The Language Loss of the Indigenous

This volume traces the theme of the loss of language and culture in numerous post-colonial contexts. It establishes that the aphasia imposed on the indigenous is but a visible symptom of a deeper malaise — the mismatch between the symbiotic relation nurtured by the indigenous with their environment and the idea of development put before them as their future. The essays here show how the cultures and the imaginative expressions of indigenous communities all over the world are undergoing a phase of rapid depletion. They unravel the indifference of market forces to diversity and that of the states, unwilling to protect and safeguard these marginalized communities.

This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of cultural and literary studies, linguistics, sociology and social anthropology, as well as tribal and indigenous studies.

G. N. Devy is Founder of the Bhasha Research Centre at Baroda and Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh, Gujarat, India. He writes in three Indian languages – Marathi, Gujarati and English – and has received prestigious awards for his writings. Formerly he taught at the MS University of Baroda and the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT). He is currently Chair of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India and received the civilian honour of Padma Shri from the Government of India in 2014.

Geoffrey V. Davis is former Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Aachen, Germany. He has been international chair of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS) and chair of the European branch. He coedits Cross/Cultures: Readings in the Post/Colonial Literatures and Cultures in English and the African studies series Matatu. His publications include Staging New Britain: Aspects of Black and South Asian British Theatre Practice (2006) and African Literatures, Postcolonial Literatures in English: Sources and Resources (2013).

K. K. Chakravarty, formerly in the Indian Administrative Services, has held several esteemed positions in his career as Chancellor of the National University for Educational Planning and Administration; Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, the national academy for visual arts; and Member Secretary, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. Educated at Harvard, he has contributed several research articles to books and journals in archaeology, fine arts, philosophy and education.

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