ETHNIC LANGUAGE GROUPS OF NORTH EAST REGION OF INDIA: IDENTITY CRISIS AND ITS REASONS

Language is not only the means of communications of one's feeling of the world towards another, it, in the present time, became the medium of expressing ones identity. Losing one's language therefore, does not necessarily amount of communication problems; rather it brings a sense of loss of one's dignity, respect and pride which are very crucial for independent living of a community. Culture of a community is inveterately related with the language they spoke. Various norms and values of a culture of a community is preserved and spread through written or oral form of one's language. So, language is the symbol of one's identity- values, principles and culture that one represent. In the north east region of India, the ethnic communities are facing serious problems in this respect. There are many factors behind this evolving problem among which mention may be made of immigration problems, increasing pace of globalization, the role of dominant language group, the role of existing mechanism as well as the mentality of the speakers. Because of all these reason, some ethnic languages are on the verge of extinction which subsequently leads to losing one's culture independence and subjugation of other strong community which has rich culture heritage and language. However, a positive attitude from all quarters will surely help to solve these problems. In this paper an attempt is made to analyze the various threat factors that the languages of ethnic groups of the north east region are facing as well as to pave a way to find solution.