Language Policy and Programmes

Abstract

India is a multilingual country. It has 15 major languages, each of them having a history and literature dating back at least 1,000 years. Although with the reorganization of States on the basis of a dominant language spoken in a particular area a certain amount of homogeneity has been achieved within the bonds of each State, still each of them contains linguistic minority ranging from 2.27 per cent (Kerala) to 63.53 per cent (Bihar) and 79.44 per cent (Nagaland) of their population.* In other words, each of the States in India represents, in a micro-structure, the same diversity what India as a whole may be said to represent in a macrodesign. This diversity is a many-faceted phenomenon. It manifests itself in language history and linguistic geography, social distance and stylistic nuances. Any search for unity in the midst of this diversity must take into account the cultural miscegenation of the past thousand years. The fusion of races of people and families of languages to form a symphony or a mosaic which is India, has united the country into one cultural entity.