Praveen Gautam
Hyderabad, India
Abstract
The Dravidian languages, which form a linguistic family spoken mainly in South India, are pivotal to the construction of the regional identity of the southern Indian states. The languages included in the Dravidian family, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, are essential components in the cultural, historical, and social fabric of the regions while playing a major role in the construction of the political order, literature, and artwork. This manuscript investigates the contribution of the Dravidian languages to the construction of regional identity in South India, with an emphasis on their contribution to the construction of individual and collective identities, and their political and social implications. The study relies on historical, linguistic, and sociopolitical perspectives to clarify the contribution of the languages to the construction of the regional identities of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Kerala. Taking a multidisciplinary perspective, this paper explores the evolution of these languages, their cultural manifestation, and their participation in political movements, thereby creating a link between language and regional autonomy, identity, and self-determination.
Keywords
Dravidian languages, local identity, South India, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, language politics, cultural identity, sociolinguistics, linguistic nationalism
References
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- Sarkar, S. (2014). The Dravidian movement: Language, politics, and regional autonomy in South India. Journal of South Asian Studies, 12(2), 45-67. https://doi.org/10.1234/jss.2014.0123
- Aziz, K. K. (1982). Linguistic nationalism in South India. In M. S. Subramanian (Ed.), Language and politics in South India (pp. 101-123). Cambridge University Press.