Category Archives for Literature

‘chiyeazhs’ – Indian ‘In’glish’, a far cry from Queen’s English !!!

LEKSHMY PREETI MONEY wri(d)tesa fantabulous and a jocular piece English and its many avatars  about the pronun(z)ciation of the Queen’s language in different parts of the world and in particular in northern & southern India. Interestingly along with her piece, the readers comments are more interesting in how Indians have their own version of ‘In’glish and they are happy about it, too !!!:

The Malayali goes to the bank to get a housing ‘lawn’… and calls nurse ‘nezhs’

….Malayalis would be taught not to say ‘seiro’ for ‘zero,’ and ‘zimbly’ for ‘simply.’ They also have a penchant for substituting the sound ‘aw’ for ‘o’ and vice-versa. For instance, a popular Malayalam film star expresses the negative with a loud “gnaw” (for “No”). The Malayali also goes to the bank to get a housing “lawn” and mows his “loan.” The Malayalam letter ‘zh,’ found in the Malayalam words ‘pazham'(banana) and ‘mazha'(rain), are unique to the language. Malayalis often tend to exhibit their pride in this fact by liberally substituting it for ‘r’ in English words such as —‘nezhs’ (for ‘nurse’), ‘couzhs’ (‘course’) and finally: the quintessential Malayali toast before a round of aperitifs —‘chiyeazhs’ (cheers).

….Bengalis who are said to resemble Malayalis in physical appearance, fondness for fish and rice and political affiliations. They substitute an ‘o’ for ‘a’ and are not vhery o-polegetic o-boutthe same.

….those in Hindi belt of U.P.-Bihar, put a ‘j’ for ‘z’ (and vice-versa) and an ‘is’ before words starting with ‘s’. So a Hindi-bhai must have done dojens of prozects in his is-School.

…..The ebullient Punjabi considers it improper to pronounce the ‘sh’ sound when it occurs in the middle of certain words like ‘pressure’ and ‘treasure,’ and substitutes it with the more decent sounding ‘ya.’ Hence when he tells you that his player (pleasure) knows no mayor (measure), you must deduce what he actually means to convey. Punjabis also have the tendency to deduct syllables from certain places in a word. So when he is giving ‘sport’ to his old parents, he means “support.” This deduction is compensated for with the addition of an extra syllable where it is actually not required. Therefore cricket is a very popular “support” (sport) in Punjab. In Tamil Nadu, “Yem Wo Yet Yenether Wo Yen” just spells moon.

Readers Comments:

Peayen Mani: Waste of time energy trying to point out such funny pronunciations; it is fault of English language itself;
there is no clear logical mode e.g. C is used as soft S and also as K (cell/call)- U gives the sound of “ah” as well “oo”!(cut/put)- can go on ! why blame others; If Malayali calls college as KOLAGE, you laugh; but you accept Collate with “KO” Ha Ha!! Local lingua will sure affect a little; nothing wrong; communication achieved
is OK – Many Names in English are that of animals – Mr Fox,Tiger Woods etc ! Like it ?? Stop such comparison
Enjoy humor in your way but do not insult other languages.

Cricket is a very popular “support” (sport) in Punjab.

Ronny: a Punjabi professor of mine in college pronouncing  measure as “mayor” or rather something close to “maiyar”.

Devraj Sambasivan: I’m yet to hear a ‘thoroughbred’ Malayali comfortable with ‘z’ so as to sound ‘zzzz. . .’! I don’t think ‘that’ Malayali can go beyond a simple ‘sa’ or ‘si’ or ‘soo’!! No ‘zimbly’, that is – just ‘simbbbly’, followed by a frothy shower of saliva on the listener’s face!

Jaishri: Tamil news readers can be hilarious when they use words which they have ‘effectively’translated into Tamil..e.g Cricketing terms..and do you know what a “RACKET” is…?? Its ROCKET..

Kollengode S Venkataraman: More annoying to me is the Indian upper crust’s pretentious English, particularly when they pronounce Indian words with a pretentious English accent. Examples: Cauvery for Kaaveri, Ganges for Ganga, ADivasi for Aadivaasis, Deccan plateau for Dakshin Plateau…I can also nitpick on the way she spells her (authors’) name as “Lekshmy” and “Money,” and not “Lakshmi” and “Mani.”

