Development of languages may be natural or planned. Development is planned to quicken the phase and to guide the direction. The planning is generally visualised at the governmental level. But there is also another force which influences the development of language; it is individuals and groups who can generate a momentum around a linguistic cause among the users of the language. This momentum takes the shape of a movement with varying degrees of cohension and sustenance. The movements bring about change by forcing the government to pursue a particular policy or by winning the people to a particular point of view. The papers collected in this book describe such movements in Indian languages.

There are various aspects of language about which the people bare concerned. It may be about the choice of a language or a dialect for wider use, about preservation of purity, about the choice of a script or reform of script or spelling, about maintenance, about political and territorial unification etc. The papers describe these concerns in relation to one or two Indian languages. Similar concerns may be found in other languages also and these papers provide a point of reference for comparison.

Though all have been called movments, some are more organised than others. But they are not tightly organised to the extend of being the programmes of a political party nor is so unstructured to be called mob action. They also differ in the degree to which the language is involved in the issue. The choice of a standard dialect, for example,

is more a linguistic matter than the demand for a linguistic state. But even in the latter, language is the rallying point. This paper, appropriately, is by a political scientist, while others are by linguists.

There is one recurring point in all the papers. The languge movemnts are expressions of changing socio-economic and cultured conditions. They are manifested through the issues of language, since language is a very transparent cultural symbol. Another point is that these movemnts originate with elites. This raises an important question about the social nature of language problems. Sociolinguits must concern themselves with such questions.

The movements described in the papers belong to this century, but some of these had their origin in the last century itself. These two centuries brought about significant socio-economic and cultural changes in the country and hence many language movements.

The papers were originally presented in a Seminar on Language Movemnets of this Century in India organized by the Institute on the 31st December 1976 and the 1st January 1977. Besides the ten written papers included in the book, Prof. Ashok R. Kelkar gave an oral presentation on Movement for Script and Spelling Reform: Marathi. Dr.K.l.Gandhi's paper was made the Seminar rewarding by their papers, presence and participation and to Dr. D.P.Pattanayak who made the possible. I express my thanks to the staff of the Institute, who made the New year eve not only academically stimulating but also socially congenial.

E. ANNAMALAI