Sankrant Sanu
The Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha of Rasthriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Nagpur passed a resolution on promotion and preservation of Indian languages and dialects. The resolution begins with the view that “language is an important constituent of identity and active vehicle of the culture of any individual and society.” There are some significant steps in this resolution. Its emphasis on all Indian languages, and not just Hindi, is a step in right direction. But, in my opinion, the resolution omits a crucial understanding—the link of using our own languages for economic progress and development. Without this understanding we will constantly be fighting a losing battle—one which positions identity and culture in opposition to technology and development. This sterile debate has been used to position those who are advocating the use of Indian languages and mother tongue as being anti-progress, the latter being identified with English use. We need to take this issue head-on.
Why is there a mad rush for English-medium schooling in India today? The reason is clear. English has been linked to getting a good job, the science and technology and development. English is projected in the society as a language of higher status, which people aspire too. Unless we tackle this issue of status, Indian languages will always be fighting a losing battle. In popular perception, English will continue to acquire status, while our own languages will lag behind.
Firstly, it is important to understand that all scientific researches favour mother tongue education for optimal learning. The UNESCO’s guidelines have been recommending this for decades. Learning in the mother tongue best enhances the cognitive abilities of the child. We don’t have to go far. Even a recent study in India by researchers from the Indian School of Business reached a similar conclusion. It found that children who studied in Telugu-medium in the Andhra Pradesh region showed better understanding of Maths and Science than those who were studying in English-medium in the same region. Maths is a good indicator of cognitive development. Thus children studying in their mother tongue are developing better brains. English-medium is crippling minds. Why then this mad rush for English?
The status of English in India is not due to any “global imperative.” Japan that has a much higher GDP per capita than that of India, is
technically advanced and globally integrated. Yet, it is one of the poorest in English. Even if a Japanese learns English, it does not give them “high status” in their society. In fact, not only Japan, but every developed country also uses its own language; and mother-tongue education is the basis of high development indicators the world over. In my travels to over 35, mostly developed, countries, I found that they all were using their own language for the government, for courts, for higher-education, for engineering and medicine, even for local jobs in multi-national companies. The languages of the common people are the basis for their development. English is not at all the basis for development. Mother tongue is surely.
Why then this assumption in India that English is necessary for progress? What for the mad rush, the “status” symbol? The status of English in India comes directly from the policies of the Indian government. Israel that runs its top engineering colleges in Hebrew-medium, is far more technically advanced. But the Indian government funds only English for engineering. It is the Government of India, which runs the IITs, the IIMs, AIIMS, etc as English-only institutions. It enforces an English-only Supreme Court and most High Courts. It makes English mandatory for most Higher-education and competitive exams. The government has made English a barrier to progress. This naturally fuels great demand for English. The government then uses this demand to push for even more English.
The result of this policy of English apartheid pushed by the government is that a huge amount of effort of students is spent simply in learning English. I was recently at IIT Kanpur, speaking to a final year B.Tech student in Computer Science. I asked him what his focus was in his final year. Rather than telling about the technical problems he is working on, he told me his focus is to improve his spoken English for upcoming job interviews. While we are ruining minds, the Chinese are zooming ahead in Artificial Intelligence, with all their higher and technical education in Chinese.
Yes language carries culture and our rich languages are part of our identity. But our languages are also the basis for our progress now and in the future. We cannot harness the genius of our people and our civilisation by forcing everyone to work and learn in a language foreign to them, as English still is to a vast majority of the people of India. The solution also is not to “convert” everyone to English medium—this can only destroy both our culture and talent.
Rather, we need to invest in developing our languages for higher, technical and scientific education. The time to do this is now. The policy must be to remove barriers, to let our talent develop. I’m not proposing removing English, but merely the compulsion of English. To study and work in one’s own language must be an option at every level, whether it is to become a doctor or a judge in the Supreme Court. For this, the Government would need to take proactive steps and the Sangh should educate people for the necessity of those steps for both the culture and the economy.
India can never become a super power on the basis of English. It will remain second rate in all fields constantly looking outside for validation and for downloading the latest “progress.” Technical and scientific innovations will be unleashed only when Science and Technology comes to us in our own idioms, in our own languages. This has been true for every other country on the planet. For this, we must stop talking of Indian languages simply as culturally good, rather, they should be considered as the soil in which the tree of technology and development would best flourish.
(The writer is an IITian and former Microsoft Executive. He has recently started Garuda Prakashan to bring technical books in Indian languages)
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