Vol. 3, Issue 8, Part L (2017)

Abstract
India has a rich and varied heritage of languages as it has had rulers belonging to different religions, rule the land for long periods of time. The Medieval period introduced Persian while the Mughal period saw the evolution of Urdu. The coming of the Europeans further enriched the land. But in order to do business and communicate with the people and propagate their religion, every foreigner learnt the Indian language, be it Bengali, Marathi, Odiya, Hindi etc. The same is true for the English who ruled from 1858 to 1947 AD. However, it was the Christian missionaries who did pioneering work in the literary field. They wrote prose, poetry and grammar in the local dialects to educate the illiterate masses and tribal.