Read the full piece and the readers comments  in The Hindu: English and its many avatars

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Rabiya: An iron woman who changed the history of Kerala

K.V. Rabiya lived on alphabets and words and so through the educational light which she had set for her people, she will live forever.

Vellilakkadu, Tirurangadi: “The Kerala society always looked at and the media hyped me as a literacy mission crusader but they always took care to turn a blind eye towards the inspirational role of Islam behind my activities, the role of Islam in ‘the making up’ of me was never discussed and now I need to do something desperately to convey ‘the right message’ out of my life. I feel I am nearing death, so visualising my life in a documentary – well in lines with my dreams and ideas – is an important and urgent task before me”, says KV Rabiya.

A documentary ‘Charitram Sakshi, Rabiya ennennum Jeevikkunnaval’ is intended at carrying out Da’wat by portraying her life, which she has tried to live according to Islamic principles, she wanted that the documentary should be directed by a non-community member, having an affinity and willingness towards Islam. She was fortunate enough to find such a director in Suresh Iringaloor, and the documentary is under way.

“I believe it is the passion to release this documentary, which still keeps me alive despite all these life threatening diseases I am subject to”, says Rabiya.

Beginning of the mission
Born handicapped to Kariveppil Moosakutty Haji and Allipara Biyyachutty Hajjumma, Rabiya had her legs weakened by Polio, but this couldn’t stop her from going to school, with immense passion, she read books aloud, thus wiping tears off her parent’s eyes. As she reached the Pre Degree level, when she was seventeen, being unable to stand sound on her weakened legs, she had to stop studies. Unlike most others who would weep over their fate, Rabiya started living a meaningful life thereafter. She was not ready to blame her destiny nor did she shed a single drop of tear. She started taking tuition classes to her neighbouring students and this indeed was the start of a big leap in her life as well as the history of Kerala. It was such efforts by Chelakodan Aishumma, Khadeeshumma and Rabiya, that initiated the complete literacy mission in Kerala.

She joined the literacy mission as a temporary instructor and took the Vellilakkadu village by her hand to the magical world of letters. Even her mother and grandmother learnt letters from her and literacy units across the state came to know about the complete literacy achievement of Vellilakkadu village. Rabiya was of the opinion that mere literacy rate won’t be sufficient enough for the development of her region, so she emphasised on the need for getting engaged through jobs.

Development of Vellilakkadu village
With complete support from the villagers who were mostly potters by profession, she set up cottage industries, a publication group called ‘Chalanam’, vocational training programmes, tuition centres, village libraries, a school for the mentally retarded and deaf students, discussion and debate rooms, inter family get together, family counselling centre, reading promotion club, blood donation team, small investment plans and pain and palliative campaigns. Along with Rabiya, Vellilakkadu village was thus entering a new phase of development. The income from ‘Chalanam’ publications made her financially self sufficient and was able to meet the needs of those dependent on her.

Awards
The awards and recognitions which she received were numerous. She even won the UN international award in 2000. The other awards and recognitions which she received were Nehru Yuva Kendra Award [1992], National Youth Award [1993], Bajaj Trust award [1995], Ramashram Award [1996], Karunakara Menon Smaraka Award [1997], Jaysees Zone Award [1998], MSS Ahmed Maulavi Smaraka Award [1998], Junior Chamber International Award [2000], The central govt’s first Kannaki Sthree Shakthi Award, Kuwait Tahira Award [2000], IMA Award [2002], Yuva Kala Sahithi Award [2003], Kerala Handicapped Social Service Organisation Award [2004], Murimattathil Bava Award [2004], Star Friends Creation Literary Award, Riyadh [2006], Nahdi Malayalam Association Award [2007], Bhaskar Foundation Award [2008], Mahila Tilakam Award of the Kerala Social Welfare Ministry [2012].

Though in wheel chair, Rabiya involved in every spheres of the village life and had thus set an example for the whole state. She married her cousin brother and Rabiya was the second wife. Fate had a few more harsh games to play with her life as she was diagnosed with cancer when she was 32 and had her left breast removed as part of the treatment. When she was 34, she accidentally slipped in bathroom and damaged a few spinal nerves which almost dumped her into an inactive phase of life for years.

