The First Language(s) of India

Before we talk further about foreign languages in India, it appears theoretically significant that we should identify the natives and their languages here. Who were its original inhabitants? Who was the one that received the others, or was driven away by the others; who came first and was followed by the others? These and many other questions of a similar nature arise. However, no unanimity exists in their answers. We do not know who India's ‘first’ or ‘original’ inhabitants were. The invading Aryans allegedly displaced the Dravidians who until then had occupied all of inhabitable India, from the central parts of Afghanistan to the hills of Jharkhand- Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Arunachal, etc. Dravidians, in phases, went from these hills further down south. The tribal groups continued in the jungles and hills of Eastern and Central India. Some of these tribes followed the Dravidians and migrated to the south. But rather than compete with the Dravidians in the river valleys of India, south of the Godavari, these tribes once again took shelter in the jungles and hills of the Western and Eastern Ghats upon the Southern Deccan Plateau. The languages spoken by the tribes in these hills are known as ‘tribal’ languages, though the so called ‘tribal’ languages do not belong to one language family. Many people believe that these ‘tribals’ are the ‘original’ inhabitants of India.