New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI) Vice President C P Radhakrishnan on Friday asserted that India’s many languages have never divided the nation but have instead preserved and strengthened a shared civilisational ethos and a common ‘dharma.’ He also said that the Constitution and its Eighth Schedule reflect India’s ancient wisdom by recognising and celebrating linguistic diversity, affirming that national unity rests not on uniformity but on mutual respect.
Democracy, he said, flourishes when every citizen can express themselves in their own language.
Radhakrishnan made these remarks in his inaugural address of the third International Conference on Indian Languages in New Delhi.
Sharing his experience from his first session of Parliament as Chair of the Rajya Sabha, the vice president noted that an increasing number of Members of Parliament are now speaking in their respective mother tongues.
He also recalled that the copy of the translation of Constitution was recently released in the Santhali language by President Droupadi Murmu, describing it as a significant step towards linguistic inclusion and democratic respect for all speech communities.
Highlighting contemporary challenges, he cautioned that many indigenous languages across the world are endangered.
Language conferences, he said, play a vital role in strengthening research, international academic collaboration and the preservation of ancient scripts and manuscripts, particularly of endangered languages.
He underlined that every Indian language has contributed profoundly to philosophy, medicine, science, governance and spirituality.
Calling for technology to become an ally in language preservation, the vice president advocated the use of digital archives, AI-based translation tools and multi-lingual platforms to ensure that Indian languages thrive in the present and shape the future. PTI NAB NAB AMJ AMJ
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