POOR LANGUAGE POLICIES A BANE OF SUCCESSIVE GOVERNMENTS
OCTOBER 13, 2022
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Russia, Germany, and Israel using exclusively their own languages blow the myth of a connection between English medium and economic prosperity. Apart from only 4 (who use English), the top 20 richest countries in the world do not use a language for higher education and official business different from the native language of the general population. Regarding language for a medium of instruction, our successive governments at all levels since independence have shown a remarkable lack of clarity and vision adding only to a cultural destruction of the land. Today, on the one hand, we have state governments trying to make English medium compulsory right from primary school; and on the other, we have now central governments trying to make Hindi as a medium of instruction in institutes of higher learning. It is sad that seventy-five years after independence were not enough to apply a good language policy in our diverse country. The ideal would have been to make Sanskrit at the time of independence as a national language. We lost that opportunity and today India stays greatly damaged due to the colonial mindset deeply permeating our intellectuals thanks to the English language. A far thinking policy would be such that it allows any citizen of India to reach the highest levels of education (technical and non-technical) in the vernacular of choice. Without such systems in place, making Hindi as a language in higher institutes is clearly hegemonic and is a gross injustice to the other equally important languages of the country.
A RELEVANT MESSAGE BY THE HONOURABLE PRESIDENT
SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
The President calling for teaching in mother tongues is very relevant for India today. The implementation of English at a higher level has been a bane to the country. Though the country could produce high quality people in arts and sciences, the best they are doing is either to provide services to western countries or parrot simply whatever the west tells about us. It is a severe injustice to all fields today that while the best thoughts come in the vernacular, the expression must forcibly be in English. This has unfortunately alienated the best talent in the country from making useful contributions to either the sciences or the humanities. Before the colonial times, our knowledge production was prodigious in almost every field and in every language. Sanskrit was the mother language having a vibrant interactive connection with all the rich vernacular languages. Many brilliant minds simply collapse when they enter higher education and give way to lesser minds simply because of an improper grip of the English language. Swami Vivekananda said that colonial education made Indians fit to become only clerks in their offices or lawyers and nothing else. The present English based education is an iron cage preventing India from creating original knowledge as was true before colonialism. Instead of allowing a student of India to reach the highest levels of arts and science in the chosen vernacular, we are implementing a policy of introducing English as a medium of instruction right from primary level, a sure way of killing the vernacular and the culture which it expresses. A fact: most advanced countries in the world do not have English as the medium of instruction and the poorest countries in the world are the previously colonized countries who use English instead of the local language. India has done well despite many obstacles but we have the potential to do better. Our history is proof of that.
ENGLISH MEDIUM AND THE DESTRUCTION OF CULTURE
JUNE 4, 2022
The ill-thought introduction of English medium in primary schools would be a great blow to the already tottering Telugu language and culture sadly. A ‘colonial consciousness’ believes English as naturally superior to any vernacular language for higher education and economic prosperity too. Arguing for a vernacular language would be either ‘regressive’ or a false sense of ‘nationalism’. Sankrant Sanu (The English Medium Myth) argues that an English language-based class separation hurts the people by privileging a foreign culture over the native culture; by disconnecting the general population from the intellectual and policy discourses where the thinking is in vernacular language but the expression has to be in the colonial language using a colonial worldview; and by creating a ceiling for progress in academia for those educated in the native languages. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Russia, Germany, and Israel using exclusively their own languages strongly disprove a connection between English medium and economic prosperity.
Thiong’o, a Kenyan writer, calls English a “culture bomb” for other cultures which annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities, and ultimately in themselves. He can as well be speaking for India. Cultural denigration and destruction manifest itself clearly in the attitudes of our intellectual elites, bureaucracy, academics, journalists, and authors writing in English. By trying to make English compulsory at primary level instead of allowing an Indian to reach the highest levels of arts and sciences in any vernacular language of comfort, our state policies are only hastening the demise of the great Indian culture and becoming a continuing colonial project.
ON URDU AND THE DIVISIVE NARRATIVES
APRIL 20, 2022
The article by Asad Mirza in THI dated 20th April 2022 (Urdu: Whose language is it?) is a wonderful reminder of the unfortunate divisive narratives in the country based on religion. The post-colonial Indian thinkers and politicians with their narrow understanding of India and its traditions managed to cause equal havoc, if not more, than the colonial rulers. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Gita, Rama, Krishna, and the thousands of Indian scriptures belong to the Indian heritage of thousands of years. Each citizen of India is an equal heir to traditional India with its rich contributions in the fields of philosophy, science, astronomy, architecture, medicine, arts, literature, engineering, and so on. Somehow, all these became ‘Hindu’ in a twisted narrative of the intellectuals based on the alien concept of secularism. Just as there is an unrequired antipathy to the idea of Urdu by the majority of Hindus, there is an unfortunate antipathy and a disowning of all representing an ancient glorious civilization which survives despite severe attacks over millennia. Ironically, the post-colonial intellectual attack on India seems to be more intense and damaging than the colonial one which was both intellectual and physical.
