In the upcoming issue of Outlook, we are talking about what we want freedom from and what we need freedom from in this country even after so many years of independence. Rakhi Bose of Outlook writes “Linguistic and cultural heterogeneity was at the heart of the freedom movement and formed the basis for the creation of states in India. As many as 1,652 “mother tongues” were recorded in 1961. Just a decade later, however, in the aftermath of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the census that year recorded just 109 languages after the government decided to only accept languages with 10,000 or more speakers. While UNESCO lists 197 Indian languages as endangered today, Dharwad-based linguist G N Devy, who undertook the laborious task of surveying over 780 languages for the People’s Linguistic Survey of India, notes that as many as 600 of the “mother tongues” mentioned in Census 2011 are “dying” or in various stages of endangerment.”