Chapter one: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India 1.1 Introduction: India also known as Bharat is the seventh largest country covering a land area of 32, 87,263 sq.km. It stretches 3,214 km. from North to South between the extreme latitudes and 2,933 km from East to West between the extreme longitudes. On this 2.4 % of earth‟s surface, lives 16% of world‟s population. With a population of 1,028,737,436 variations is there at every step of life. India is a land of bewildering diversity. India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the Figure 1.1: India in World Population south, the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east. Many outsiders explored India via these routes. The whole of India is divided into twenty eight states and seven union territories. Each state has its own cultural and linguistic peculiarities and diversities. This diversity can be seen in every aspect of Indian life. Whether it is culture, language, script, religion, food, clothing etc. makes ones identity multi-dimensional. Ones identity lies in his language, his culture, caste, state, village etc. So one can say India is a multi-centered nation. Indian multilingualism is unique in itself. It has been rightly said, “Each part of India is a kind of replica of the bigger cultural space called India.” (Singh U. N, 2009). Also multilingualism in India is not considered a barrier but a boon. 17 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India Languages act as bridges because it enables us to know about others. Indian multilingualism is multi layered and complex. Every single language has many variations, which are based on caste, region, gender, occupation, age etc. Like „Hindi‟ has as many as forty nine varieties based on region. Indian multilingualism is like a flower pot whose beauty enhances only when it has variety of flowers, flowers of different shades, different size, etc. Indian multilingualism cannot be understood under a single heading of „Language Families‟. The real essence of Indian multilingualism can best be defined in terms of „variations‟, i.e. knowing about the language families, tribal languages, races, script, regional languages, dialectical variations, idiolectal variation, registral variation, stylistic variation etc. According to Khubchandani (2001:22) In multilingual societies of the Indian subcontinent, one notices an inevitable measure of fluidity in the verbal repertoire of many speech groups who command native like control over more than one language. The demands of active bilingualism in a plural society expose an individual to „doing‟ language activity by accomplishing diverse task through a variety of speech styles, registers, dialects, and even languages. 1.2 Language Families (Genetic Variation): India is a home to five major language families of the World: Indo- Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman and Andamanese. Earlier only four language families were identified, but now from new researches the Andamanese has also been included. 18 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India Indo-Aryan: It is the largest language family both in geographical spread and numerical strength. It has a total of 790,627,060 speakers constituting 76.86% of the total Indian population. It consists of 21 languages. They are 1. Assamese 12. Lahnda 2. Bengali 13. Maithili 3. Bhili/Bhilodi 14. Marathi 4. Bishnupuriya 15. Nepali 5. Dogri 16. Oriya 6. Gujarati 17. Punjabi 7. Halabi 18. Sanskrit 8. Hindi 19. Shina 9. Kashmiri 20. Sindhi 10. Khandeshi 21. Urdu 11. Konkani Out of 21 languages 15 have been recognized by the Constitution as Scheduled languages. They are Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Urdu. The Indo-Aryan languages basically cover the northern and the central region of India. Dravidian: It is the second largest language family. It has a total of 214,172,874 speakers constituting 20.82% of the Indian population. It consists of 17 languages. They are 1. Coorgi/Kodagu, 2. Gondi, 3. Jatapu, 4. Kannada, 5. Khond/Kondh, 6. Kisan, 7. Kolami, 8. Konda, 9. Koya, 10. Kui, 11. Kurukh/Oraon, 12. Malayalam, 13. Malto, 14. Parji, 15. 