Dr. Kanchan Mukhopadhyay on 'The Austric speakers in India'
Oral Traditions: Continuity and Transformations, Northeast India and Southeast Asia, Shillong (1st-4th February, 2016);Conference
Description
Dr. Kanchan Mukhopadhyay (centre) presented his views on the Austric speakers in India, where he said that the cultural diversity in India has largely been caused by the linguistic diversity of the land. Austric speakers are reportedly the earliest inhabitants of India. Their ancestors settled in this country about 60-65 thousand years back, presently found in three parts of the country, Eastern and North Eastern India and the Nicobar Islands. Ancient Indian literature mentions 4 kinds of people who were culturally distinct - the Aryans, Dravidas, Kiratas and Nishadas. Linguists say that the Aryans were Indo-European speakers, the Dravidas, Dravidian speakers, the Kiratas, Sino-Tibetan speakers and the Nishadas, Austric speakers. Austric languages of India belong to the Austro-Asiatic subfamily, and are further sub-divided into Munda and Mon-Khmer. While the Munda speakers are distributed over the states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, the Mon-Khmer speakers are present primarily in Meghalaya and Nicobar Islands. His presentation discussed two issues - the consciousness among different groups of Austric speakers in India, about their mutual cultural affinity, and their awareness about contribution towards building of the Indian civilization. He said that the issues have their own problematique, as the antiquities as well as the contemporary cultural matrix of the Austric speakers are heterogeneous.
Project Title
Oral Traditions: Continuity and Transformations, Northeast India and Southeast Asia, Shillong
DOCUMENT TYPE
image
Identifier:
SC_34
Related Term
Oral Traditions
Related place
Shillong
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In Copyright
RIGHTS HOLDER
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