People's Linguistic Survey of India

The Peoples’ Linguistic Survey of India is a right based movement for carrying out a nation-wide survey of Indian languages as people perceive them, to identify, document and understand them; especially languages of fragile communities such as nomadic, coastal, island, hill and forest communities.

What Is People's Linguistic Survey of India?

The People's Linguistic Survey of India is a right based movement for carrying out a nation wide survey to identify, document and understand the state of Indian languages, especially languages of fragile nomadic, coastal, island and forest communities.

The PLSI is carried out by scholars, writers and activists in partnership with members of different speech communities.



The main objectives of the PLSI are :

To provide an overview of the living languages of India as 'they are' by 2011-2012.

To create an action network of members committed to sustainable development, irrespective of diverse social and cultural contexts, and of community custodians of life enhancing systems and traditions.

To build bridges among diverse language communities, and thereby to strengthen the foundations of multilingual, multicultural Indian society.

To create closer links between the government and speech communities, and to bring the universal developmental strategies of the government in harmony with ecologically and culturally diverse communities.

To develop teaching material and capability for promoting education in mother tongue. To provide a baseline for any future survey of India's linguistic and cultural composition. To arrest extinction of linguistic, cultural and biological diversity, nurtured by speech communities over generation, and to protect one of the few surviving bastions of linguistic diversity in the world in the interest of human security and survival.



The PLSI is not

A repeat, substitute, replacement or a sequel to Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India, a Sample Survey or a Census.

It is not an exhaustive survey of each and every language in existence in India. It is not an exercise in standardizing or fixing the writing or the speech of Indian language communities.



The PLSI is

A quick, non-hierarchical, public consultation and appraisal, intended as an aid to cultural impact assessment of development, and as an acknowledgement of the self-respect and sense of identity of all, especially the endangered speech communities of India. The PLSI is guided by the National Editorial Collective, constituted voluntarily.

Grierson’s Survey

The Linguistic Survey of India, was carried out between 1894 and 1928. A project of the British Raj, the survey was compiled and edited by George A. Grierson, an official of the Indian Civil Service. Often referred to as Grierson’s survey or LSI, this was the first language survey of British India. The survey described 733 languages and dialects. Grierson employed school teachers for much of the data collection, and the absence of trained linguists did lead to several deficiencies in the survey.

During the Post-Independence period, the Government of India initiated two similar surveys. First during the VI Five Year Plan in 1984 which is yet to be completed, with only a part of the mandate having been achieved in 2010. The survey was instituted mainly to trace the linguistic changes that had occurred since the Grierson’s Survey.

A revised Linguistic Survey of India was initiated as part of the XI plan under the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. Minor and Endangered languages were also to be covered as part of this survey. The project was expected to involve over 54 universities, 2,000 investigators and 10,000 linguists and language specialists working over a period of ten years, However it has not commenced work so far.

Given this state of affairs, the Grierson Linguistic Survey of India, continues to be the only survey of Indian languages to date.

Census and Language

The 1991 Census of India lists 1,576 mother tongues with separate grammatical structures and 1,796 speech varieties classified as "other mother tongues"

The 2001 Census of India lists a total of 122 languages and 234 mother tongues with over 10,000 speakers. Of these 122 languages, 22 have been included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

For more information regarding Census results on languages from the years 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 please refer to the Census of India website http://censusindia.gov.in/CensusData2001/CensusDataOnline/Language/dataonlanguage.html

Note: The 1971, 1981 and 1991 Census results do not disclose the data of languages with less than 10,000 speakers

Milestone

PLSI was constituted on 10th March 2010 at Vadodara.

The first series of workshops with contributors and editors of PLSI was held in June 2010 at Keylong, Himachal Pradesh. So far 400 PLSI workshops have been held in various parts of India. In the PLSI series the following volumes will be published

  1. The Being of Bhasha: A General Introduction

    Part One: Hindi
    By G. N. Devy
    Part Two: English
    By G. N. Devy

  2. The Languages of Andaman & Nicobar Islands

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by M. Sreenathan
    Part Two: English
    Edited by M. Sreenathan

  3. The Languages of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by A. Usha Devi
    Part Two: English
    Edited by A. Usha Devi
    Part Three: Telugu

    Edited by A.Usha Devi

  4. The Languages of Arunachal Pradesh

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Lisa Lomdak
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Lisa Lomdak

  5. The Languages of Assam

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Bibha Bharali & Banani Chakravarty
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Bibha Bharali & Banani Chakravarty
    Part Three: Assamese
    Edited by Bibha Bhartli & Banani Chakravarty

  6. The Languages of Bihar

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Vibha Chauhan
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Vibha Chauhan

  7. The Languages of Chhattisgarh

    Part One: Hindi

    Edited by Chitta Ranjan Kar
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Chitta Ranjan Kar

  8. The Languages of Goa

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Madhavi Sardesai
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Madhavi Sardesai

  9. The Languages of Gujarat, Diu, Daman and Dadra & Nagar Haveli

    Part One : Hindi
    Edited by Kanji Patel
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Kanji Patel
    Part Three: Gujarati
    Edited by Kanji Patel

