LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 2 : 4 June-July 2002

Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Associate Editor: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.

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MOTHER TONGUES OF INDIA ACCORDING TO THE 1961 CENSUS

B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.

The Language Tables published by the Census of India 1961 is an important milestone in the study of Indian linguistic demography. The Census of India 1961 identified 1652 "mother tongues." "Mother tongues" thus identified may not have been identical to the languages, dialects, or even speech forms of the individuals. These were the labels used by the indiviuals to identify their speech, when asked to give the name of the early childhood language used in the household of the individual. The census enumerators were asked to write down the names given by the individuals without making any correction. These mother tongues were then sought to be "rationalized" and identified with the languages or dialects through a careful analysis of the names. Sometimes the individuals gave the name of their caste as their language, not distinguishing between language and caste. Sometimes they gave the name of a language which they did not speak, but which is supposed to be used by the members of the religious group they belonged to. Sometimes, they gave the names of their profession. The region they came from was also used to indicate their speech. While such mixing of the names of languages with caste, profession, religion, and region, etc. somewhat led to a confusing picture of the actual languages spoken in the country, the process of rationalization often (not always) resulted in the identification of the language or dialect that the individual actually spoke. It was a fascinating experience to identify and rationalize these mother tongues, say the then young scholars (Dr. M. R. Ranganatha, Dr. J. Neethivanan, and Dr. M. S. Thirumalai) who were part of the small team of linguists employed by the Census of India Organization. In retrospect, one could assign language affinity to several of the mother tongues listed here. However, for various reasons, the team did not choose to give the identity to some obvious mother tongues listed here. The tabulation/analysis of the mother tongue names was done by the Language Division of the Census of India under the leadership of a senior anthropological linguist, Mr. R. C. Nigam. The Registrar-General and Census Commissioner for the 1961 Census operations, Mr. Asok Mitra, an ICS officer of great calibre, took a keen personal and scholarly interest in planning, executing and analyzing the mother tongue returns.

The names of the mother tongues listed in the Cenus of India 1961 clearly reveal the interesting pscho-social and political dynamics of language use in India. The very same dynamics are still in operation, although the subsequent Census reports on Indian languages somewhat tried to standardize the names, and not present the mother tongues as they were given.

Since the list is long, and it takes quite a bit of time to format them in the table format, I present, in this first installment, only the list of foreign and unclassified mother tongues. The remaining names will be presented in the August and September issues of Language in India. When all the names are presented, these two or three articles will be combined into a single article as a ready reference material.

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