This 1874 work by the author, a British government official whose Scheme for the Government of India is also reissued in this series, presents a survey of the diverse languages of India, using material obtained usually by British army officers trained by him to collect 'specimens' in the course of their normal work. The tabular material is presented with the English words or phrases in one column and their equivalent in the Indian language under discussion in another most of the languages are represented by more than one dialect, such as the 'Punjabee of Lahore' and the 'Punjabee of Mooltan'. In his introduction to the work, Campbell emphasises that the survey is not scientific, and his main conclusion is that in addition to the broad division of Aryan and Dravidian language types, India contains a huge number of 'aboriginal' languages which will require further study. It is very clear that most of the aboriginal tribes of the Central Provinces and several of those of Western Bengal (including in these latter the Dangars, Oraons of Chota Nagpore, Paharies of Rajmehal, and Khonds of Orissa) are radically allied to the Dravidians. Intermixed with these tribes, but speaking a language quite without affinity to the Dravidian tongues, are the tribes which he calls Kolarian, forming a minority among the aborigines of the Central Provinces, but a great majority among those of Western Bengal. In the border plains of Eastern Bengal, Assam, and Cachar, and the lower hills bounding these countries, we come on a group of tongues evidently very nearly allied to one another, and which show that a large number of tribes, extending, under very different conditions, over a wide extent of country, and known by different names, are in fact closely cognate. This fact is the more important, because a large part of the population of Eastern Bengal is universally recognised to be cognate to the tribes speaking these languages.
Sir George Campbell, KCSI (1824 – 1892) was a Scottish Liberal Party politician and Indian administrator. Campbell was born in 1824, the eldest son of Sir George Campbell, of Edenwood, whose brother became the 1st Baron Campbell. He was educated at Hamilton Academy and embarked for India. From 1871 to 1874 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. During his tenure the Pabna Disturbances occurred. With his proclamation on 4th July 1873 during the Pabna Peasant Uprisings, guaranteeing government support of peasants against excessive zamindar demands he ensured that the protest remained peaceful, at the same time antagonising the landlords and his namesake George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll at that time Secretary of State for India. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkcaldy Burghs from 1875 to 1892. He is respected by the Assamese people for his respect for distinct identity of Assamese language.
