First History Lessons: The Languages of Our Country

In India, language remains one of the most powerful symbols for the imagination of ‘national’ belonging. The history of the making of a multilingual nation reveals how some languages invariably become more powerful than the others. Also, if we dig deep into the history of one language, we can discern that one dialect becomes standardised as the mainstream, others end up being marginalised. The book raises these questions and tries to lucidly unpack the history of the politics of language in India for young readers.
The book was originally written in Bengali by Debarati Bagchi and translated into English by Arunava Sinha. Anwesha Sengupta and Debarati Bagchi served as editors of the book, which features illustrations by Ranjit Chitrakar and Sirajudaulla Chitrakar. Wasim Helal was responsible for the book's planning, map, and cover. This publication is sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung with grants from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany. This publication or its parts can be used by others for free as long as they provide a proper reference to the original publication. The content of the publication is solely the responsibility of the partner and does not necessarily reflect the position of RLS.