Calling language as the lifeline of any culture, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that its preservation and development cannot be the task of government alone and added that it has to take the form of a people's movement.
"We must make every effort to preserve, promote and propagate languages. When a language dies, there will be a loss of cultural identity, traditions and customs associated with that language," he said.
The Vice President was addressing a gathering after presenting the 28th Saraswati Samman to Dr K Siva Reddy.
Stating that promotion of Indian languages was a cause that was close to his heart, he advocated the need for people to speak in their mother tongues and urged schools to make mother tongue compulsory in primary education.
"People should speak in their mother tongue at all times except where it becomes necessary to communicate in another language. Promotion of mother tongue should begin at the primary school level," he said.
He also emphasised that the respective local languages should be used extensively by state administrations across the country for improving efficiency and delivery of services."The best way to preserve or promote any language is to use it extensively in everyday life," he said.
Suggesting to harness the power of technology to preserve and promote languages and culture, he called for the creation of more and more online dictionaries, encyclopedias, glossaries, research articles and searchable databases in all Indian languages.
"Old manuscripts should be electronically stored for easy retrieval," he said.
He also said that there is an urgent need to develop adequate material in dialects and folk literature of all states and added that language learning is a catalyst for inclusive development as well.
( With inputs from ANI )