Importance of Language Diversity and it’s

Preservation
“A different language is a different version of life” quote by Fedrico Fellini, one of the most
renowned Italian filmmakers. Indeed, language is an art, it is communication; it offers new
insights into our history, cultural differences, migration, and the way in which our brain
processes information. A different language expresses variant colours of life that are foreign
to us but at the same moment we feel a connection with them. Language diversity usually
connotes differences concerning languages used by people from different cultures and
backgrounds; it is the fundamental prospect, unique, rich and colourful expression of human
culture and identity, globally.
There are 7,000 living languages in the world and around 3,000 are considered as
‘endangered’. This means that almost half of the planet’s current linguistic diversity is under
threat.Among the countries considered to be bestowed with linguistic diversity, our nation,
India is not only lavished with language diversity but it also has one of the most enriched
cultures and these languages mark its history and richness. Among Indian States, West
Bengal has the richest written scripts of languages. India has 780 languages that are spoken
in the nation, according to People’s Linguistic Survey of India(PSLI), among which 250
languages in the last 50 decades have been extinct and 400 are at risk of dying. Among these
780 languages twenty-two are scheduled Indian languages whereas 122 are the most spoken
Indian languages by the population exceeding 10,000, as declared by the census, while the
remaining are spoken by even less than 10,000 people.
Based on the census number of 1,652 mother tongues of 1961, there were 1,100 languages.
Since most of the languages do not have a written script and are shared orally through songs,
poetry and tales therefore, they cannot endure over time. After the census of 1971 the
government decided that any language spoken by less than 10,000 people need not be
included in the official list of languages. It resulted in a decline in the list of languages to 108
in the 1971 census, as against 1,652 in the 1961 census. It is seen that most of the languages
are spoken in North-East India, however not all of them are equally distributed. While some
of these languages are spoken by crores of people, many of them are tribal speeches and even
less than 1 percent of the population speak them.
There are four linguistic families that comprise the multiplicity of Indian languages, namely
these are:
● Indo-Aryan
● Dravidian
● Austric
● Sino-Tibetan
Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Guajarati, Marathi and Kashmiri belong to
the Indo-Aryan speech family. The Dravidian linguistic group includes four Southern
languages namely, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The tribes of Central India speak
Austric languages and the tribes of North Eastern India speak the Sino-Tibetan languages.
Tribal Language is one of the most enriched languages that tells us about their history, their
nomadic life through their songs, tales, poetry, legends and folk literatures. There are five
tribal languages that are moving towards extinction in India.The most threatened language is
Majhi in Sikkim (with only 4 speakers).The Mahali language in eastern India, Koro in
Arunachal Pradesh, Sidi in Gujarat and Dimasa in Assam are facing extinction.
UNESCO has put Asur, Birhor and Korwa in its list of world’s endangered languages with
Birhor being categorised as Critically Endangered.Two major tribal languages included in the
Eighth Schedule- Bodo and Santali, have shown decline. UNESCO has declared that any
language that is spoken by less than 10,000 people is potentially endangered.
These days we see that many of us are accepting foreign culture and their language as our
own even if it's just a trend; though this is positive of us showing acceptance and no
discrimination but it is in turn rupturing our own language. We see certain foreign shows and
entertainment ruling the masses and how some people totally forsake their own culture and
accept the fascination of the foreign culture. This affects the language and culture of the
respective. These days it is also seen that the majority of the masses do not know their own
mother tongue and that some of them do not even wish to speak them or learn more about
them; such actions also result in the decline of certain languages.
Different languages are not just collections of sounds and symbols, but rather they contain the
accumulated wisdom, values, beliefs, and experiences of the people who use them. When a
language is lost, a wealth of knowledge, history, and culture is also lost. Therefore
preservation and celebration of languages are important and this can be done by supporting
various communities and activities that are working to preserve the linguistic heritage for the
future generation to have an easy access to.
One of the biggest threats to language diversity is globalisation, and the increasing
dominance of a small number of dominant languages, such as English, Spanish, French,
Korean and Mandarin. This can lead to the marginalisation and extinction of other languages,
especially those used by small or isolated communities. We should understand that loss of
language diversity is the loss of cultural diversity and our history as well.

Preserving and celebrating language is also about promoting cultural understanding,

tolerance, and respect. About 8% of the Indian population belongs to tribal communities. Their
identity and culture is linked with their languages. The only way to ensure that these languages do
not become extinct from this multilingual country is to give them their place in school education
for at least 5 to 8 years as a language. This could be achieved making special provisions for
regions/districts where the tribal and minor language population is concentrated. Government
has initiated Technology Development for Indian Languages with the objective of developing
information processing tools and techniques. This will facilitate human machine interaction
without language barrier; creating and accessing multilingual knowledge resources; Under
the vision of digital India, the government has also mandated that the mobile phones sold
from July 2017 should support all Indian languages. There are several constitutional
provisions as well to support the preservation of the languages; Article 346 of the constitution
recognises Hindi, in the devnagri script, as the official language of the centre. The
constitution also specifies that each state could legislate their own official language. The
actual Provision which is there to preserve the linguistic diversity of the country is Article 29
of Indian Constitution; Article 29 says that every citizen of the country (whether the
majority or minority) has the right to conserve their language. Article 29 is a part of the
fundamental rights given in the constitution; it means it is the fundamental right to conserve
our languages, and by no means, the government can stop us. Multi-linguistic is a way of life
in India, and it has united us since the old times. In order to preserve it, not only the
government but we as well should step forward to carry out the educational and cultural
activity to promote language and cultural diversity.
Every Language must blossom and its use must be allowed for the people exhibiting different
customs and cultures.
“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”
quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes.