VII. An appeal
This document is prepared from some parts of my forthcoming book on language policy. The book was taking some time but I realized that the issue required an immediate response. I thought that the international opinion on the language issue needs to be immediately brought to the notice of Indian citizens. Hence, I decided to publish this booklet. A lot of this booklet has already been published in Punjabi in the Punjabi media. It has also been presented by me in a number of lectures at various places in Punjab. This booklet is being published in Punjabi, Hindi, and English versions (and possibly other Indian languages too), so that it could reach wider audiences. Therefore, I request all Indian people who love their mother languages and who are convinced that India cannot make progress as a modern nation without the foundation of mother tongues, to bring this booklet to the notice of other Indians. An essential task is to translate this document into various Indian languages. Whoever can do this for whichever language, please do this. I shall be thankful to the core of my heart. Since some persons have already taken the responsibility for some languages, please get in touch with me before you translate it. Along with the reasons described behind, the wisdom of thousands of years preserved in our mother tongues needs to be imbibed and passed on to the coming generations. This is our utmost moral responsibility. A little late can result in civilizational losses.
I have added a relatively longer bibliographic section here so that anybody anyone interested in a further investigation on the issue could make use of it.
Acknowledgement: A large number of citations from the research work of numerous scholars have been used in this document. I express my heartiest thanks for all of them. Their hard labour and commitment only has provided the strong ideological support for the mother tongues.
Web Link: This document is available in Punjabi (in Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi/Urdu scripts), Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Dogri and Maithili and can be accessed at: http://punjabiuniversity.academia.edu/JogaSingh/papers
An 18 minute English video providing a gist of this document can be watched at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xaio_TyWAAY&feature=youtu.be
Victory to the Mother Tongues!
Joga Singh, Ph.D. (York, U.K.), Mobile: +91-9915709582; E-mail: jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co