The 21 February is celebrated as the International Mother Language Day to commemorate the sacrifice of Bangladeshis who struggled to keep their mother tongue (Bangla) alive. The day is also celebrated to mark respect for world’s indigenous languages (Bhasha), which are on the verge of decline and demise. Notwithstanding the fact that, increasingly, English has gained most of the linguistic ground world over, the tacit and now most vocal resistance to ‘English imperialism’ is witnessed in at least the third world countries like India and its neighbors. In fact, because of extraordinary intervention of ICT and virtual world promoters like social media, the question of English has come to be the Shakespearian question in Hamlet; “to be or not to be”. The moot point is, should we resign and accept English as fait accompali or to think of alternative ways to turn ‘English advantage’ to our side without denying the fact that indigenous languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. As far as English in multilingual, multicultural and multireligious context like that of India is concerned, one must remember that language is a cultural product and also the potent vehicle to transit culture. Language is not only the medium but also the creator of thoughts and truth. These functions of language are necessarily associated with one’s mother tongue as these are the markers of one’s identity. Indian philosopher of language Bharthari (570 AD) said that language constructs our world; jagat sarvein sabdein bhashatei (we take cognizance of the world through language). Therefore construction of meaning is at the centre of language use, which is manifested through literature resulting in gyan (knowledge) and anand (bliss), the twin objectives of literature obtainable through indigenous literature created in mother tongues. The dwindling ecological diversity and declining linguistic diversity are the two greatest challenges before the world in modern times. The following research article discusses why we should care for promoting linguistic diversity (Bhasha) and solutions thereof.

中文翻译：

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以 Bhasha（土著语言）为中心：生态语言学视角

2 月 21 日被定为国际母语日，以纪念努力保持母语（孟加拉语）活力的孟加拉国人的牺牲。庆祝这一天也是为了纪念世界土著语言（Bhasha），这些语言正处于衰落和消亡的边缘。尽管英语越来越多地在世界范围内获得了大部分语言基础，但至少在印度及其邻国等第三世界国家目睹了对“英语帝国主义”的默许和现在最强烈的反抗。事实上，由于信息通信技术和社交媒体等虚拟世界推动者的非凡干预，英语问题已经成为哈姆雷特的莎士比亚问题；“生存还是毁灭”。有争议的一点是，我们应该辞职并接受英语作为既成事实，还是想出替代方法将“英语优势”转向我们这一边，同时又不否认土著语言正在以惊人的速度消失这一事实。就像印度这样的多语言、多文化和多宗教环境中的英语而言，必须记住，语言是一种文化产品，也是传播文化的有力工具。语言不仅是媒介，也是思想和真理的创造者。语言的这些功能必然与一个人的母语有关，因为它们是一个人身份的标志。印度语言哲学家 Bharthari（公元 570 年）说，语言构建了我们的世界；jagat sarvein sabdein bhashatei（我们通过语言认识世界）。因此，意义的建构是语言使用的中心，这通过产生 gyan（知识）和 anand（幸福）的文学表现出来，这是通过母语创造的本土文学获得的文学双重目标。日益减少的生态多样性和不断下降的语言多样性是当今世界面临的两大挑战。以下研究文章讨论了为什么我们应该关心促进语言多样性 (Bhasha) 及其解决方案。