Please don't mind the self promotion, however, I'd like to share my latest publication.

‘Sanskrit-Speaking’ Villages, Faith-Based Development and the Indian Census


On Thu, May 19, 2022 at 7:16 PM Robert Zydenbos <Zydenbos@lmu.de> wrote:
patrick mccartney via INDOLOGY wrote on 13.05.22 15:59:

[…]

Ultimately, it seems better to not think of the Sanskrit tokens as relating 1:1 with "Sanskrit speakers", but, rather, with "people who identify as speakers of Sanskrit".

I know of at least one illustration of this: a highly learned brahmin gentleman (double PhD in widely different subjects and a high-ranking public official in again an entirely different field) and Kannada poet whom I knew in Mysore was said to have told the census reporters that his family was Sanskrit-speaking. I then asked him about this, and he confirmed the rumour. "But why? That's just not true. I know you speak Tamil at home," I asked. He replied: "Of course we speak Tamil, and Kannada, and English too. But also Sanskrit, and I want Sanskrit to be included in the census reports." (His active mastery of Sanskrit was indeed impressive.)

RZ


--
Prof. Dr. Robert J. Zydenbos / ಪ್ರೊ. ಡಾ. ರೊಬೆರ್ತ್ ಜೆಯ್ದೆನ್ಬೊಸ್
Institute of Indology and Tibetology
Department of Asian Studies
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (University of Munich – LMU)
Germany