THE ENGLISH MEDIUM DESTRUCTION OF CULTURE
MARCH 14, 2022
Telangana government taking cue from the neighbouring Andhra plans to introduce English medium in primary schools from the next academic year. Language in post-independent India took a peculiar form under a dominant Marxist ideology permeating our academic and political worlds. In a linear view of history, the Indian past became ‘primitive’ and its future goal became the ‘golden’ West. Sanskrit and the local languages became redundant and the state policies went for an exclusive English based education, especially in institutes of higher learning. Over seven decades, an exclusive reliance on English- a deliberate state policy, has created a clear-cut social hierarchy placing a select few knowing English fluently above those who are not comfortable with English as a mode of expression. An English language-based class separation has become a severe axis of discrimination by privileging a foreign culture over the native culture; by disconnecting the general population from the intellectual and policy discourses where the thinking is in vernacular language but the expression has to be in a colonial language using a colonial worldview; and by creating a ceiling for progress in academia for those educated in the native languages, says Sankrant Sanu in The English Medium Myth.
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Russia, Germany, and Israel using exclusively their own languages blow the myth of a connection between English medium and economic prosperity. By making English compulsory in schools and colleges as a medium of instruction, there is a destruction of culture and a deracination of its citizens. By trying to make English medium compulsory at primary level instead of allowing an Indian to reach the highest levels of arts and sciences in any vernacular language of comfort, our state policies are only hastening the demise of the great Indian culture based on Sanskrit and a huge number of vernacular languages (equally or more advanced than English). A destruction which even our colonials could not achieve.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND STATE MEDIATED CULTURAL DESTRUCTION
JANUARY 20, 2022
Language in post-independent India took a peculiar form under a dominant Marxist-Communist ideology permeating our academic and political worlds. In a linear view of history, the Indian past became ‘primitive’ and its future goal became the ‘golden’ West. Sanskrit and the local languages became redundant and the state policies went for an exclusive English based education, especially in institutes of higher learning whether law, medicine, engineering, humanities, social sciences, or management. It also became a requirement for Civil services. Over seven decades, an exclusive reliance on English- a deliberate state policy, has created a clear-cut social hierarchy placing a select few knowing English fluently above those who are not comfortable with English as a mode of expression. This unique policy has excluded a vast majority of the country from the talent pool to make useful contributions to the country.
This ‘colonial consciousness’ believes English as naturally superior to any vernacular language for higher education and economic prosperity too. Arguing for a vernacular language would be either regressiveness or a false sense of ‘nationalism’. Sankrant Sanu (The English Medium Myth) argues that an English language-based class separation hurts the people by privileging a foreign culture over the native culture; by disconnecting the intellectual and policy discourses from the general population where the thinking is in vernacular language but the expression has to be in the colonial language using a colonial worldview; and by creating a ceiling for progress in academia for those educated in the native languages. This becomes a severe axis of discrimination, says Sankrant.
The examples of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Russia, Germany, and Israel using exclusively their own languages are enough to blow the myth of a connection between English medium and economic prosperity. The top 20 richest countries in the world do not use a language for higher education and official business different from the native mass language of the general population. Again, only 4 of the top 20 richest countries have an English-based system. On the other hand, Sankrant Sanu points out that 19 out of the 20 poorest countries were colonies of exploitation by European powers and today, more than half of these countries do not even recognize the common language as an official language (generally a colonial language). The so-called English advantage to India’s software industry became questionable when Israel’s software exports, with a population less than Delhi, stood at 2.5 billion dollars as against total India’s exports of 6.5 billion dollars in 2001.
Language is important for communication and as a carrier of culture. About its role in facilitating communication, there is no problem. One can learn as many languages as possible. However, by making English compulsory in schools and colleges as a medium of instruction, there is a destruction of culture and a deracination of its citizens. This is all painfully evident in India which started, in fact, with the colonials. We cannot blame the colonials now. The colonials, by introducing English forcefully, created an elite having a distorted view of the Indian past; not only that, they destroyed a thriving indigenous Indian education system. Thiong’o, a Kenyan writer, calls English a “culture bomb” for other cultures which annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities, and ultimately in themselves. He can be speaking for India. Cultural denigration and destruction manifests itself clearly in the attitudes of our intellectual elites, bureaucracy, academics, journalists, and authors writing in English.
In a crucial Parliament debate, Sanskrit lost to English as a medium of instruction by only one deciding vote. A near perfect language carrying all our intellectual, academic, cultural and artistic heritage receded into the background; with newer Indological narratives, Sanskrit has even become ‘exploitative’, ‘patriarchal’, and ‘oppressive’. English learning became premium. The colonial violence simply continued, but in a different time-frame, by altering our intellectual frameworks. The maximum impact of this has been in the social sciences which simply rehashed old colonial theories without providing a better understanding of India causing immense damage to our social fabric. Also, the last political theory which came in India was Kautilya’s Arthashastra as we continue looking at the ill-fitting western ‘Parliamentary liberal democracy’ as the ideal solution for us. By trying to make English medium compulsory at primary level instead of allowing an Indian to reach the highest levels of arts and sciences in any vernacular language of comfort, our state policies are only hastening the demise of the great Indian culture, something which even our colonials could not do.
RANDOM MUSINGS 