G. N. Devy (b. 1950) is a scholar, activist and institution builder.  His global reputation rests on the People’s Linguistic Survey of India, a unique people’s cultural movement resulting in the monumental PLSI series of 94 titles, 50 volumes, spread over 35000 printed pages and covering more than 700 living languages. The New Yorker carried his life-story in November 2024 stating: “Devy’s enterprise (is) a democratic one, a way to steel the spines of people who endeavor to resist.” His first full length book in English After Amnesia (1992) was hailed immediately upon its publication as a classic in literary theory. Since its publication he has authored or edited over a 150 books in fields as diverse as Literature, Anthropology, Philosophy, Education, History and Political Theory. While most of his works are published in English, some are written originally in Marathi and Gujarati. Most of them are translated into Hindi, Punjabi, Bangla, Assamiya, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Konkani, Marathi and Malayalam

Born at Bhor in Pune District of Maharashtra, G. N. Devy was educated at Shivaji University, Kolhapur and the University of Leeds, UK. During the 1980s, he was Professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. In 1996, he gave up his academic career in order to initiate work with the Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNT) and Adivasis. During this work, he created the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre at Baroda, the Adivasis Academy at Tejgadh, the DNT-Rights Action Group and several other collectives and initiatives.

Devy has continued to combine his work for the marginalized communities and cultures with his academic persuit. After creating the Adivasi Academy, he worked as Professor of Humanities at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information Technology Gandhinagar (2002-2013),  Honorary Professor at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Development Research, Dharwad( 2015-18), Obaid Siddiqi Chair Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences—TIFR, Bangalore (2022-23) and as Professor of Eminence and Director of the Somaiya School of Civilization, Bombay (2023-2025). He is elected Honorary Fellow of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai.  

In response to the growing intolerance and murders of several intellectuals in India, he launched the Dakshinayan (Southward) movement of artists, writers, and intellectuals. In order to lead this movement, he moved to Dharwad in 2016. The Dakshinayan movement was based on the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. He was National President of the Socialist organization Rashtra Seva Dal from 2019-2022.

His recent works include The Question of Silence, Countering Violence, Crisis in Knowledge and Education, India as a Linguistic Civilization, The Indians: Histories of a Civilization & Language of the Immortals: A Concise History of Sanskrit. G. N. Devy’s long literary and activist career is devoted to interpreting Indian culture and society and defending diversity as the foundation of India’s democracy.