The Peoples’ Linguistic Survey of India is a right based movement for carrying out a nation-wide survey of Indian languages especially the languages of fragile communities such as nomadic, coastal, island, hill and forest communities.

There are around 80 volumes in the series of People’s Linguistic Survey of India being published by us. This book is Part 1 of Volume 38, Bhartiya Saanketik Bhasha  [Indian Sign Language[s][Hindi] of The People's Linguistic Survey of India Series (PLSI) undertaken and executed by Bhasha Research and Publication Center, Baroda.

This thirty-eighth volume of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India is devoted to the Indian Sign Language (ISL), the language of the Deaf in India. The articles in the volume are divided into four parts. The first discusses both its formal linguistic and ‘orthographic’ features; the second presents the sociolinguistic themes of the ISL such as bilingualism and language variety as well as language planning and policy issues. Part three presents various synchronic aspects of the ISL. The final part comprises articles on themes interfacing Sign Languages and other knowledge systems. This very first collection of articles on the ISL, is a critically important contribution to the discipline.

Unique features:

1. Competition: There is as yet no comprehensive work done on languages apart from the Grierson’s survey which was done way back some 100 years ago during the British regime in India.
2. India-focused unique feature: The volume on Indian Sign Language is one of its kind. This sets the book apart from the earlier survey done by foreign authors.
3. Style: Written in simple language, accessible to all readers and research scholars.

Professor  Ganesh  Devy taught English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda; a renowned literary critic and activist; founder and director of the Tribal Academy at Tejgadh, Gujarat; and director of the Sahitya Akademi’s Project on Literature in Tribal Languages and Oral Folk Traditions. He received Sahitya Akademi award for his book After Amnesia in 1994. He is an active participant in the functioning of Bhasha Academy. He was awarded the Padmashri in 2014. He is the moving spirit behind PLSI series.

Tanmay Bhattacharya, is an associate professor of Linguistics at the Centre for Advanced Studies in linguistics, university of Delhi. His research interests include syntax, psycholinguistics, gender, disability, deaf education and sign languages.

Nisha Grover, has been involved with the education of deaf children since 1974 for which the Akshar Trust was started twenty five years ago.

Surinder P.K. Randhawa, is a senior consultant on deaf languages (Independent).