Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 289

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M. A. MEHENDALE
and the Rockefeller Foundation on the other a series of three post-graduate Schools of Linguistics was organised in 1954-55. I need not go into the details of the working of these Schools; their success can be seen from the great interest they evoked at each session. Perhaps for the first time in the recent history of University education in India it was possible for the students from all over India to come together and receive instruction from a Faculty constituted by drawing personnel from the Indian as well as foreign Universities. With the growing importance attached to the structural studies of our languages in a free India, the need for imparting scientific instruction in linguistics has been felt, and the holding of short-term schools has partly sought to satisfy this need. The attempt is limited, but it definitely shows steady awakening. However, what is really necessary is the starting of a full-time course in linguistics at all important Universities. This has been often suggested, but for one reason or the other not executed. It is significant, therefore, that our host University here has established a Silver Jubilee Chair in Dravidian Philology from non-recurring grant received from the Union Government, as a beginning in this direction. Let us hope that with the growing country-wide interest evinced in the subject and the proposed establishment of the Linguistic Survey of India by the Central Government, the other Universities will take adequate steps to play their part at an early date. The great task of taking up the descriptive studies of various dialects is ahead of us and this will require a band of field-workers well. grounded in the tool courses of linguistics.
The second point to which I would like to refer is with regard to the strengthening of the Linguistic Society of India. I have great pleasure in announcing that the membership of the Society has recently increased from less than fifty to about three hundred. As regards the publication of the official Bulletin of the Society in future it is proposed to bring out the Volumes of Indian Linguistics regularly twice a year towards ultimately converting it into a quartery. Since last year an attempt is being made to hold the meetings of the Linguistic Society annually. In this regard I would request the Universities and Research Institutes to give recognition to this body for the purposes of sending delegates to its meetings and for strengthening its effective membership. Then again it is proposed that at different places where there are ten or more local members, they might form a regional or local circle and hold meetings at least once in two months for reading papers, discussing problems, or even undertaking some organised effort in dialect studies. The reports of these activities of the circles can be published in the Volumes of Indian Linguistics, and even some small monographs can be separately brought out. All such activities will not only help in keeping up the interest of
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