05/04/2019 - Art and Culture

KEY POINTS

Criteria

The criteria evolved by Government to determine declaration of a language as a Classical language is as under:-

·        High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;

·        A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;

·        The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;

·        The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.

Initiatives for protecting linguistic diversity

·        The Indian Literature Abroad (ILA) project has been initiated by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, to support and facilitate translation and promotion of literary heritage and contemporary literature from the Indian languages into major foreign languages (especially those recognized by UNESCO).

·        ILA aims to by project and promote the plurality of Indian literatures internationally.

·        Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC)  launched the first Indian Sign Language Dictionary, the basic aim of developing the ISL Dictionary is to remove communications barriers between the deaf and hearing communities as it is focused on providing more information in Indian sign language.

·        Its aim is to give Deaf people the constitutional right as well as the opportunity of freedom of expression and also bringing them into the main stream of the society.

·        President’s Certificate of Honour’ and ‘Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman’ Awards to scholars in Classical Languages.

IAS PARLIAMENT PLEASE POST THE MODEL ANSWER

Government of India in 2004 introduced a new classification system for languages called Classical languages, according to which the criteria for language to be declared classical language : 

    1) Great antiquity of the texts/ records dating back to 1500 to 2000 years

    2) users of the language value these textual treasure as rich heritage 

    3) texts should be original and not something borrowed from another language

    4) modern form of usage of the language may be different from the traditional language 

India is renowned for its multicultural and multilingual society which is home to 19,500 different languages and dialects. To ensure protection and promotion of all the languages, Government have taken different initiatives 

    - Article 29 of the constitution provides minorities right to preserve their script, language and culture. 

    - Article 30 provides the linguistic minorities the right to establish and run educational institutions 

    - Under Article 350 A, it puts a directive on the state and local government to ensure provisions for primary education in mother tongue for a linguistic minority 

    - As per 7th constitutional amendment, office of Special officer for linguistic minorities is created to safeguard their constitutional and legal rights 

    - National mapping of Manuscripts (NMM) has been initiated to digitize all the manuscripts, which can trigger new research in the area

    - In 2008, Central Indian institute of Languages has set up Linguistic data centre of Indian languages which provides datasets of different languages for research groups 

    However, in the last 60 years since Independence nearly 250 languages disappeared in India , which might be because of 

    -  Many languages in India don't have scripts , and hence have high vulnerabilities of getting disappeared with subsequent generations 

    - Westernization of Indian society has made people give superior status to English and disregard the regional languages.

    - With Urbanization and co-existence of multi lingual communities, a common language of Hindi or English takes precedence

Way forward : 

    -  Native languages and dialects should be spoken atleast in home with family members to preserve it.

    - Government should encourage people to participate in different literary competitions at the state level