Dhaka, Aug. 24 -- Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has expressed concern about what he described as rising linguistic intolerance in India, particularly targeting Bengali speakers.

Speaking at a public discussion on Friday, the 91-year-old scholar referred to media reports suggesting that some Bengali speakers in West Bengal were being sent across the border to Bangladesh due to suspicions about their origins.

"I read in the newspaper that someone was sent to Bangladesh simply for speaking Bengali. It worried me," Sen told The Telegraph India, according to bdnews24.com.

With characteristic humour, Sen added that he had briefly considered switching languages. "I thought about speaking French, but the only problem is I do not kn...