“Language is the only tool for expressing identity and culture as well as one of the greatest emblems of human diversity. There are 7,000 living languages in the world and around 3,000 are considered as ‘endangered’. This means that almost half of the planet’s current linguistic diversity is under threat.” – Abhijit Mohanty in “Seven decades after independence, many tribal languages in India face extinction threat” (Down to Earth, 26 August 2020)
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/governance/seven-decades-after-independence-many-tribal-languages-in-india-face-extinction-threat-73071
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=6879
When scientists of the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) set out to conduct a study on language of the primitive Toto tribe, whose population has dwindled to 1,536, they did not realise that the language is more endangered than the tribe itself. During their study they recorded the vocabulary, folklore, and even some songs in … Read more
Enumeration of Primitive Tribes in A&N Islands – A Challenge Census operation in the remote and far-flung Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands had been a tough but fascinating exercise down the corridor of time. Barring Narcondam Island the archipelago forms an arch with a parallelogram located between 6 and 14 degrees of … Read more
The ancient tribal communities that lived here in the Andaman Islands […] have lived and flourished here for at least 40,000 years., but the end could well be round the corner. […] It definitely began with the British and their policies, which have been kept up with clinical efficiency by modern, independent India [which] was … Read more
Ever since the Portuguese travel writers and missionaries decided to describe the vast variety of ethnic and occupational groups and sects of the Indian subcontinent in terms of “caste” and “tribe”, the terms have stuck to society as long-worn masks that start becoming one’s real personality. The result is that today no Indian describes society … Read more