After getting rid of the English men, we thought, we would be successful in driving out their language, because as things stand, we can neither really live with it nor, indeed do without it. National self-respect demands that we dethrone it from its status in our country but its utility has made it so indispensable to us, that we are not in a position to banish it either. Today English language has become the lingua franca of thought and commerce.
We all know that English was not listed as one of the 14 (now 22) Indian languages when the constitution was drawn up in 1950. It was to be an "associate official language" for a period of 15 years. But when the time came to discard English officially, there were protests by the people from the southern part who could not tolerate the hegemony of Hindi. In 1967, the government was forced to pass an Official Language (Amendment) Act, prolonging the associate status of English indefinitely.
In 1957 UNESCO issued a formal declaration declaring the right of every child to be educated through their mother tongue. Supporting this declaration, Skutnabb-Kangas (1994) argued that, in a civilized society there should be no need to debate the right to maintain and develop the mother tongue. It is a self-evident human right....Observing linguistic human rights implies at an individual level, that all people can identify positively with their mother tongue and has that identification accepted and respected by others whether their mother tongue is a minority language or a majority language.
Skutnabb Kangas (2000) also says that English is a killer language in India. But it is seen that English is not usually the direct cause of language death in India. Of late, the Government, policy makers and academicians are taking all possible measures to encourage multi lingual education (MLE). It has become a global movement seeking to provide quality education for all.
“Indians secretly believe, if not openly say, that competence in English makes a considerable difference in their career prospects…politicians and bureaucrats denounce the elitism of [English-medium] schools but surreptitiously send their children to them.”
Gupta,1995.
...English plays a very important role in education, business and administration. It is the medium of instruction for higher education-both academic and technological. Those who seek jobs in private companies or professions must be proficient in English. It is recognized as an official language for purposes of administration at the national level.
Kudchedkar, 2002.
On one hand the politicians say that no more English medium schools will be permitted and on the other hand without proficiency in English a student can’t dream of a decent job in future. At times, I feel we are a bundle of contradictions. All the national and international conferences are conducted in English (as that is the only link language). We laugh at people who cannot speak decent English and grammatical error…strictly no-no (that’s intolerable). How can one expect from a person who studied in a vernacular medium school, where the medium of instruction was the mother tongue and English was taught maximum five hours per week (5 forty minutes period) to speak fluent English? Today, success in the job market or for that matter even marriage market has come to be equated with fluency in English.
So, higher fees are no deterrent; parents are willing to make sacrifices to ensure upward mobility for their children by sending their kids to English medium schools. Before making policies, it’s the Government who has to understand that ‘no demand, no supply.’ If the Government ensures that irrespective of a person’s English language competence, he/she is sure to land up with a decent job in future, who would not love to send their children to vernacular medium schools. After all, we all love our mother tongues. Don’t we?
(these are thoughts which can't be a part of strict academic discourse, I wanted to but I can't make it a part of my dissertation so here's commonsensical academics-as true academics is beyond commonsense)
1 comment:
In a vast country like India with its myriad people and ways of life its indeed a miracle that even Hindi has got the acceptance that it has. Its not English, it could well have been any other language (French, Dutch, Icelandic)for the distant 'other' will always have more acceptance than the 'neighbour' who's seen as a threat to your culture and your existence howsoever paranoid that line of thinking may be.
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