PTI
 
Panaji, Nov 21: After almost a century, India is all set to conduct a linguistic survey with the Ministry of Human Resource Development expected to devote Rs 600 crore for the project.

The Government will commence the fresh survey from April next year, which would continue for almost ten years, Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh of Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, which has been entrusted with the task, said.

The last survey was undertaken between 1898 and 1927 by a team headed by the then British Administrative Officer, George Abraham Griers.

However, for administrative reasons, as the colonisers claimed that time, the survey excluded Presidency of Madras, Hyderabad and the State of Mysore - which formed major part of south India.

"In a way, the survey was incomplete...it was not comprehensive and done with untrained people," said Singh.

"What is ironical is that all the census decennial reports, which were done post-independence, were based on Grierson's survey, which with the passage of time, need to be updated," he said.

"That time it was a different India and also it was an incomplete survey. That time the survey methodology was not in place and had to rely on district magistrates and school teachers for data," Singh said adding, "many things in this survey was a guess work."