BENGALURU: State Policy and Planning Commission member S Mohanadass Hegde has put forward a proposal to the government and the higher education department to introduce discipline-specific elective papers on linguistic anthropology for postgraduate students pursuing master’s programmes in the subject and related humanities and social science disciplines.

Hegde said introducing linguistic anthropology would be relevant particularly for Karnataka, which is home to diverse linguistic communities, including tribals. “The course could encourage research on language preservation, cultural heritage and social change,” he said.The proposal aims to strengthen interdisciplinary education and promote research on the relationship among language, culture and society.

Hegde said, “The initiative draws inspiration from recent academic developments at the University of Delhi, where the department of anthropology is planning to introduce a similar elective under its postgraduate curriculum framework. Following a comparable model, universities in Karnataka could introduce a four-credit elective paper on linguistic anthropology for second-year master’s students.”

He added, “Anthropology consists of four major branches – cultural anthropology, biological or physical anthropology, archaeological anthropology and linguistic anthropology. However, linguistic anthropology has historically received limited attention in many university curricula in India. Introducing this subject would help address this gap while strengthening the understanding of language as a key component of culture and social organisation.”

Professor Dominic Davidappa, who is attached to the Kannada department at Bangalore University’s Jnanabharti campus, said, “Introducing linguistics anthropology will be a good move. Irrespective of the choice of subject among students, they must know and understand the science behind languages. An intense research is going on in Gulbarga University about the language of the Koraga community. Linguistic Anthropology will encourage such research work in the universities.”

Professor Dattareya M of the English department in Kuvempu University said, “It will be a good move to introduce this department, as it is an interdisciplinary subject. However, there must be competent professors to teach the subject. There is a crisis in the higher education sector as there has not been any recruitment for years.”

This story is reported by Rashmi Patil of The New Indian Express.