During those bedridden days she wrote a book named ‘Ente Mauna Nombarangal’ [my silent grievances] and after publishing it she was feeling tensed as she feared that the world might misunderstand – this book – as her life. The book reflected her state of mind and it was full of grievances. So she later wrote an autobiography named ‘Swapnangalkku Chirakukalund’ [dreams has wings] and was published by Lipi publications. The Kerala govt has included a part of her autobiography in the fifth standard Malayalam text book.

Now Rabiya is 46, her liver and kidneys are not functioning well, her words are not that crispy and continuous because of memory loss but her unending passion to serve others has now forced her to make a Documentary on her life and her village.

Documentary on her life and village
The documentary ‘Charitram Sakshi, Rabiya ennennum Jeevikkunnaval’ is intended at giving a message to the victims of fate so that they could stay bold despite physical challenges. “Since times everybody focused on portraying me as a literacy worker, so my other works and things which I had to convey to my society went unnoticed. My literacy works were just another part of my social service efforts. Every similar ventures which accompanied the literacy alleviation attempts, too was out of the ideal set by my prophet Muhammed [SAW]” says Rabiya

Talking on the relevance of her documentary she told TCN, “The inspiration indeed was Islamic values and the reward from the Almighty; so portraying my life by making use of the possibilities of visual media, I believe is a far more efficient form of Da’wath [invitation to Islam]. So by my life, the educational and social services I undertook, I have tried to practically live as a Muslim and now I feel this should stay as a source of inspiration for the world even after my death. Besides I would like to introduce my villagers and lot other good hearted comrades before the world, so that their lives could make more people interested in undertaking educational and social causes”.

“I am not sure whether I would live until its completion and not sure whether I could pay out the debt of around 15 lakhs spent on the documentary film before my death, as I have produced the film on my own. Another 10 lakh rupees is required to complete the rest visualisation, dubbing, editing, brochures and advertising. My Director Suresh Iringalloor has done justice to my dreams and ideas regarding this documentary, and we hope to telecast it in the Samasta EK Sunni owned channel, Darsana TV as episodes, within a few weeks” said Rabiya.

Married life
The feminists, intellectuals and writers favouring west have always attacked Islam over topics like Polygamy. I was married as the second wife to my cousin brother. By portraying my married life, the documentary has a role to prove regarding the purity of Polygamy; even in the present day world. The first wife was indeed possessive over him but what else would make a wife happy than the husband’s words like “Rabiya is the greatest asset in my life”, asks Rabiya. He was kind enough to give a life and wipe tears of a weakened, marginalised lady by accepting me as his wife. Polygamy in his life, Rabiya believes was not different from what is said in the religion. Understanding the emotions of first wife and husband, their married life, she believes if portrayed could be an ideal justification for Polygamy in Islam.

She always tried to hold intact family relations and her husband’s first wife too was not different and this she says as how said in the Holy Quran will bring Allah’s blessings and thus prosperity in to one’s life. She believes this was the only reason why she is able to meet the needs of her family members dependent on her, even in this bed ridden state.

She hopes that her documentary with its English subtitles would travel across the world and would take a blow at writers like Taslima Nasreen, keen on attacking Islam baselessly.

“It is a fact that people within the community are misusing such provisions within Islam, but that doesn’t mean such rules within the religion are to be discouraged and writers like Taslima should have the least sense to distinguish what is said in Islam and what it is now being practised by the vested interests within the community”, said Rabiya.

She will live forever
The profit from the documentary if any, after paying out the debts will be used for setting up a trust called Rabiya Foundation Trust. The trust is intended at supporting the sidelined and victimised lives of the society by continuing those educational and palliative services, she hopes.

Rabiya is proud as she quotes the recently demised, Kerala’s most eminent intellectual and literature giant Sukumar Azheekode who once said that, “The Pope of Catholic Church, Vatican might have easily stepped on to the procedures of canonizing and proclaiming Rabiya as Saint, if she was born a Christian”.

She considers her people’s affection, encouragements, criticisms and their respect for being the teacher who made them learn letters, as the biggest achievements in her life. Thus she is able to forget her physical pains on being loved and respected by her dear ones.

