Editing Language revitalization (section)

==== Sanskrit ====
{{Further|Sanskrit revival}}
There have been recent attempts at reviving [[Sanskrit]] in India.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/10000-plus-growth-in-sanskrit-speakers/cid/1351306 |title=10000-plus growth in Sanskrit speakers |website=www.telegraphindia.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pratidintime.com/latest-census-figure-reveals-increase-in-sanskrit-speakers-in-india/ |title=Latest census figure reveals increase in Sanskrit speakers in India |date=July 15, 2018}}</ref><ref name="BBC-2014-Mattur">{{Cite news |date=22 December 2014 |title=Indian village where people speak in Sanskrit|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30446917|access-date=30 September 2020}}</ref> However, despite these attempts, there are no first language speakers of Sanskrit in India.<ref name=sreevastan-thehindu-sanskrit/><ref name="Ruppel2017">{{cite book|last=Ruppel|first=A. M.|title=The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eXQ3DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|year=2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-08828-3|page=2|quote=The study of any ancient (or dead) language is faced with one main challenge: ancient languages have no native speakers who could provide us with examples of simple everyday speech}}</ref><ref name="KachruKachru2008-1">{{cite book|last=Annamalai|first=E. |editor=Braj B. Kachru |editor2=Yamuna Kachru |editor3=S. N. Sridhar |title=Language in South Asia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2n4sFGDEMYC&pg=PA223 |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-46550-2 |pages=223– |chapter=Contexts of multilingualism |quote=Some of the migrated languages ... such as Sanskrit and English, remained primarily as a second language, even though their native speakers were lost. Some native languages like the language of the Indus valley were lost with their speakers, while some linguistic communities shifted their language to one or other of the migrants’ languages.}}</ref> In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens{{efn|6,106 Indians in 1981, 49,736 in 1991, 14,135 in 2001, and 24,821 in 2011, have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue.<ref name=sreevastan-thehindu-sanskrit/>}} have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue. However, these reports are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language, rather than being genuinely indicative of the presence of thousands of L1 Sanskrit speakers in India. There has also been a rise of so-called "Sanskrit villages",<ref name="BBC-2014-Mattur"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cteindia.org/five-indian-villages-where-sanskrit-is-spoken/|title=Five Indian villages where sanskrit is spoken|date=4 August 2024 }}</ref> but experts have cast doubt on the extent to which Sanskrit is really spoken in such villages.<ref name=sreevastan-thehindu-sanskrit>{{cite news |title=Where are the Sanskrit speakers? |last=Sreevastan |first=Ajai |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/where-are-the-sanskrit-speakers/article6299433.ece |date=10 August 2014 |location =Chennai |access-date=11 October 2020 |quote=Sanskrit is also the only scheduled language that shows wide fluctuations — rising from 6,106&nbsp;speakers in 1981 to 49,736 in 1991 and then falling dramatically to 14,135&nbsp;speakers in 2001. “This fluctuation is not necessarily an error of the Census method. People often switch language loyalties depending on the immediate political climate,” says Prof. Ganesh Devy of the People's Linguistic Survey of India. ... Because some people “fictitiously” indicate Sanskrit as their mother tongue owing to its high prestige and Constitutional mandate, the Census captures the persisting memory of an ancient language that is no longer anyone's real mother tongue, says B. Mallikarjun of the Center for Classical Language. Hence, the numbers fluctuate in each Census. ... “Sanskrit has influence without presence,” says Devy. “We all feel in some corner of the country, Sanskrit is spoken.” But even in Karnataka's Mattur, which is often referred to as India's Sanskrit village, hardly a handful indicated Sanskrit as their mother tongue.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://detechter.com/seven-sanskrit-speaking-villages-in-india/ |title=Seven Indian villages where people speak in Sanskrit |date=September 24, 2017 |website=Detechter}}</ref>