India's Language Story - Looking For The Missing Links I Dr. Peggy Mohan

Part 1: Bharat Ki Bhashaein - The Indian Language Project
भारत की भाषाईन - भारतीय भाषा परियोजना, भारत की भाषाएँ - भारतीय भाषा परियोजना, ਭਾਰਤ ਕੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਈਂ - ਭਾਰਤੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਪ੍ਰੋਜੈਕਟ, ভাৰত কি ভাষায়েন - ভাৰতীয় ভাষা প্ৰকল্প, ভারত কি ভাষাইন - ভারতীয় ভাষা প্রকল্প, ڀارت جي ڀاشاين - هندستاني ٻولي پروجيڪٽ,, பாரத் கி பாஷெய்ன் - இந்திய மொழி திட்டம், భారత్ కీ భాషేయిన్ - ది ఇండియన్ లాంగ్వేజ్ ప్రాజెక్ట్ഭാ, രത് കി ഭാഷാഇൻ - ഇന്ത്യൻ ഭാഷാ പദ്ധതി, بھارت کی بھاشاین - ہندوستانی زبان کا پروجیکٹ,, ભારત કી ભાષા - ભારતીય ભાષા પ્રોજેક્ટ, ଭରତ କି ଭ ha ଶାଇନ୍ - ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷା ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ |

SPEAKER:
Peggy Mohan earned a PhD in linguistics from the University of Michigan. She has taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia, among other prestigious centres. She is currently Visiting Professor of Linguistics at Ashoka University. She is the author of the acclaimed book 'Wanderers, kings, merchants: The story of India through its languages'. https://penguin.co.in/book/wanderers-...

SYNOPSIS:
As a union of not just states, but of several linguistically diverse peoples, it is unsurprising that disputes over #languages have a long #history in India. Mass protests and brutal riots were witnessed during the decades after the independence as states were slowly reorganised on linguistic lines. While some languages initially overlooked by the #constitution won their battle for official recognition, others gave up and perished, and some still continue to fight.

BJP, the Hindu-nationalist party, currently in power at the centre, is accused of pushing for Hindi-imperialism. However, the debate over #nationallanguage predates them by over a century. Many of India’s leading independence leaders including #mahatmagandhi Gandhi were in favour of #linguistic unification and ending the dominance of English, the language of the colonisers.

The unified language Mahatma Gandhi had endorsed was not Hindi, but #hindustani , the language of #indiannationalism and freedom struggle. He believed it would be a more secular choice, fusing #urdu and #hindi into one. Secular it may have been, but it surely wasn’t inclusive of vast swathes of Indians in the South and the East. And now the case for Hindustani is all but dead, with many Indians coming to see Urdu as a non-Indian language.

On the other hand, English has gone from success to success. While understood by a tiny portion of the urban elite at the time of the independence and limited to official use only, in the past 75 years English has penetrated into almost all spheres of Indian life, and percolated down to its remote towns and villages. 

After seeing its economic value, most Indians are now loath to give up English, but a small faction still hopes for a national “Link Language” of Indian origin. But any discussion on it rapidly descends into repugnant language chauvinism. “#tamil is the oldest language.” “#bengali is the sweetest language.” “Those who don’t know Hindi cannot be Indians”… and more such trite statements are commonly thrown around.

Away from all this noise, we decided to explore the very origins and the evolution of Indian languages. Is Sanskrit truly the mother of Indian languages as we are told? At what point did Indian languages break away from Sanskrit and acquire their own distinct identities of Bengali, Marathi and Punjabi?

Why some languages such as Tamil survived over millennia while others like #sanskrit died. Should dying languages be protected? And can a dead language such as Sanskrit be brought back to life?
What makes a language Indian or non-Indian? Is it the origins of its vocabulary or the number of speakers or the volume of #literature ?
And finally looking forward, should we expect a re-emergence of long suppressed #regional tongues such as #bhojpuri , #tulu and #haryanvi Or a gradual supplantation of even the larger languages such as #gujrati and #kannada by the ever expanding #hinglish ?

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