Getting the language count right (Language census 2011-2018)

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Getting the language count right (Language census 2011-2018)

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• The death of languages: It is always shrouded in silence! Since languages are invisible, such a death moves only those who experience it, especially the last speaker of any language.
• What happens with the death of a language? Centuries of knowledge and a unique world view vanishes. Slight changes in policy can kill large parts of culture (not only wars). Language census can also do the same.
• India’s first Census 1931: It showed the caste and community structure. In 1941, war disrupted the exercise, and 1951 was a busy year for the new Republic. So 1961 saw the first language census.
• Key learning: A total of 1652 mother tongues were being spoken. But then the decision that “a language with less than 10,000 speakers cannot command respectability” led to just 109 being listed in 1971!
• Seven years later: The process is complex and 2011 data was released in 2018 (by Language Division of Census Office). 
• Details: 

1. 120 crore citizens submitted 19569 names of mother tongues. Based on earlier data, 18200 did not match any known information and were dropped. 
2. Balance 1369 are languages called mother tongues, and 1474 were put in “Others”. 
3. “Others” are of little value to Census, but they are spoken by living human beings! 
4. The 1369 are under 121 groups called Languages, and 22 of these are Scheduled Languages (VIII Sch.) 
5. Balance 99 are Non Scheduled Languages

• Problems in this approach: Most of it is forced. The heading Hindi has 50 other names, including Bhojpuri that has 5 crore speakers! 3 crore strong Rajasthani languages too are clubbed in Hindi.  So the 52.83 crore figure for Hindi speakers is grossly exaggerated. Same for Sanskrit – by counting “second language”.
• English counting through mother tongue category: This was not done through second language. There would be a large number of English speakers who would mark it as second language. So, a mere 2.59 lac Indians speak English as mother tongue is a wrong idea.
• UNESCO in the picture: It observed Feb 21, 1999/2000 as the International Mother Language Day. The 2001 “Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity” supported the idea of safeguarding maximum no. of languages.
  Is the Indian Language Census consistent with these ideals?
• Improve the Census: We need to improve this costly exercise, to enable inclusion of marginal communities, preserve intangible heritage, and create pride out of linguistic diversity.
• Summary : The results of the massive Language Census 2011 indicate some major shortcomings that must be rectified, to accurately reflect our linguistic diversity.

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