INDIAN LANGUAGES WITHOUT SCRIPT MUST BE SAVED FROM EXTINCTION

NEERU MISRA The early researchers on Indology viewed ☐ enormous variety in different segments of cultural traditionsin this ancient land, both tangible and intangible, with great amazement.

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From tangible arts including paintings, sculpture, handicrafts, architecture, metallurgy, town-planning to music, literature, poetry, epical narratives, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and many more intangible forms, the depth and nuances were overwhelming.These traditions kept evolving, changing and some becoming extinct.

The researchers also noticed and encountered a large number of languages and forms of expression across the sub-continent. One aspect that intrigued all was how such wide variations in the languages keep the subcontinent vibrant and united in fundamental values - the ancient legacies, the sanatan, intact.

Early efforts to enlist languages of the sub-continent were mostly limited to those having written forms. The earliest linguistic survey of India (LSI) was done by John Abraham Grierson, a Civil Servant, who could get a grant for his project in 1891, after years of intense persuasion. The laboriously prepared Report saw the light of the day in 1928.

It listed some 384 languages and dialects. However, during the post-independence period, systematic efforts were made to study the tribal languages, and particularly those which did not have any script or written form and it was only after Independence that more systematic studies were conducted. In the 1961 census, about 1652 languages were identified with the criteria that it is spoken by at least 10,000 or more people.

The 2001 Census listed 122 major and 1599 other languages.