Many of these languages and dialects do not have written literature, however, they are full of rich folk-literature preserved in the form of folktales and songs and can be effective tools in the hands of sociologists, linguists, historians and other researchers who wants to dwell into the past.
Keen to save and record the fast disappearing languages so that we don't lose connect with our past, the Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has taken up an ambitious project to create an audio-video archive of all mother tongues in the country. The rapid pace of urbanisation, industrialisation and cross cultural connectivity though have inked India's growth story, it has also been responsible for disappearance hundreds of Indian languages.
Many of these languages and dialects do not have written literature, however, they are full of rich folk-literature preserved in the form of folktales and songs and can be effective tools in the hands of sociologists, linguists, historians and other researchers who wants to dwell into the past.
According to People's Linguistic Survey of India conducted by Bhasha Research & Publication Centre in 2013 220 Indian languages have disappeared in the last 50 years. A total of 600 mother tongues have been earmarked for the survey during the 12th plan period with the overall approved outlay of Rs. 55.45 Crore.
The results of RGI's efforts to record the data for each selected mother tongue from different types of informants, rural, urban, male, female, young and old, have been encouraging. Till June 2015, data transcription of 796 samples, data analysis of 722 samples and consolidated report writing of 45 mother tongues has been completed. To preserve and analyse the original flavour of each indigenous mother tongue, the RGI office is planning to have complete audio-video documentation of the all mother tongues by 2017.
Take for example the case of five different mother tongues spoken in Dadra Nagar Haveli, a Union territory landlocked between Gujarat and Maharashtra that have been preserved by the RGI. Earth in Davar varli dialect is called as "Jomin" while those speaking Dungar Varli call it "Bhui". There is a social and cultural significance of the mother tongue survey as it includes the details like villages where the dialect is still alive, symbols used and their socio-economic conditions.
In Rajasthan, during the survey 138 Mother tongues were found. For example "Wagdi" is a language of the central group of the Indo-Aryan language family and also travelled to certain areas of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
According to RGI officials through proper preservation of the digital data and creation of appropriate facilities for linguistic research, the government is setting up a web-archive at the National Informatics Centre.
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