About the Department 

In the post-independence period, various efforts were undertaken by the Indian thinkers as well as intellectuals to enhance the consciousness of integrity among the Indian people. The Sahitya Akademi had published a series of regional literature under the title – Indian Literature. The All India Radio had also broadcasted a programme as Indian Literature under which the literatures created in various regional languages were incorporated. By this time, the universities and the academicians of the country also were involved in this process and tried to establish the concept of Indian literature. Under the leadership of Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the then Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University, the Department of Modern Indian Languages was established for the first time among the Universities of India to build a bridge among the Indian Languages. Afterwards all the leading Universities of India also started the Department of Modern Indian Languages.

The Department of Modern Indian Languages of Gauhati University was established in the year 1967 as a research department to promote this idea. The Department was shaped by Prof Satyendranath Sarma, the Tagore Professor of this department, an outstanding scholar in the field of literature, indology, culture and civilization of Assam. After a decade of existence, the department had horizontally expanded introducing several diploma courses. The M. Phil course in Assamese was also introduced in 1983-84. Later on, the importance of literary studies along with the languages is gradually realized by the scholars of Indian literature, and the department also felt the necessity of expanding its vision towards the literary field.

Keeping in mind the growing importance of the study of Comparative Indian Literature, the department introduced the M. Phil programme on this subject in 2008. Again, to make this mission more effective, the department has taken a bold step to introduce the full-fledged master degree course in Comparative Indian Literature from the year 2015 along with the existing Ph.D research programme and other one year P.G. diploma courses in Assamese, Nepali, Odia, and Tamil. From the year 2020, the department has also been offering PG diploma in Mising and Rabha.