Linguistic Society of India

The Society was registered in 1954 under Act XXI of 1960 in Calcutta and in 1966 under Bombay Public Trust Act (Act Bom. XXIX of 1950). The office of the Society is at Deccan College Postgraduate & Research Institute, Pune.The  Linguistic Society of India was founded in Lahore at the fifth Oriental Conference.The inaugural meeting of the Linguistic Society of India was held on 1st April 1928 at the residence of Principal A.C. Woolner in Lahore.It was attended by some linguists from Punjab.Dr. Taraporewala, professor of Comparative Philology, Calcutta University presided over the meeting.

The inauguration coincided with the bestowal of the Order of Merit (the highest honour by the British Empire) on Sir George Abraham Grierson, who was instrumental in conducting the first Linguistic Survey of India. The preliminary and formal requirements and constitution of the Society were discussed. Dr. Taraporewala, in his presidential address, stated the aims and objectives of the Society, stressing the importance of the study of Indian languages and furthering the work done by Sir George Grierson. He also mentioned the need for popularizing Linguistics through clearing up the misconceptions related to the subject, so that it would successfully be taken up by University students. The society functioned at Lahore from 1928 to 1938, during which six volumes of Indian Linguistics (IL) were published.

The Society used to conduct its general meetings biannually along with the sessions of the All India Oriental Conference. In 1937 it was decided to shift the office from Lahore to Calcutta, where Professors S.K. Chatterji and Sukumar Sen took the responsibility of its running. Nine issues of Indian Linguistics were published from the Calcutta office. In November 1955 the Indian Philological Association which had been functioning since 1945 at Pune, was merged with the Linguistic Society of India. The effective office and management was transferred to Deccan College, Pune. So far fifty-three volumes of IL have been published from the Pune office. The Society was associated with the Deccan College in conducting the Summer Schools and Winter Seminars which were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Even after the Foundation stopped the funding, the Society co-sponsored the Schools along with various universities and the University Grant Commission (UGC) of India. The Society also co-sponsored with the University of Pune a Conference of Vice-Chancellors and Linguists in 1962. On the request of the Conference, the Society appointed a committee to prepare a blueprint of linguistic development in Indian Universities.

MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (2009-2011)

P. Bhaskararao    President
A. G. Natarajan    Vice-President
Sonal Kulkarni    Joshi Treasurer
K.S.Nagaraja    Secretary
Shailendra Mohan     Joint Secretaries
Sujata Mahajan    Working Members
H.C. Payal    Editor of Publications
Mina Dan
V.N. Jha        Trustees
Rajesh Sachdeva
Prasad Joshi
K.L. Verma
Uday Kumar
Joga Singh
Gautam Sengupta
P. Madhubala
Awadesh K. Mishra
Nazir Dhar
R. Vaidyanathan
R. Saraswat

Source: www.lsi.org.in