Linguistic Survey of India- Jharkhand

The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) is an ongoing project of the Government of India that aims to document and study how languages have changed in the country over the years. It considers shifts in society, administrative regions and the reorganisation of states based on linguistic identity. This project has been undertaken by the Language Division, Office of the Registrar General, Government of India.Part of this project is the ‘Linguistic Survey of India–Jharkhand’ which studies twelve languages spoken in Jharkhand. The surveys were carried out between 1984 and 2000 before the state of Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar on November 15, 2000.The survey works on the census framework according to which ‘language’ and ‘mother tongue’ are ‘co-terminus’ or mean the same. The volume discusses six ‘languages’ (Hindi, Santali, Kharia, Kurukh/Oraon, Mundari, Ho) and six ‘mother tongues’ (Nagpuria, Panch Pargania, Sadan/Sadri, Khortha/Khotta, Mahili, Malpaharia). This selection of the languages is based on regional importance, the number of speakers, and the locations where the survey was conducted.The present-day LSI is an extension of the survey first proposed by George Abraham Grierson, an Irish linguist who documented Indian languages during the pre-Independence era and a few years of the early 20th century. This survey “complements and supplements” Grierson's survey conducted when the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and present-day Bangladesh were part of the same Bengal Presidency province.The document is divided into 14 main chapters. The first chapter introduces the history, culture, demography and administrative units of the state. Chapters 2-7 contain grammatical descriptions of the six ‘languages’ while chapters 8-13 describe the six ‘mother tongues’ spoken in Jharkhand...