Indigenous Identities, Languages and Narratives: Understanding Issues and their Representation, Survival and Continuity Across South Asia

Abstract

This paper looks at an identity of a region, being synonymous to their local and indigenous languages and dialects and the paper proceeds to explain these through examples of South Asia, especially spanning the region of the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) countries. This is an important factor as these languages preserve narratives, which give an insight into many aspects concerning human rights as well as issues of migrations, resettlements and various aspects of regional history. Thus, the languages and their narratives are important representations in the modern global world. The paper also looks into few noteworthy questions, which are often argued as significant in modern times e.g. – ‘Are indigenous languages endangered?’ or ‘The context of indigenous languages in the present global world’. A closer study of these queries provides answers to look at representation, survival and continuity of narratives of indigenous languages across the region and within the subtexts of these narratives, lie questions of human rights and of lives and their everyday struggles, which are oft left in oblivion from the pages of mainstream books. Thus, far from the confines of rigid urban discussions, these narratives can truly reflect issues of human rights and its sublime approach can help to connect across cultures by cutting through geographical boundaries. The paper looks at the issue through few endangered languages across the region of South Asia with few examples of narratives from each. The paper follows an extensive work of the author across the region of South Asia across 2017 till the present.