The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c10.99

c10.99

Since language is one of the most important manifestations of the social cohesion of a community, it is not irrelevant to discuss the history of the development of Indian languages. Unfortunately, very little systematic studies in Indian linguistics have been made from the point of view of the social and cultural history of India. But what we know already, again points towards the operation of the centripetal and centrifugal forces that characterize Indian history. On the one hand, we see a distinct diversity at the base. It is well-known that all the modern languages of India fundamentally belong to the main groups: the Indo-Aryan, the Dravidian, the Austro-Asiatic and the Sino-Burman. On the one hand, we see the operation of the centripetal forces, which bring about "a chemical fusion, not a physical mixture, where the different components can be easily separated", as Dr. S. M. Katre put it.¹ He continues, "During the last three thousand years, each of these distinct groups of languages has come into close contact with the remaining groups, and out of this contact has arisen a vocabulary which shows a Pan-Indian characteristic."