12 Kisan 141,088 Orissa, Assam No13 Khond/kondh 118,597 Orissa, Andhra Pradesh No14 Sema 103,529 Nagaland, Assam No15 Lahnda 92,234 Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir No16 Tibetan 85,278 Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh No17 Bhotia 81,012 Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir,

Himachal PradeshNo

18 Zeliang 61,547 Mizoram No19 Monpa 55,876 Arunachal Pradesh No20 Kuki 52,873 Nagaland, Assam, Manipur No21 Arabic/arbi 51,728 Bihar, Uttar Pradesh No22 Vaiphei 39,673 Manipur No23 Jatapu 39,331 Andhra Pradesh No24 Halam 38,275 Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir,

AssamNo

25 Lakher 34,751 Mizoram No26 Shina 34,390 Jammu & Kashmir No27 Mishmi 33,955 Arunachal Pradesh No28 Mogh 30,639 Tripura No29 Nicobarese 28,784 Andaman & Nicobar Island No30 Lalung 27,072 Assam No31 Pawi 24,965 Mizoram No32 Lahauli 22,646 Himachal Pradesh, Madhya

PradeshNo

33 Zou 20,857 Manipur No34 Rai 14,378 Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh No35 Persian 11,688 West Bengal, Jharkhand,

MaharashtraNo

36 Chakesang 11,415 Nagaland, Manipur No37 Afghani/kabuli/pash

to11,086 Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi No

38 Simte 10,225 Manipur NoTotal 18,546,421

Challenges

� Globalization

� Urbanization and Migration

� Changing Social Structure

� Issue of Double Divide

� Market Demand – Achiever Languages VS Endangered Languages

� Sanskritization

� Education – A Concurrent Subject

� Plurality of Languages

� Commitment and Identification of Communities

OUR MISSION

� To Understand The Nature & Extent Of Linguistic Diversity And Forms Of

Multilingualism

� To Safeguard The Linguistic Diversity With Grassroots Multilingualism

� To Promote The Harmonious Growth And Development Of Languages In

Relation To One Another

� To Provide Institutional Support For All Languages

� To Respect The Linguistic Rights of Diverse Groups In Education

� To Equip the Speakers of Languages for Multilingual Education to cope

with diversity of situations and various domains

Thank you ! Grazie !Dank u !

Danke Schön !Gracias !Merci !

Obrigado !

Dhanyavaad !