Language Atlas of India
Source: The Hindu
GS II: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times
Overview
- News in Brief
- About Language Atlas of India
- What are the challenges?
- Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA)
Why in the News?
Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), an autonomous body under the Union Culture Ministry, has proposed conducting a linguistic survey nationwide to create a ‘Language Atlas’ of India, a pan-India Language Mapping Project.
News in Brief
- As India makes efforts towards imparting education in the mother tongue, especially at the primary level, a crucial question remains on the number of languages that can be considered active in the country.
- In a country as vast and varied as India, where language changes every few miles, the question of how many languages truly thrive within its borders has remained a matter of some intrigue.
About Language Atlas of India
- The proposed ‘Language Atlas’ of India aims to chart the languages spoken across the nation and preserve the rich tapestry of local wisdom, knowledge, and culture they represent.
- The proposed linguistic survey would focus on the number of languages and dialects in India.
- Also have the number of languages and dialects which are extinct or on the verge of extinction.
- The first and most exhaustive Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) was carried out by Sir George Abraham Grierson and published in 1928.
- The DPR proposes that firstly, there should be State-wise data collection, and then region-wise.
Need for Language Atlas
- India officially recognizes 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, purportedly covering 97% of the population according to the latest Census data.
- The last comprehensive survey conducted in 1961 enumerated 1,554 languages, including those with a solitary speaker.
- Languages spoken by fewer than 10,000 people have been omitted from the Census.
- The effort of IGNCA aims to close this gap by enhancing and modernizing the data that was gathered more than 50 years ago.
What are the challenges?
- Planning ahead and allocating substantial resources is necessary for documenting languages, particularly those spoken in isolated regions or by small populations.
- The dynamic character of language, with dialects changing and new ones appearing, makes the process more difficult.
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA)
- An autonomous institution under the Indian Ministry of Culture.
- It was established in 1987 in memory of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
- Headquartered in New Delhi.
- IGNCA’s vision focuses on nurturing, preserving and promoting India’s cultural resources including heritage across arts, humanities, and science disciplines.
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