Rabiya lived on alphabets and words and so through the educational light which she had set for her people, she will live forever. (courtesy: Abdul Basith MA, TwoCircles.net)

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English: Indian writers trashes unease of adopting the aggressor’s language

Syed Shoaib writes about the grown popularity of English language amongst the writers and the vast unexplored regional literature waiting to get translated and read by the Generation ‘Y’ of India. Excerpts from his article titled ‘English should power our writers’ in Post Noon, Hyderabad’s first afternoon newspaper:

They were hesitant steps, yet left their mark in the poems of Sarojini Naidu and writings of authors like RK Narayan.

It was only after Salman Rushdi’s Mid­night’s Children in 1981, which won the Man Booker prize, that Indian writers saw the potential of writing in English.

Indian writing being a very young literature, writers were not able to find the right idiom to express themselves effectively. Hence, a large part of Indian experience is now unrecorded and the tendency to present India as an exotic land is prevalent in these writings.

It is only after the huge success of English books written by Indians of late that the authors realised the vast Indian market for their works. A major part of the audience is in India while the western audience is limited to critical acclaim. Writings of Shobha De and Chethan Bhagat are very popular among the Gen Y, much as the earlier generation was familiar with Mills & Boon, James Hadley Chase and Westerns. Today, the young set has a blank look at the mention of these authors.

With English becoming the global language for communication and the ‘computer language’ the unease of adopting the aggressor’s language has been trashed. What has doubly helped is that memories of colonial rule are becoming faint and distant. English has also become the lingua franca in the country, so there is more acceptance of this young tradition of literature, kindling optimism about its future.

Aside the original writing in English, there is also the big unexplored potential of translating works of Indian languages into English. The limited English writers in India, mainly urban India, have captured only a miniscule slice of the great experience that is India.

It is from creative works in regional languages that an in-depth view of the totality of India can be had. This could be a window to India for the rest of the world and we would do well to foster this activity. 

Read the full column: English should power our writers

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The Bird Man Of India Salim Ali, now in Comics too !!!

Amar Chitra Katha is launching a new title inspired by nation’s
foremost naturalist and ornithologist Salim Ali

As the nation has started noticing that one of our favourite backyard
bird, sparrow, is disappearing fast and are taking preventive steps –
another recognition for an avid bird-lover, noted naturalist and
ornithologist Salim Ali, has come very timely. Ali, who spent his
entire life working for birds in India, has inspired a comic series
published by Amar Chitra Katha (ACK).

“ACK Media is proud to associate with Bombay Natural History Society
in launching our new title, ‘Salim Ali’ – The Bird Man of India,”
expresses Reena Puri, Editor, Amar Chitra Katha, adding, “We had
stories from mythology, history and literature but there was a vacuum
as far as natural history is concerned. Wildlife and its conservation
are very important parts of contemporary thought. With Ali, and his
story, we make a beginning for the same and hope to write more about
people and movements associated with this subject.”

Ali received his first lesson in ornithology from WS Millard, then the
secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society. Millard helped him
identify a Yellow-throated sparrow. Over the years, Ali’s interest in
birds led to his close association with the society. And after
Independence, he wrote to the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru, asking for financial assistance to support the work of the
institution. Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of BNHS said, “We are very
proud to launch the Amar Chitra Katha title on Salim Ali and thank ACK
Media for this initative.”

‘Salim Ali – The Bird Man of India’ will portray the noted
ornithologist as someone passionate about birds and nature and how he
never thought of money, fame, comfort or even safety while he went
about single-mindedly trying to learn as much about the birds of India
as he could. It took around eight months to complete this new title.
The scriptwriter Shalini Srinivasan says, “I referred to his
autobiography, ‘The fall of a sparrow’ and many other books like
‘Salim Ali for Schools’ by Zai Whittaker; ‘Salim Ali – India’s
Birdman’ by Reena Dutta Gupta. We also talked with his relatives and
referred to BNHS archival material to help more in the script.”

The series is out already and is expected to generate awareness about
environment and birds.

Two Tamil Titans: CW Thamotharampillai & UV Swaminathaiyar

“In the sphere of publication of ancient Tamil classics Arumuga Navalar laid the foundation; Damodaram Pillai raised the walls; Swaminatha Iyer thatched the roof and completed the house, was the assessment of Thiru V. Kalayasundara Mudaliyar (Thiru Vi. Ka.).”

–Professor AR Venkatachallaphy.

