Assignments

1. Explain the language shift and pluralism in India

According to the 1971 census, India is said to have more than 1600 mother tongues that genetically
belong to five different language families. These are further divided into 200 odd mother tongues and
categorized under 114 languages by the 1991 census. The joint existence of multiple languages,
cultures, races, and religions have been the gist of the Indian heritage. The literary history of India has a
very interesting mix of similar languages and which have an easy switch over ability. The languages such
as Pali and Sanskrit, Tamil and Sanskrit, etc have similar scripts that can be easily understood.

In the ancient Mughal period, many scholars had learnt Sanskrit and Arabic or Persian with ease. The
ancient writers have even used languages such as Magadhi, Shaurseni and Prakrit instead of Sanskrit
also. The Indian heritage is very rich in terms of its ethnicity, religions and its languages. India is credited
to have a very high measure of multilingualism. Bilingualism was very common among most educated
and partially literate people as a result of migration. It is commonly observed that in people that, they
speak a language of the neighbouring state other than their mother tongue Bilingualism has another
special feature of being complimentary such as an individual might have a mother tongue which is
apparently different from the language he or she speaks in the public, in markets or in school or official
places. Interestingly, linguistic pluralism is also another common phenomenon we can notice in the
Indian societies. The people of India hence believe that the diversity in the language supports their
ideology of secularism and promotes a mixed culture. It is also observed that when people are
multilingualistic, the influence of a dominant language they know seem to impact the other languages
they speak.

2. Realise the importance of bilingualism in Indian languages .

A) Being bilingual brings in more advantages and it has a beneficial effect on one’s brain, develop
cognitive skills that are not related to language. It is also considered to protect the brain from
dementia as a person ages. However this concept is not a usual sight in India, that someone speaks
two dialects of the same language to one parent and one language with their mother, a regional
and English with their wife and children. It is observed in surveys that about 20% of Indians are
multilingual. Another important feature of the bilingualism prevalent in India is that, it is
complementary by nature. In India, Hindi is considered as the national language, hence knowing
English and Hindi along with their mother tongue and the state/regional language is an added
advantage for people. Although, in many parts of the world being multilingualistic is something
uncommon, Indians are blessed with a rich combination of various cultures and multiple ethnicities
that encourage them to learn new languages. This is considered an implicit part of the Indian
culture. Bilingualism is common and complementary in India. For ex : the word bazaar is acceptable
in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. Such an exercise will help you understand how Indian languages
often complement each other.
 3) Analyse official language policies in India
A) Every state identifies one state language for official aims and this is contrary to the concept of
the multilingual feature of the Indian states. Also, most of the states have been open to more
than one language to satisfy official purposes and to meet the aims of the linguistic minorities.
There are numerous rules and policies to protect the rights of minorities and their languages
within the Constitution of India. The Constitution also has facilitated provisions for the usage of
minority languages at the district level such as local municipalities, Tehsils, etc in which the
linguistic minorities comprises 20% of the total district population. According to the government
rules, notices and other publications to the public should be printed in the minority languages
only. In short, the policies concerning to the language in the Indian states protect and preserve
the basic rights of the linguistic minority. To understand the official languages which are
accepted in your state, take a trip to your closest post office/Bank/ electricity board/ IT office
etc. If you are going to the post office then request for a Money Order form in the state's main
official language. However, it is significant and necessary for the minorities to acquire the
dominant state language for their career, social, and future benefits. On the other hand both
the schools and the parents of minor communities tend to thrust and narrow the choices of
languages to only English, Sanskrit, French, or Hindi instead of promoting the states dominant
language. There are conditions wherein the dominant language of the state is not studied also.
4) Describe the evolution of mother tongue in India

A) Mother tongue has always been considered the initial or the first language that a child has learnt
right from the birth. Mother tongue had always been a concept that we all take for granted and seem to
grasp its importance. The final decisions regarding the instruction medium and policies that are based
on the official language revolve around the interpretation of this concept. Above all, this mother tongue
paves a pathway to a dominant political idea than a language-based concept. Mother tongues are
considered very sacred, holy and are elevated to heights of super humanism and divine status. Mother
tongues can be used a common point for different groups of people to be united and express their
unanimity as a political entity. A language policy statement in a multilingual backdrop is to be “what
constitutes the mother tongue?” The answer to this question can be seen in the Provincial Education
Ministers resolution (1949). According to the Government, mother-tongue will be considered as the
language as declared by the parent or the guardian of the respective child. In case of further
speculations and queries, the language predominantly used in the household is considered the mother
tongue. This census of 1991 targets more on the language used by people in their early years of
childhood and considers it as the mother tongue. It also foresees a possibility that members of the same
family could have several mother tongues based on their races, groups and their natives. There are
other possibilities such as both the husband and wife of a family may belong to different ethnicities,
religions or cultures or both of them could have identical ethnicities. In such cases, the surveyor will take
into every individual’s mother tongue to assure consistency. However there have been numerous
controversies on what basis is the mother tongue determined. There have been recent petitions that the
mother tongue of a child is determined by the language that a child is most familiar with and it need not
be either of the parent’s tongue.
5. Explain the differences in minority language promotion across India

Over the last few years it has been reported that there is a large change with respect to the role of
minority languages in the country, especially those which are taught as part of any educational
curriculum. The language is often taught as a separate subject and not as a medium of instruction or a
first language. For example, consider the case of Delhi. The languages which are taught as first language
include English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, and Gujarati as per the Third Educational Survey. However in
the Sixth educational survey it was clearly observed that only English, Hindi and Gujarati were taught.
Other first language institutions had changed their approach. From this we can understand that though,
there are several minority languages in Delhi with substantial populations it is clear that these
populations rarely have their first language support within the school system. The situation in the other
states is not encouraging either. The attitude of the speaker is found largely to impact this process. The
surveys clearly indicate that most speakers prefer English over their own language. When questioned,
most individuals indicate that they want to move to other states and other countries. For this purpose
they try to learn English and Hindi over any other languages. In states like Arunachal Pradesh, Goa,
Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Sikkim the main language that is used as a medium of
instruction is Hindi or English. The mother tongue is used in less than 50% of the schools. In states like
Goa it is observed that the mother tongue is used as the primary mode of instruction only in 14% of
schools. It is even worse in states like Sikkim where there is only 1.5% of education in the minority
language.