Mind your language

Our approach to language and education should be pragmatic, not sentimental

Alok Tiwari

Even as world gets embroiled in increasingly worse wars, we are fighting our own language battles. Language has been an issue in the country’s politics since shortly after independence. Reorganizing the states on linguistic lines may have helped in administrative convenience and social cohesion but it also gave rise to linguistic chauvinism. The states became protective of their linguistic heritage. It was not just the states. India too felt like forging a linguistic identity. This was always going to be problematic in a place that boasts of hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects. Promotion of Hindi by central government felt like an imposition to non-Hindi speaking states, particularly those in the South.

Over time, though the linguistic fires cooled as more pressing issues came up. We became more concerned with everyday bread and butter things like agricultural and rural development, economy, employment, computerization, etc. That has changed in the last decade. Thanks to the spectacular success achieved by Bharatiya Janata Party using emotive issues like religion and nationalism in politics, opposition parties are now raking up language to incite emotions.

DMK in Tamil Nadu, always in the forefront of battle against Hindi imposition, is again leading the way. It has refused to implement the three-language formula under National Education Policy preferring to use only Tamil and English in education. This has led the Centre to hold back education funds. Opposition in Maharashtra is singing the same tune. Linguistic battles are breaking out in Karnataka as a reaction to cosmopolitan onslaught brought on by Bengaluru’s emergence as India’s Silicon Valley.

It reached ludicrous new depths when release of a Kamal Haasan movie was stopped owing to actor’s remarks over Tamil being older than Kannada. Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently added more fuel to the fire when he said there will soon be a time when those who use English will be ashamed of themselves.

Now, much of it is politics. DMK does not care about Tamil any more than BJP does about Ram or Hindus or, for that matter, Hindi. For them, these issues are nothing more than means to acquire or stay in power. But it works because language is an emotive issue. It need not be. At the very basic level, it is just a means to communicate. Languages, however, grow to be much more than that. They become repositories of knowledge and culture. They are vehicle of ideas, stories, and literature without which we all will be poorer. They also give a sense of identity to their users. Hence, they evoke love and pride too.

Yet, it is also true that throughout history of mankind languages have risen and perished by the thousands. This is true as much about marginal dialects as about classical languages having a rich tradition of wisdom and literature. It would be fantastic if all the languages and all the literature ever written in them were to go on for ever. Sadly, it does not work that way. Larger forces of history like wars, migration, economic needs, and communication technology make sure that some languages will flourish and some will diminish. It is inevitable. In the age of globalization and an inter-connected world, it does seem overwhelming. But it has worked both ways. The very things that at one time seemed like obliterating all local languages and culture are now helping preserve them. So much literature, music, ancient texts in regional languages are now preserved and accessible to all through the internet.

The wise thing to do is not get worked up either way. Of course, if it is your purpose in life to help preserve and develop a particular language then do it. But for most of us wanting to just get on with life, it should just be a means of communication, a means to acquire knowledge, and a means to earn livelihood. It is wonderful if you can do all that in your native language. If not, do not hesitate to acquire a new one. Sticking to something you were born into will only hold you back while not doing much for the language.

Common people realize it. Municipal schools offering only local language teaching are losing students because even rickshaw-pullers and construction workers do not send their children there. But the same schools, when they switch to English medium teaching, start getting enrolments. The rich and the elite too realize it. And they have the means to opt out of education system shaped by parochial politics and buy quality education for their children in international languages. The poor end up paying the price. A government may one day provide even engineering education in regional language, but will such an engineer get a job in a multi-national or be able to emigrate when opportunity shows up?

We should also realize that it is not the state’s job to protect or promote any language. Its job is to provide quality administration that ensures safety, security, economic opportunities, justice and rights to citizens. It can have an official language to work in, but bigger consideration should be convenience of citizens, not preservation of language. Such efforts are often counter-productive. No greater damage has been done to Hindi than by the army of Hindi officers who devised a language that even native Hindi speakers struggle to understand.

What gives the state a right to decide whether students should learn two languages or five? The decision should be with the students and their families. Education should be as per demands of the users and not dictated by politicians. Having pride in and enjoying one’s native language does not, and should not, get in the way of adopting another for work. When politicians tell you what language to study in and what movies to see, know that all they are doing is exploiting your sentiments to secure power for themselves. Tell them to buzz off.