About:

• Among various deaths, the deaths of Dalits and tribals who are trapped by hunger and humiliation; the death of a tree or a forest sacrificed at the altar of development – are mourned but not spoken about. Similarly, the death of language is literally shrouded in silence.

Concern: languages spiraling toward extinction

• The world’s indigenous languages are under threat of disappearing, with one language dying every two weeks and many more at risk.
• Language is an important part of any society, because it enables people to communicate and express themselves. When a language dies out, future generations lose a vital part of the culture that is necessary to completely understand it. This makes language a vulnerable aspect of cultural heritage, and it becomes especially important to preserve it.

Impact of policy instruments

• Death of language too is a form of violence. Large parts of culture get exterminated through slight shifts in policy instruments than through armed conflicts.
• The destruction of culture can be caused by something as small as a bureaucrat’s benign decision.
• Even a well-intentioned language census can do much damage.

Background: Missing the crucial link

Over the last many decades, successive governments in India have carried out a decadal census.

• The 1931 Census was a landmark as it collected information on caste and community.
• War disrupted the exercise in 1941 and during 1951 census, the new Indian republic was too busy.
• It was during the 1961 census that languages in the country were enumerated in full. India learnt that a total of 1,652 mother tongues were being spoken.
• However, in 1971 census, using ill-founded logic, this figure was pegged at only 109. (as only those languages who had more than 10,000 speakers were recognized and respected)
• This practice, which had neither scientific basis nor was a fair decision, continued in upcoming censuses.

Do you know?

• The language enumeration takes place in the first year of every decade. 
• However, the findings are made public about seven years later as the processing of language data is far more time consuming than handling economic or scientific data.

How recent Census has failed again?

Earlier this month, the Census of India made public the language data based on the 2011 Census.

• It took into account 120 crore speakers of a very large number of languages.
• Language division of the Census office deserves praise but the data presented leaves behind a trail of questions.
• During the census, citizens submitted 19,569 names of mother tongues.
• Based on previous linguistic and sociological information, the authorities decided that of these, 18,200 did not match “logically” with known information. Only a total of
• 1,369 names were picked as “being names of languages” , therefore, leaving out the rest (nearly 60 lakhs citizens)
• And because of the classification regime, their linguistic citizenship has been dropped.
• In addition to the 1,369 “mother tongue” names shortlisted, there were 1,474 other mother tongue names and these are placed under generic label – “Others”

The classification system has not been able to identify what or which languages these are and so they have been silenced by having an innocuous label slapped on them.

The 1,369 mother tongue have been grouped further under a total of 121 “group labels”, which have been presented as “Languages”.

Of these, 22 are languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, called “Scheduled Languages”. The remainder, 99, are “Non-scheduled Languages”.

However, what is worrying is most of the groupings are forced.

For instance, under the heading “Hindi”, there are nearly 50 other languages.

• Bhojpuri (spoken by more than 5 crore people, and with its own cinema, theatre, literature, vocabulary and style) comes under “Hindi”.
• Under Hindi too is the nearly 3 crore population from Rajasthan with its own independent languages.
• The Powari/Pawri of tribals in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh too has been added. Even the Kumauni of Uttarakhand has been yoked to Hindi.
• There is a similar and inflated figure for Sanskrit.

Census has classified a total of 2,59,678 Indians as who speak English as their “mother tongue” – which is a sign of semantics disaster. (Semantics refers to the branch of study within linguistics that deals with language)

Role of UNESCO in protecting and promoting languages

From time to time, UNESCO tries to highlight the key role that language plays in widening access to education, protecting livelihoods and preserving culture and knowledge traditions.

• In 1999/2000 – it proclaimed and observed February 21 as International Mother Language Day
• In 2001 – the ‘Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity’ accepted the principle of “Safeguarding the linguistic heritage of humanity and giving support to expression, creation and dissemination in the greatest possible number of languages.”
• UNESCO has also launched a linguistic diversity network and supported research.
• It has also brought out an Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, which highlights the central place of language in the world’s heritage.
• However, our language census has failed to be in consistent with these ideas and principles.

Conclusion:

• Census in India should adequately reflect the linguistic composition of the country. It is not good practice when data helps neither educators nor policy makers or the speakers of languages themselves. The Census, a massive exercise that consumes so much time and energy, needs to see how it can help in a greater inclusion of the marginal communities, how our intangible heritage can be preserved, and how India’s linguistic diversity can become an integral part of our national pride.