Veena Muthuraman

Writing the biography of a living entity, human or otherwise, comes with a certain risk. When the entity in question is a language that effortlessly stakes its claim to both antiquity and continuity, and one rather close to the epicentre of language wars in the sub-continent, emotions can run high. The biographer of such an entity needs to perform a delicate balancing act between doing justice to its history and culture and not giving in to the shrill agendas and counter-agendas of modern day polity.