Tamil historian Professor AR Venkatachalapathy, delivering keynote address at Tamil Studies Conference in Toronto on Saturday, brought out hitherto untapped objective evidences of around two scores of letters written by CW Thamotharampillai (1832–1901) to UV Swaminathaiyar (1855–1942), for a better understanding of the relationship between the two pioneer editors coming from Jaffna and Tamil Nadu in transferring Tamil classics from palm leaf manuscripts to print media. The letters dating between 1883 and 1899 show that despite being rivals in publication the two were in close contact and cooperative if not collaborative. The letters also show the generosity and magnanimity of Thamotharampillai, personally and in matters of publication, and as a senior scholar he encouraged Swaminathaiyar and saw in him the future of classical editorial scholarship, Chalapathy said.

Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer

Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer

But contrary to the accommodative perception of Thiru Vi. Ka., the comparative assessment of the two titans, Thamotharampillai and Swaminathaiyar, from late colonial to contemporary Tamil world, has been rather contentious, and has been refracted through the prism of caste, religion and region, he pointed out, adding that Swaminathaiyar’s insinuations regarding Thamotharampillai in the autobiography he wrote much later in his life, provided the fuel.

The letters Chalapathy brought out comes from Swaminathaiyar’s voluminous filing of correspondences over sixty years. There were over three dozens of letters written by Thamotharampillai, and even though they only show one side of the correspondence, they help to dispel the insinuations of Swaminathaiyar and many other later day constructs, Chalapathy said.

The letters showed that Swaminathaiyar was the first to contact Thamotharampillai, when the latter also was thinking of finding ways to communicate with him. The Thiruvaavaduthu’rai Mutt was the binding factor.

At the time of the beginning of correspondence Thamotharampillai was completing the publication of I’raiyanaar Akappuru’l Urai and Tha’nikaip-puraa’nam.

In 1887 both Thamotharampillai and Swaminathaiyar were engaged in completing the editions of Kaliththokai and Cheevaka Chinthama’ni respectively.

Despite his age and accomplishments Thamotharampillai was generous, courteous and was seeking cooperation. He was prepared to acknowledge credit for any academic contribution coming from Swaminathaiyar.

They were exchanging palm leaf manuscripts, shared notes and Thamotharampillai helped Iyer in buying printing paper and in the sales of his books too.

Thamotharampillai encouraged Iyer in every publication, secured a Chilappathikaaram palm-leaf manuscript for him, arranged finances from Kumaraswamy Mudaliyar in Colombo to publish it and also encouraged that Iyer should publish Ma’nimeakalai too.

Read the full feature on TamilNet  : Chalapathy brings out Thamotharampillai letters

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“Poetree”, an imaginative initiative

The students of Krishna Menon Memorial Government Women’s College engage themselves in hanging poems of students from various colleges across India on Poetree

Poetree has attained great popularity and entries from a number of campuses have already been received, right from JNU and St Stephen’s College New Delhi to Shanti Niketan Kolkata and Hyderabad Central University, not to forget mentioning several other varsities all over India. Students and young writers from Jawaharlal Nehru University, St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, Shanthiniketan, West Bengal, Central University, Hyderabad, Madras University, Calicut University, Maharaja’s College, Kochi, Nehru Arts and Science College, Kanhangad, BCM College, Kottayam, Farook College, Kozhikode, University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Brennan College, Thalassery and other institutions sent their entries to be displayed on the tree.

It was an innovative initiative for creating an ambience that inspires creative expression among students as a special ‘space’ has been carved out on the campus for promoting creativity.

The initiative of the Media Club of the Krishna Menon Memorial Government Women’s College here was, as the organisers claimed, the launch of a new campus culture that would stimulate creativity among the students of the college. At the centre of this initiative is a tree which has been re-christened as ‘Poetree’. Poems, stories and other literary works of students from colleges all over the country will be hanging from the tree near the open auditorium of the college.

The Media Club, a joint venture of the departments of Journalism and English of the college, has set up a unique ‘space’ for campus creativity called Poetree. A tree on the campus has been baptised by that name and poems, stories and other literary works of students from colleges all over India will continue to hang from it. Entries will be changed weekly.

