CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF DR. SHYAMA PRASAD MOOKHERJEE IN THE SOCIAL LIFE OF WEST BENGAL: A CRITICAL REVIEW

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Abstract Bengali is, by every conventional demolinguistic measure, one of the world’s major languages, ranked among the top ten to fifteen most-spoken languages globally with an estimated 230–300 million speakers across Bangladesh, India, and a substantial diaspora. On this basis, standard sociolinguistic typologies classify it as ‘safe.’ Yet a purely numerical reading of vitality obscures a more complex reality: several closely related varieties within the greater Bengali-Assamese dialect continuum are formally classified as vulnerable or endangered by UNESCO; standard Bengali itself is experiencing measurable domain loss in higher education, judiciary, science, and digital infrastructure; heritage transmission is visibly weakening across second- and third-generation diaspora communities; and the language remains classified as “low-resource” in natural language processing despite its speaker base. This paper argues for a domain-specific, multidimensional model of endangerment—drawing on Fishman’s Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale and UNESCO’s nine vitality factors—that can hold Bengali's demographic robustness and its structural vulnerabilities in the same analytical frame. Using the 1952 Bengali Language Movement as a historical counter-case of successful reversal of language shift, the paper concludes with policy recommendations for language planning in education, digital infrastructure, and diaspora heritage programmes.

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Conclusion Bengali stands as an instructive case for the theory of language endangerment precisely because it does not fit comfortably within either the “safe” or “endangered” category as conventionally applied. Its scale, constitutional status, and unbroken literary continuity place it among the world’s most secure languages; yet dialectal varieties within its own linguistic family are formally endangered, its standard form is losing ground in specific high-prestige and technological domains, and its diaspora communities face the same intergenerational attrition risks documented across heritage-language contexts worldwide. A multidimensional, domain-specific model of endangerment — rather than a single categorical label — offers both a more accurate description of Bengali's present condition and a more actionable basis for language planning. The 1952 Language Movement remains a powerful historical reminder that such vulnerabilities, however serious, are not fixed: where domain loss has been successfully reversed before through documented collective and institutional action, comparable interventions in education, digital infrastructure, and diaspora transmission remain both plausible and, on the evidence presented here, urgently warranted.

Institutions

• Bangabasi Morning College

  West Bengal, Kolkata

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