Observations on language spread in multi-lingual societies: Lessons learnt from a study of Ancient and Modern India

The objective of this paper is to formalize and document observations on language spread in multilingual or polyglot societies as understood from a study of spoken and written language in various phases in Indian history starting from the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient India, the mature phase of which began in 2600 BC, to modern Post-independent India, and formalize them into principles wherever possible,so that these can be used as a basis to make further observations and draw further inferences from studies both in India and elsewhere, the ultimate goal being to prepare a dictionary of the universal principles of language spread in multi-lingual or polyglot societies, and the general principles of language spread for ready use anywhere in the world. Such an exercise can be carried out by collating the basic observations and principles as understood from this paper with observations culled from similar studies that have already been carried or may be carried out both in India and elsewhere in the world. Such a compendium would be a valuable heuristic tool for analysis and can be an indispensable tool for use by politicians, educationalists and others across the world for decisionmaking and policy-formulation, and as a part of the emerging discipline of Applied Linguistics. It will also be useful to the common man to help him understand the various seemingly mysterious forces that greatly impact his daily life. We also introduce several new concepts in this paper, such as the Theory of Win-Win Propositions, the Doctrine of Insubordination, the Theory of Linguistic Osmosis, Context and Role-based suitability, Context and Role-based indispensability, Yoyo model of cultural diffusion, Dynamic stability of multi-lingual countries etc. Thus, this paper delineates much of the theoretical framework that can be used for a formal study of the spread of languages in any multilingual society