Pictures PIB/BS News Agency.
Sanchita Chatterjee,BS News Agency, Kolkata, December 9, 2025: A two- day symposium on Bharatiya Bhasha Pariwar was inaugurated at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata today. The symposium was organised by Linguistic Research Unit, ISI, under the aegis of Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti, Ministry of Education, Government of India. It sought to bring linguists, educators, researchers and policy experts together to deliberate upon two scholarly volumes, Bharatiya Bhasha Pariwar: A New Framework in Linguistics and Collected Studies on Bharatiya Bhasha Pariwar: Perspectives and Horizons. These works propose a paradigm shift in the study of Indian languages by moving beyond colonial linguistic classifications and highlighting commonalities that lead to uniformity in the country's linguistic and cultural areas.
The inauguration was chaired by Prof. Biswabrata Pradhan, Dean of Studies at ISI, Kolkata. In his keynote address, he dwelled on the symposium's theme of linguistic unity in diversity. He highlighted the relevance of such endeavours in a country as linguistically diverse as ours. Director of ISI Dr Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay explained how the symposium seeks to vreate an extensive glossary of indigenous terms for science education in vernacular languages. This would lead to democratisation of higher education while respecting out rich language heritage. She mentioned how the ISI logo reflects the same value system- Exclusive in quality, yet inclusive in what is studied. The other eminent speakers on the panel, like Prof Shailendra K. Singh of NEHU, Shillong; Prof S. Arunmozi of the University of Hyderabad; and renowned biotechnologist Prof Varaprasad Kollar, all pointed to 'Bouddhik Swaraj', or decolonised thinking in their addresses. Everyone present agreed that India's cultural fluidity prevents the rise of hierarchies among her various languages.
Established in 1931 by renowned scientist Dr P C Mahalanobis, the Indian Statistical Institute serves as the nation's foremost research organisation in mathematics, statistics, theoretical computer science, information science and statistical economics. It also provides training to probatiounary officers of the Indian
Statistical Service in collaboration with the Central Statistics Office.