MANAGING DECLINE OR BUILDING INHERITANCE? POLICY PATHWAYS TO SUSTAIN TAMIL IN URBAN AND MIGRANT INDIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i2s.2026.7252Keywords:
Intergenerational Language Attrition, Mother Tongue Transmission, Additive Multilingualism, Language Policy, Urbanisation and MigrationAbstract [English]
This research work is all about the examination of the reasons why the Tamil language is less confidently transmitted to the younger generations in India, especially in urban and migrant contexts. Instead of blaming the situation of forcibly moved, displaced, or directly suppressed people for the decline of the language, the paper proposes that language loss today is mainly due to decision-making in families, schools, and institutions. The paper brings together the sociolinguistics, education, and language policy disciplines' concepts to describe the daily changes that result in language transmission from one generation to another becoming less successful. These changes are less use of Tamil at home, the early stage where reading and writing skills get weakened, and schooling practices favoring dominant regional languages and English. Besides that, the research exposes a blatant inconsistency in language policy. On paper, multilingualism is accepted and supported, but it is implemented through systems that result in language substitution rather than language accumulation. The paper claims that phenomena associated with urbanisation, social mobility, and migration, among other things, influence this pattern by altering the ways in which languages are valued and used in daily life, mainly in the multilingual metropolitan environments. Based on a few European experiences, the paper proposes that multilingualism should be considered as a continuation, which comes from regular use and literacy that is sustained over generations. The research work finally points out the possible practical implications of this for families, the education sector, and state institutions. Besides, it also suggests the preservation of languages like Tamil should not be considered individuals' burden but as the social responsibility that is shared by everyone.
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