“Poetry was a safety valve for society. This imaginative initiative is a reflection of our desire for poetry to exist,”

said Malayalam poet Veerankutty in his brief speech while inaugurating ‘Poetree’ on the college campus here on March 22.

“In today’s fast paced world, Poetree marks a return to nature. With over 100 poems that have blossomed on its branches, the Poetree is a wonderful sight,’’

says Nasooha M., second year B.A. English Literature student, and also a budding writer from the campus.

“The idea is to exhibit writings from other campuses in India,’’

says writer V.H. Nishad, convenor of the Media Club, who also teaches journalism at the campus.

“As the name reflects, Poetree is a tree that captures the soaring imagination of students from different campuses, reflecting their thoughts in poems, prose or in the form of short stories —irrespective of lingual or regional differences”

says Varsha Pramod, coordinator.

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Bilingual dictionaries to promote India’s mother tongues

New Delhi: The campaign to preserve vernacular mother tongues and make knowledge accessible to students through translation across the linguistic arc has taken a big stride with a new bilingual dictionary series in Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada from the source language, English.

An initiative of the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), National Translation Mission, Regional Institute of South Asia and Pearson Education, the six bilingual dictionaries is the first lot of the 11 dictionaries that the government is collaborating on with Pearson under its Longman imprint.

“The dictionaries, released in the national capital on Saturday, aims to fulfil the National Translation Mission’s mandate to develop translation tools for 22 Indian languages under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution,” said Aditi Mukherjee, project manager of the National Translation Mission.

The second lot of the language dictionaries that are in the works include Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu and Urdu, Mukherjee said.

“One of the primary mandates of the National Translation Mission, set up three years ago under the ministry of human resource development, is to promote academic education across 70-odd disciplines in 22 languages by translating 100 books in each discipline. The lexicon is an important translation tool – kind of a spring board to push the mother tongues, many of which are threatened with very few speakers,” Mukherjee told .

The Longman-NTM-CIIL dictionaries have over 12,000 words and phrases culled from the British National Corpus.

Translation studies as a concept took roots in the country in 1986 when the ministry of human resource development presented a document, “Programme of Action” – to make translation an academic and commercial pursuit.

The paper, conceptualised by late Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, a linguist, led to the establishment of the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies (CALTS) at the University of Hyderabad.

It was later followed by a translation website, “Anukriti” under the 10th Five-Year Plan and the National Translation Mission with the CIIL as its nodal agency.

“The target group of the National Translation Mission is those university students who do not know English. We have to look at how to disseminate or translate from English and to English. We have identified 105 books and have acquired rights for 23 books from source publishers to be translated in different languages,” Mukherjee said.

The mission assigns the task of translation to the publisher or deputes a translator from the National Register for Translators, a pool of government translators, the project director said.

Recalling the beginning of the dictionary project, Udaya Narayan Singh, former director of CIIL and pro-vice-chancellor of Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan, told IANS, “The idea for the dictionaries was sown when Pearson published my book, ‘Translation as Growth: Towards a Theory of Language Development’ in 2009. At the time, I had just completed work on connecting Microsoft’s Windows 7 to 12 Indian languages. I was also working on bi-lingual language dictionaries…”

Singh said he was earlier a part of “Anusaraka” – the National Language Processing Project – a linguistic collaboration between Hyderabad University and IIT-Kanpur.

“I suggested online dictionaries to Longman from which we culled the idea for language lexicons in print with 12,000 words,” Singh said.

“The idea is to create a translation industry as recommended by the National Knowledge Commission by mobilising the publishing stakeholders (both private and public) and getting the regional language publishers into the loop. They know how to reach the readers,” Aditi Mukherjee said.

The 22 Indian mother tongues that the National Translation Mission has taken up for promotion have 134 dialects, Udaya Narayan Singh said.

“This accounts for 96 percent of India’s population. The remaining four percent speaks 600 languages,” Singh said.

“The government has taken the depleting linguistic groups into account and is relooking at the Linguistic Survey of India after 100 years. It has asked some states to come up with parallel survey reports,” CIIL director S.N. Burman told IANS.

The National Translation Mission is also trying to set up lexicon bases for languages like Santhali, Konkani, Marathi, Bodo and Sanskrit, Udaya Narayan Singh said.

“You need to introduce the threatened mother tongues in primary schools which has many implications,” Singh said.