‘Bhasha is the voice of people and these voices are under threat. Around 96% of languages have no space in the corridors of Delhi, despite their rights and having ability to be heard," said Dr GN Devy, linguist, at the inaugural session of Bhasha Vasudha, a conference on languages in Vadodara on Saturday.
Devy has survyed the languages of tribals, nomads and de-notified tribes from 15 states, one of its kind surveys.
122 websites representing the Indian languages were also launched based on the output of the survey. The conference was inaugurated at Sayajirao Auditorium in Akota. Delegates from all across the world representing 900 languages were present in the event. Dr Vibha Puri Das, secretary, higher education, HRD was the chair of the inaugural session. IAS officer KK Chatravarty and Narayan Desai, the chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith were also present during the session.
The day also saw the launch of volumes in various languages from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, HP, Rajasthan, Odisha, Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, TN, Kerala, J&K, Punjab and Haryana.
Addressing the gathering, Devy, also the founder of Bhasha Research and Publication Centre and an activist said that it was for the first time that people representing 900 languages have consciously and knowingly united on a single platform in such a manner. He said that the survy of 12 other states will be done by Dec 2012.
People's Linguistic Survey of India’s (PLSI) survey is a unique, one of its kind, which identifies the languages not listed in census of India and still are been spoken by a large numbers of people. Dr Das in her inaugural speech promised to take a serious look at the PLSI survey. She also assured all help in taking this step forward.
Vice chancellor of Gujarat Vidhyapith Dr Sudarshan Iyenger spoke at the inaugural session and emphasised on the importance of languages as understood by Mahatma Gandhi.
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