Saving language, culture is key, says UoH Professor

Hyderabad: “Preserving languages and cultures can be as vital as preserving heritage sites. Languages hold the stories of people, their lives, and their legacies,” said Dr N. Ramesh, who will play a key role in a collaboration between the University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Ghent University, Belgium, to document, explore, and preserve the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Nilgiri region of South India through the Nilgiri Archaeological Project.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the UoH and Ghent University’s department of languages and cultures, led by Prof. Danilea De Simone, principal investigator.

Under this project, special attention will be given to the Toda, Badaga, and Kota languages, focusing on their cultural practices and social identities as reflected through language use. The initiative will involve community-based interviews, observations, and documentation to capture linguistic nuances in cultural contexts, aiming to compare these practices with broader cultural trends and identify universal as well as culture-specific linguistic features.

Dr Ramesh, an associate professor at the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, School of Humanities at UoH, is serving as a research partner. With his deep roots in the indigenous Badaga community of the Nilgiris, Dr Ramesh is expected to bring a wealth of expertise in tribal linguistics, language endangerment, and language documentation. “Growing up in the Nilgiris, I witnessed how languages could become carriers of cultural pride but also how they teeter on the brink of extinction,” he said.