By The Editor
Language is means of communicating with each other for exchanging information, expressing emotions felt and opinions cherished. The word ‘language’ comes from Latin word ‘lingua’ which means ‘tongue’. In broader sense, language includes writing, sign language, dance, music, painting and mathematics. There are about 3,000 separate languages in the world constituting serious barriers among people from diversified regions and different cultural backgrounds. Some language such as English, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic are spoken by millions of people across the world and so are recognised as international languages. Although Chinese is spoken by much more people than any other language but speakers are limited to mainly China and Taiwan. So also is the case with Hindi which is confined mostly to India. Certain languages spoken by thousands or much less are in great danger of becoming extinct sooner or later. Language and culture are greatly inter-related and therefore is considered to be the vehicle of the latter.
Question on mother tongue is included in the individual slip of India’s census survey usually conducted every ten years except that for year 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic which has been postponed. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has successfully completed the Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI) project with field videography of 576 mother tongues. As per report for 2021-22 Home Ministry has planned to set up web archive at the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to preserve and analyse the original characteristics of each indigenous mother tongue. Consequently, necessary detailed linguistic data are being compiled by experts and researchers. Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) had been entrusted with the task of research activities in this regard since the Sixth Year Plan. For the present requirements, volume on LSI Jharkhand has been finalised, that on LSI Himachal Pradesh is about to be completed and field works of LSI Tamil Nadu and LSI Uttar Pradesh are in progress. After all details are collected and finalised then they will all be uploaded on NIC server.
Pre-census mapping activities include preparation and updating of maps indicating administrative units of respective states and Union Territories, districts, sub-districts, villages, towns and wards within towns including all other necessary details to ensure proper coverage of the entire geographical areas of India. Efforts are also being made to disseminated Census results and figures including maps through NIC which will be quick and handy. More than six lakh maps with relevant details are being prepared and uploaded which will be further updated and finalised with reference to June 2022. Necessary training in this connection has been imparted to all concerned and instruction manual on use of mapping app has also been prepared in English, Hindi and regional languages.