India: A Linguistic Civilization

India’s spectacular linguistic diversity is one of its most defining characteristics as a civilization. The complex trajectory of our languages is intertwined with the evolution of the Indian identity, imagination, and intellectual history. Our languages are a repository of human ideas and experiences across millennia and remain at the core of intense deliberations on what constitutes the ‘idea of India’. Yet to map their evolution is a monumental endeavour—the number of languages to have existed and the ones that continue to be in use are far too many to determine a particular point of origin or reconstruct the story in its entirety.

In this path-breaking book, celebrated academic and intellectual G. N. Devy lays bare the mysteries and intricacies of India’s linguistic past, present, and future. The evolution of language is set against the larger historical canvas of human progress, and gives due weight to the influences of migration, agriculture, newer patterns of settlement, formation of religious sects, cultural resistance, and centuries of British colonialism on the shaping of our linguistic heritage. 

Timely and profound, India: A Linguistic Civilization is an ambitious study that celebrates the rich tapestry of Indian languages—a fitting rejoinder to majoritarian ideologies that threaten our vibrant multiculturalism.