19 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India Tamil, 16. Telugu, 17.Tulu. Out of all these 4 are Scheduled languages. They are Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. These languages are mainly spoken in the Southern part of India, with an exception of Kurukh which is spoken in the Gumla District of Jharkhand. Austro-Asiatic: This family has 11,442,029 numbers of speakers constituting 1.11% of the total population of India. It consists of 14 languages, which can be divided into groups: Khmer-Nicobarese and Munda. Khmer-Nicobarese consists of 2 languages, i.e., Khasi and Nicobarese. The Munda group comprises of 12 languages, i.e., Bhumij, Gadaba, Ho, Juang, Kharia, Koda/Kora, Korku, Korwa, Munda, Mundari, Santali and Savara. Languages of this family are spoken in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar and some states like Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, etc. Among all these languages only Santali has been included in the Eighth scheduled, under the 92nd Constitutional Amendment in 2003. Tibeto-Burman: It is „Smallest in population strength and largest in the numbers of languages‟. It has 10,305,026 speakers constituting 1.0 % of the total population of India. It consists of 66 languages. It has three main sub branches: Tibeto-Himalayan: consists of two groups, i.e., Bhotia and Himalayan. The languages of Bhotia groups‟ are- Balti, Bhotia, Ladakhi, Lahauli, Monpa, Sherpa and Tibetan. The Himalayan group consists of 3 languages: Kinnauri, Limbu and Lepcha. North-Assam consists of 3 languages: Adi, Nissi/Dafla and Mishmi. 20 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India Assam-Burmese is divided into 4 groups – Bodo, Burmese, Kuki-Chin and Naga. Among these languages two have been recognized by the Eighth Scheduled. They are Bodo and Manipuri. Basically these languages are spoken in the North-Eastern region of India. Andamanese: The language spoken by the people of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been termed Andamanese. Andamanese languages can be divided into two broader parts- great Andamanese and Onge. Sentinelese is also there which is unknown and hence unclassifiable. Many of the Great Andamanese languages had become extinct. The Andamanese languages are: Great Andamanese (spoken by Great Andamanese people) Southern Aka-Bea or Bea (extinct) Akar-Bale or Bale (extinct) Central Aka-Kede or Kede (extinct) Aka-Kol or Kol (extinct) Oko-Juwoi or Juwoi (extinct) A-Pucikwar or Pucikwar (extinct) Northern Aka-Cari or Chari (extinct) Aka-Kora or Kora (extinct) Aka-Jeru or Jeru; 36 speakers in 1997, bilingual in Hindi Aka-Bo or Bo (extinct) 21 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India Ongan Önge or Onge; 96 speakers (Onge) in 1997, mostly monolingual Jarawa or Järawa; estimated at 200 speakers (Jarawa) in 1997, monolingual. Also there is Sentinelese whose population is unknown and is unidentifiable. (Wikipedia, retrieved on 02/09/2009) Apart from these five language families, researchers are showing the possibility of having a sixth language family. Scholars like Anvita Abbi on the basis of survey done on Andamanese languages talks of Great Andamanese being a distinct language family from the one that Jarawa and Onge belong to, in her paper „Vanishing Voices of the Languages of the Andaman Islands‟ presented at the Max Planck Institute, Leipzig, June 13, 2003. Based on researches done by geneticists and with enough pieces of evidence, she has tried to establish that „Great Anadamanese is an isolate which constitutes the sixth language family of India‟; in her paper published in www.sciencedirect.com (Language Sciences) under the heading “Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?” But still there is no exact count of Andamanese languages and so the Census of India 2001 lists only four language families. 22 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India Table 1.1: Family-Wise Grouping of the 122 Scheduled and Non- Scheduled Languages – (2001 Census). Language Number of Persons who % to total Families Languages returned the population of languages as India their mother tongue 1 2 3 4 Indo-Aryan 21 790,627,060 76.86 Dravidian 17 214,172,874 20.82 Austro-Asiatic 14 11,442,029 1.11 Tibeto-Burmese 66 10,305,026 1.00 Languages of 4 200,573 0.03 foreign origin (English and Arabic) Total 122 1,026,847,940* 99.82* * The balance of 1,762,388 (0.17%) population out of total Indian population 1,028,610,328 comprises of 1,635,280 speakers of those languages and mother tongues which were not identifiable or returned by less than 10000 speakers at all India level and the population (127,108 persons) of Manipur which was not included in language data since the Census results were cancelled in 3 sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur in 2001. (Census 2001, Statement 9) 23 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India Figure 1.2: Linguistic Map of India 24 Chapter One: Social, Cultural and Linguistic Landscape of India 1.3 Language and Tribe: Indian multilingualism is not only talking about the major or the Scheduled languages. Talking of multilingualism and diversity without referring the tribal languages will not be justified. But before talking about the tribal languages we must know or define the term „tribal‟. The term „tribal‟ is used for people living or confined in jungles or isolated surroundings. They are often being called as adivasi, vanajati, janajati, janajamati or displaced. Earlier in medieval English it had a neutral sense, i.e.