Linguistic Diversity and Movement for Ethnicity in North East India

Abstract

Unity in diversity is chief feature of India. This diversity consists of language, religion, food, dress etc. North East India is also not an exception. The eight states v.i.z Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim have their own independent languages, culture and religion. It is seen that each state is a mixture of inhabitants of different religion and speaking a number of different languages. For example Arunachal Pradesh has tribes like Adi, Nishi, Tagin, Wangchu, Singpho,Apatani, Nogte, Khamti etc. and each tribe follows their own mother tongue. It should be mentioned that Indian Government has recognized 1652 languages and amongst them the Constitution of India has recognized 22 out of all. It is to be noted that only a few of these ethnic languages have come into script and most of these are still to come to script. Out of these Bodo, Khasi, Mishing, Garo, Khamti have their own dictionaries and independent works on prose and poetry. Though English is the official language in most of the hill areas, Hindi is also widely spoken. Assamese is the prime language in Assam. Out of all the ethnic tribes residing in Assam 9 plain tribes and 14 hill tribes have been identified as of now. All have their own mother tongue but Assamese is used as the communicating language amongst all.

This paper attempts to find out the linguistic diversity in the North Eastern India and the movement of ethnicity that might have emerged due to this diversity prevailing in the region.