Linguistic Survey of India

Linguistic Survey of India
Name	Linguistic Survey of India
Country	British India
Established	1894
Founder	Sir George Grierson
Discipline	Linguistics
Location	Calcutta

Linguistic Survey of India

The Linguistic Survey of India was a monumental colonial-era project initiated in 1894 under the aegis of the British Raj and led by Sir George Abraham Grierson. Commissioned by the Government of India (British Raj) and sponsored with support from institutions such as the Asiatic Society and the Royal Society, the Survey produced extensive descriptive material on languages across the subcontinent, influencing scholars connected to the British Museum, University of Calcutta, University of Oxford, British Library, and Royal Asiatic Society.

History and background

The Survey arose from debates in the late 19th century among figures in the Indian Civil Service, scholars at the British Museum, administrators in Simla, and members of the Royal Asiatic Society about classification following surveys such as the Great Trigonometrical Survey. Sir George Abraham Grierson secured backing from the Viceroy of India and corresponded with linguists at the University of Cambridge, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the École des Langues Orientales to define scope and methods. Work drew on precedents like the Ethnographic Survey of India and intersected with contemporaneous projects at the Indian Museum and the Archaeological Survey of India.

Objectives and methodology

The Survey aimed to map, document, and classify the languages and dialects of British India for administrative, scholarly, and comparative purposes, coordinating with offices in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Punjab, and Bengal Presidency. Methodology combined field elicitation, questionnaires modeled after procedures used by scholars at the University of Leipzig and the Sorbonne, and comparative techniques influenced by the Comparative Method as practiced by researchers associated with the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft and the Sanskrit Commission. Data collection emphasized phonology, morphology, lexicon, and texts, and employed native informants recruited through contacts with the Indian National Congress, princely states such as Hyderabad State and Baroda State, and provincial administrations like the North-Western Provinces.

Publications and volumes

The published corpus consists of dozens of volumes issued by the Government of India Press and distributed to libraries including the Bodleian Library, the Library of Congress, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Major series include descriptive accounts, vocabularies, and texts covering families associated with Indo-Aryan languages, Dravidian languages, Munda languages, and Sino-Tibetan languages. Printed reports paralleled contemporaneous outputs such as the Imperial Gazetteer of India, and contributors cited philologists from the University of Vienna, the Collège de France, and the University of Edinburgh.

Language classification and findings

The Survey proposed taxonomies that mapped languages and dialects across regions including Assam, Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Grierson’s classifications influenced thinking about relationships among Hindi languages, Bengali language, Marathi language, Gujarati language, Punjabi language, Kannada language, Telugu language, Malayalam language, Tamil language, and numerous smaller lects such as those in Orissa and the Naga Hills. The work documented endangered lects in areas administered from Shillong and Gangtok, and recorded oral literature that intersected with traditions studied by scholars at the Asiatic Society of Bengal and the Sanskrit College.

Fieldwork and personnel

Field teams were composed of surveyors drawn from the Indian Civil Service, local schoolmasters, and native informants recruited via contacts with princely courts like Mysore Kingdom and Travancore. Key figures included assistants trained in phonetic transcription influenced by the International Phonetic Association and by scholars at the University of Leipzig and University College London. Collaboration involved collectors who later worked with the Bengal Presidency archives, the Madras Presidency records, and private collections held by families associated with the Tagore family and scholars linked to the Calcutta School of Orientalism.

Criticisms and legacy

Critics from the Indian National Congress, later scholars at the University of Bombay, and commentators associated with the Non-Cooperation Movement argued that the Survey reflected colonial agendas and relied on administrative categories similar to those used in the Census of India. Postcolonial scholars connected to the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Centre for Studies in Civilizations have critiqued classification choices, field ethics, and the privileging of certain lects over others. Nonetheless, museums and academic centers such as the Indian Museum, the Asiatic Society, and the Institute of Oriental Studies have preserved the Survey’s materials, which remain reference points for comparative work.

Influence on later linguistics and policy

The Survey influenced language policy debates in forums like the Constituent Assembly of India and informed scholarship at institutions including the University of Calcutta, Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, and the University of Delhi. Its data underpinned later projects such as regional grammars issued by the Sahitya Akademi, comparative studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and orthography reforms considered by commissions linked to the Ministry of Home Affairs (India) during the formation of the Republic of India. Internationally, materials from the Survey were consulted by scholars at the University of Chicago, the Leiden University, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology for typological and historical research.

Category:Linguistics Category:Colonial India