History of Linguistic Science in North-East India (with Special Reference to the Bodo Group of Languages: Retrospect and Prospect)

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The North-East Indian states are strategically important from the point of view of society, politics, economy, language, culture and history. Apart from tracing the historical development of the linguistic science of the Austroasiatic and Indo-Aryan languages spoken in North- East India, a composite historical account of the scientific enquiries of the Tibeto-Burman group of languages, with change in its perspective at different points of time and space has been attempted in the work. Being a major language group of the Tibeto-Burman language family of North-East India, special reference to the history of the scientific studies of the Bodo group of languages (like Bodo, Deori, Dimasa, Garo, Koch, Kokborok, Moran, Rabha and Tiwa), has been considered integral to the study. Keeping in view the situation of language endangerment and language revitalization, such a study has the potential to contribute to the developmental aspects of the North-East region of the country.

Satarupa Dattamajumdar (Saha), a Linguist, did her M.A. and Ph.D in Linguistics from University of Calcutta. She has been involved in research and teaching programs of different premier institutes like Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore; Institute of Education for Women, Hastings House, Kolkata; Blind Boy's Academy, Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur; Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata; The Asiatic Society, Kolkata; Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi; Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. Her area of research concentrates on the linguistic situation of the speech communities of North-East India, especially the endangered/marginalized communities of the region.She has worked on the language structures and sociolinguistic situations of the languages like Asamiya, Bangla, Kanashi, Koch, Lepcha, Odia and Tiwa; and also, on linguistic historiography of the Austroasiatic group of languages.

The socio-cultural and politico-economic importance of the vast geographical landscape, which is now known as the Northeast India region, has become constitutionally validated after independence and administratively redesignated since 1971 with the establishment of North-Eastern Council (NEC). But much before that the state of Assam with its outlying hilly terrain, the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), and the two principalities, namely Manipur and Tripura, came into limelight during the height of the colonial rule since the early nineteenth century. Subsequently, with the introduction of Government of India Act 1919 and 1935 as well as the resolution moved by the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and adopted in the Constitution in 1950, this region of the country with multiple diversities in ecology, economy, society and culture including language marked an unique place in the long historical journey of our country. One can easily imagine that how vibrant a space can be covering 2,62,179 sq. km. (with international boundaries), nearly eight per cent of the total geographical area of the country, accommodating as many as 220 different ethnic communities with highly variant ethno-linguistic and cultural characteristics. This actually is an ideal field of research which is a meeting ground of two great civilizational strains, namely mongoloid and Indic, with a gloss over of both prakrit and non-prakrit cultural layers.

The study embodied in this treatise is an outcome of the project entitled "History of the Scientific Study of the Languages of North- East India with special reference to the Bodo Group of Languages: Retrospect and Prospect' carried out from November 2015 to October 2018. The project was granted by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. The book is the outcome of the project completed under the sponsorship of Indian National Commission for History of Science. The present research program essentially concentrates on an objective enquiry into the linguistic historiography of the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in North-East India. The investigation while exploring the information regarding the chronological development of the scientific studies of the languages throws light on the change of dimensions of the enquiries across the time. The study also takes into consideration a brief historiographical account of the linguistic enquiries of the Austroasiatic and the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in North-East India and mentions about the reclassification of the Tai-Kadai group of languages spoken in North-East India. A detailed account of the scientific enquiries has been attempted for the languages belonging to the Bodo group (of Tibeto-Burman language sub-family under Sino-Tibetan language family), viz., Bodo, Deori/Chutiya, Dimasa, Garo, Koch, Kokborok, Moran, Rabha and Tiwa. The importance and the social significance of the study have been highlighted in the perspective of international cooperation with the East and South- East Asian countries and from the point of view of language. planning.