Linguistic Minorities In India

“There are many divisions in Indian society. Division because of language is one of the divisions to reckon with. The main reason to consider it seriously is that the territory of country itself has been defined on the basis of language only.”

There are many divisions in Indian society. Division because of language is one of the divisions to reckon with. The main reason to consider it seriously is that the territory of country itself has been defined on the basis of language only. This happened in 1956.

We should be aware that most of the languages in India belong to four major families namely, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Austro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan. At present around 325 languages are spoken throughout the country out of which 18 are scheduled ones. Hindi is our official language.

Now, with such a large number of languages, it is logical that we will have a large number of languages which are spoken only by small groups of the total population. These will evidently be those groups which are called the linguistic minorities.

As of now, the language question has been made so sensitive an issue that any consensus regarding the various problems is almost impossible. Even today, it is debated that Hindi should not be the official language of our country. Actually, it’s all power politics at play. Leaders for the sake of votes mobilize interest groups of a particular language in such a way that many a time it has become a national problem.

The matter is even more complex. For every literary language there are many dialects and spoken forms. Many of these have histories that can be traced back to thousands of years. So, why aren’t these called proper languages? The answer is that it all depends upon the political will and preference of a particular area.

In such a scenario it is but natural for certain sections to feel that their language (and even culture) is being discriminated against. On the other hand there are certain people who feel that this concept of linguistic minorities is very dangerous for those languages which are at a developed stage. They argue that giving recognition to such minor languages may hamper the further development of their particular grand language.

Constitution has provided many safeguards so that any minor language may not get suppressed. But, the sad part of the matter is that many a time the language question has led to riots, destruction of property and deaths. All this in name of language, which is a great binding force.

Author - DeeKay

Tags - India

This article was created by DailyOjo staff. Report Spam/Abuse