Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Educated elites, versed in one or more of these lan-
guages, became divorced from the masses, which re-
mained steeped in their own linguistic worlds.
Four language stocks, each with its own set of lan-
guage families, produce a complex language map (Fig-
ure 8-7)The Munda and Tibeto-Burmese stocks are
relegated to relatively isolated areas, including the Eastern
Ghats and the Himalayas. The main cleavage is between
the Indo-European and the Dravidian language stocks.
The most widely spoken language is Hindi, a member of
the Indo-European language family . Hindi speakers also
occupy India' s central states, a core ringed by people
speaking unrelated tongues. Dravidian includes 4 main
languages and 18 lesser ones. These occupy the southern
states, having been pushed out of the Indus valley with
historic migrations. The most well known Dravidian lan-
guage is Tamil.
Hindi is one of India' is official languages, a source of
aggravation to Muslim Urdu speakers. In 1994, riots broke
V olunteer teachers were mobilized, two-thirds of
them women. Local religious leaders were re-
cruited to back up the media blitz. Interestingly ,
this was accomplished by a communist state gov-
ernment. Most impressive has been the progress
achieved by tradition-bound Muslim women.
Linguistic Conflicts
With 15 national languages and more than 100 tribal
tongues in India, it is no wonder that language has been
a divisive force. This is especially significant because lan-
guage is even more important than ethnicity or national-
ity for individual and group identity . Unlike Europe,
where Latin long served as a medium of cultural diffu-
sion, in India, Sanskrit was replaced by Persian as the
court language. Persian was later replaced by English.
Figure 8-7
Language stocks. Note the division between
Indo-European and Dravidian linguistic
regions.
URDU
Kashmiri
HINDI
Pahari
PUNJABI
V arious T Tribal
ENGLISH
HINDI
Hariani
Napalese
Bhotia
Rajasthani
Jaipuri
HINDI
Kanauji
Awadi
ASSAMESE
ENGLISH
HINDI
Naga
HINDI
Maithili
Bhajpuri
Santhali
MANIPURI
T Tripuri
HINDI
GUJARATI
Luzhai
Mizo
BENGALI
Bhatri
Halbi
Kachichhi
Kherwapi
Nagpuri
ORIYA
MARATHI
TELEGU
Kankani
Language Stocks
KANNADA
Tibeto-Burman
Indo-European-Dardic
Indo-European-Aryan
Dravidian
Munda
T oda
Kota
TAMIL
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