Linguistic Diversity in South and Southeast Asia

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Globalization, by incessantly promoting uniformity, is not only destroying biological and cultural diversity but also leading to language shifts because linguistic imperialism and linguistic marginalization are two ends of the same spectrum. Linguistic Diversity in South and Southeast Asia brings together the contributions of scholars concerned with this loss from Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and India. It is a compendium on the depleting linguistic diversity, loss of oral cultures, erosion of indigenous knowledge system, and the widening gap between dominant and dominated languages which has created a situation of linguistic apartheid in this part of the world. Interestingly, these essays also reveal that despite globalization some communities have managed to retain their languages, which must now be sustained and treasured and not allowed to die out. Documenting the first-hand experience of working with the diverse and obscure linguistic communities of South and Southeast Asia, this volume not only delves into the complexities of issues but also suggests measures to arrest the loss of languages and to revive those that are on the brink of extinction.

Anvita Abbi, an eminent linguist and social scientist, identified the sixth language family of India. A recipient of the Padma Shree and Kenneth Hale Awards, she was a Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institute, Leipzig, and Leverhulme Professor at the University of London. She has taught at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and in universities across Europe, Australia, Canada and the US. Renowned for her research on lesser-known languages extending from the Himalayas to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, she has numerous publications in the field and is now documenting endangered languages of the Nicobar Islands.
Kapila Vatsyayan (1928-2020) served as founding Director of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and as Secretary, Department of Arts, Government of India. A Padma Vibhushan, she spearheaded programmes of art history, education, Sanskrit, Buddhist and Pali studies. She was Regents Professor in the University of California (Santa Cruz), Visiting Professor at University of Pennsylvania and taught at the universities of Delhi and Banaras.

I AM HAPPY to write the Foreword to this volume arising out of a three-day international seminar on 'Linguistic Diversity in South and Southeast Asia', which the IIC-International Research Division (IIC-IRD) had organized in November 2016 under the chairperson- ship of the late Dr Kapila Vatsyayan. Delegates from several countries of the region-Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia-participated in this seminar. The eminent delegates from India included Dr Ganesh Devy, Chairman, People's Linguistic Survey of India, and Professor D.P. Pattanayak, Founder Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Countries in Southeast Asia, followed by those in South Asia, have enormous linguistic diversity. These languages, many of them without a script, have been disappearing over the years. It is a matter of concern that, as historical experience has shown, a decline in the number of languages leads to the dimunition of indigenous cultures and civilizational mores. Dr Vatsyayan had been repeatedly raising the issue about the serious consequences of languages vanishing across the world.
I am grateful to Professor Anvita Abbi, a specialist on minority languages and a member of the Executive Committee of the IIC, for coordinating the seminar and editing the volume, along with Dr Vatsyayan. I would also like to warmly thank the heads of the Indian missions in the countries of South and Southeast Asia for their valuable support in identifying scholars from the region and in facilitating their travel to New Delhi. Above all, our thanks and appreciation to the distinguished delegates from India and abroad for their participation and valuable contribution which made the seminar a meaningful event. As a Life Trustee of the IIC, Dr Vatsyayan had been steering the IIC-IRD from 2003 onwards, until she left us recently. This volume is dedicated to her memory.

ESTABLISHED IN 1958, the India International Centre (IIC) is a leading socio-cultural institution based in New Delhi, dedicated to building goodwill, understanding and cooperation between and amongst India and other countries of the world. The International Research Division continues, in an expanded framework, the work of the IIC-Asia Project initiated in 1997 with the objective of promoting the substantive study of Asia led by the countries of Asia, accompanied by a purposeful intra-Asian dialogue, so as to rein- force the larger effort of government and society for developing cultural understanding and amity within Asia. The core of IIC- International Research Division's endeavour in fulfilling this man- date is the bringing together of scholars from Asia and elsewhere, in a sustained, long term programme of seminars, conferences and publications. This mode of engagement has helped stimulate rigorous scholarship and research on Asia, and also provided a forum for dialogue and cross-cultural interaction.
These programmes had, in the first place, centred on the cultures of specific regions, individual nation-states, societies and political formations in Asia-an approach akin to area cultural studies. Over the years, the scope has expanded to include a thematic approach, so as to do justice to the rich variety of themes and issues relating to the cultures of Asia and their interactions. In this larger dimension, among the subjects explored were India and Asia: Aesthetic Discourse; Asian Encounters: Networks of Cultural Interaction; Transmissions and Transformations: Learning through the Arts in Asia; Embroidery in Asia: Sui-Dhaga: Crossing Boundaries through Needle and Thread; Anthology of Asian Women's Writing; Festival of Documentary Films by Asian Women filmmakers; the Culture of Indigo: Exploring the Asian Panorama: Aspects of Plant, Product and Power; Reception of Arabian Nights in World Literature; Mind and Body in Health and Harmony in Asian Systems of Medicine; Relevance of Traditional Cultures for the Present and the Future; Bridging the Gulf: Maritime Cultural Heritage of the Western Indian Ocean; and Remembering Raimundo Panikkar: A Pilgrim Across Worlds; India and Indonesia: Exploring Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Pluralities and Inclusive Identities; and India and Central Asia.

THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH Division (formerly called the 'Asia Project') of the India International Centre held an international seminar on Linguistic Diversity in South and Southeast Asia from 21-23 November 2016. We have included several papers read at this seminar in this volume by scholars drawn from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. Founder Director of the Bhasha Research and Publication Center, Vadodara, Ganesh Devy delivered the keynote and eminent linguist Dr Debi Prasanna Pattanayak delivered the inaugural speech.
One of the salient features that connect all the nations of South and Southeast Asia is the presence of linguistic diversity. This diversity is representative of the biodiversity which has existed and sustained the indigenous communities for thousands of years. The continent of South and Southeast Asia may appear to be constituted of diverse customs, cultures, languages, literatures, dresses, food habits, rituals, and geographical landscapes, yet it shares one prominent feature: the unabated enforcement and existence of linguistic imperialism. The power dynamics inherent in the dominance of one language is difficult to comprehend. With the advent of literacy and education, diverse spoken languages struggled to sustain themselves but eventually, became marginalized. Single language domination in a plurilingual society pushed many languages to a minority status despite the fact that some of these had a larger number of speakers than those on the throne of dominance. Linguistic imperialism and linguistic marginalization are two points of the same spectrum.