Declining sensitivity is hitting Gujarati: Padmashri Ganesh Devy

“Gujarati is not under threat,” well-known linguist and Padmashri Ganesh Devy smilingly tells dna while refusing to give us an alarming headline for the interview. In a chat with Smitha R, he talks of the deterioration of languages, our obsession with English and how despite being a language of power and prosperity, Gujarati is not at the heart of a Gujarati’s sense of identity.

On Gujarati
A mother tongue is what people claim as their language. It is the label for what people speak. No language today belongs to where it originated. Gujarati has received words from 25 languages in a big way. This includes generous borrowings from Sanskrit, Prakrit, Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Tamil, Hindi and many tribal languages. Gujarat alone has 52 languages. In fact, Gujarati is among the most privileged languages. I don’t see a threat to it in the next 1,000 years. It is spoken in 90 countries and is a language of power and prosperity.

Challenges before Gujarati
Gujaratis are in a hurry to give up their language. In food, religion, garments, even furniture (a swing is still an integral part of Gujarati household), we have not given up our traditions. We stick to it with a ferocity which unfortunately we don’t extend to our language. Language does not seem to be at the heart of a Gujarati’s sense of identity.

Gujarati is a language that has a great future. Yet, look where it stands. Our universities and schools have contributed in a big way to this deterioration. Even in small towns, I come across people who have borrowed money to send their children to English-medium schools. But the irony is that teachers in these schools don’t known English. In fact, Gujarat is not doing well in English either. The story of Gujarati is not that of decline of a language but of declining sensitivity towards it.

How many youngsters today can name 10 poems written by Gujarati poets? How many know of the literary work being published in Gujarati? How many original works on scientific subjects are being written in Gujarati? We need at least a few universities to have departments dedicated to developing Gujarati.

Languages that Gujarat has lost
Since Independence, we have lost 15 languages. Among the languages that face a threat is Gorpa, a language spoken mostly in Dadra Nagar Haveli and the coastal regions and has less than 1,000 speakers. Another language is the Siddi, which has less than 100 speakers. Though the Siddis are surviving, their language is on the decline. Bhantum Varli, Daferi, Luhariya and Mir-Mirasi are a few other languages facing extinction. Interestingly, tribal languages are doing extremely well in Gujarat. In fact, the Bhili language has seen a 90% increase in speakers since 1991. It has not because there is a rise in population of people speaking this language but because more people are claiming it as their own.

Factors that kill a language
There are only two factors that kill a language. One is the economy, other is a natural calamity. We can’t do much about natural calamity. But we can do something about the former. Languages are driven out of use because of economic imbalance. When people speaking a certain language are not economically well-off, they shift to a language that will ensure their economic sustainability. To revitalise any language, it is necessary to look at community welfare.