  10. The Languages of Haryana

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Roop K. Bhat & Omkar N. Koul
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Roop K. Bhat & Omkar N. Koul

  11. The Languages of Himachal Pradesh

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Tobdan
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Tobdan

  12. The Languages of Jammu & Kashmir

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Omkar N. Koul
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Omkar N. Koul

  13. The Languages of Jharkhand

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Ramnika Gupta & Prabhat Kumar Singh
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Ramnika Gupta & Prabhat Kumar Singh

  14. The Languages of Karnataka

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Rajeshwari Maheshwaraiah & H. M. Maheshwaraiah
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Rajeshwari Maheshwaraiah & H. M. Maheshwaraiah
    Part Three: Kannada
    Edited by Rajeshwari Maheshwaraiah & H. M. Maheshwaraiah

  15. The Languages of Kerala & Lakshadweep

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by M. Sreenathan & Joseph Koyippally
    Part Two: English
    Edited by M. Sreenathan & Joseph Koyippally

  16. The Languages of Madhya Pradesh

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Damodar Singh Jain
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Damodar Singh Jain

  17. The Languages of Maharashtra

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Arun Jakhade
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Arun Jakhade
    Part Three: Marathi
    Edited by Arun Jakhade

  18. The Languages of Manipur

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Nipuni Mao
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Nipuni Mao

  19. The Languages of Meghalaya

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Esther Syiem
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Esther Syiem
    Part Three: Khasi-Garo
    Edited by Esther Syiem

  20. The Languages of Mizoram

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by L. Thangi Chhangte
    Part Two: English
    Edited by L. Thangi Chhangte

  21. The Languages of Nagaland

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Duovituo Kuolie
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Duovituo Kuolie

  22. The Languages of Odisha

    Part One: Hindi
    Section One: D.P. Pattanayak
    Section Two: Mahendra Kumar Mishra
    Part Two: English
    Section One: D.P. Pattanayak
    Section Two: Mahendra Kumar Mishra
    Part Three: Odiya
    Section One: D.P. Pattanayak
    Section Two: Mahendra Kumar Mishra

  23. The Languages of Puducherry

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by L. Ramamoorthy & G. Ravishankar
    Part Two: English
    Edited by L. Ramamoorthy & G. Ravishankar

  24. The Languages of Punjab

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Roop K. Bhat & Omkar N. Koul
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Roop K. Bhat & Omkar N. Koul

  25. The Languages of Rajasthan

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Madan Meena & Suraj Mal Rao
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Madan Meena & Suraj Mal Rao

  26. The Languages of Sikkim

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Balaram Pandey
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Balaram Pandey
    Part Three: Nepali
    Edited by Balaram Pandey

  27. The Languages of Tamil Nadu

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by V. Gnanasundaram & K. Rangan
    Part Two: English
    Edited by V. Gnanasundaram & K. Rangan
    Part Three: Tamil
    Edited by V. Gnanasundaram & K. Ranga
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  28. The Languages of Tripura

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Sukhendu Debbarma
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Sukhendu Debbarma

  29. The Languages of Uttar Pradesh

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Badri Narayan Tiwari
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Badri Narayan Tiwari

  30. The Languages of Uttarakhand

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Uma Bhatt & Shekhar Pathak
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Uma Bhatt & Shekhar Pathak

  31. The Languages of West Bengal

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Sankar Singha & Indranil Acharya
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Sankar Singha & Indranil Acharya
    Part Three: Bangla
    Edited by Sankar Singha & Indranil Acharya

  32. The Scheduled Languages – Assamiya, Bangla, Bodo, Maithili, Manipuri, Oriya, Nepali, Santali Edited by G. N. Devy & Nipuni Mao

  33. The Scheduled Languages – Dogri, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Urdu

    Edited by Omkar N. Koul

  34. The Scheduled Languages – Gujarat, Konkani, Marathi, Sindhi

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  35. The Scheduled Languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu

    Edited by V. Gnanasundaram & K. Rangan

  36. The Scheduled Languages : Sanskrit & Hindi

    Edited by Avadhesh Kumar Singh

  37. Enlgish & International Languag. dited by T. Vijay Kumar

  38. Indian Sign Languages (s)

    Part One: Hindi
    Edited by Tanmoy Bhattacharya, Nisha Grover & Surinder Randhawa
    Part Two: English
    Edited by Tanmoy Bhattacharya, Nisha Grover & Surinder Randhawa

  39. Languages Shared with Neighbouring Countries

    Edited by Sukrita Paul Kumar

  40. The Tribal Languages – The North-Eastern States

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  41. The Tribal languages – The Eastern States – Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  42. The Tribal languages – Central Indian States – Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  43. The Tribal Languages – The Southern States and the Islands

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  44. The Tribal Languages of the North-West and the Himalayan States

    Edited by Omkar N. Koul

  45. Language Census, Survey and Policy

    Edited by B. Mallikarjun

  46. Scripts in India

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  47. Indian languages in Diaspora

    Edited by T. Vijay Kumar

  48. Comparative Wordlist – Kinship and Social Relations

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  49. Comparative Wordlist – Time and Space

    Edited by G. N. Devy

  50. Future of Indian Languages

    Part One: Hindi
    Part Two: English
    Edited by G. N. Devy

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