International Opinion on Language Issues - Mother Tongue is the Key to Education, Knowledge, Science, and English Learning:
I. About this Document
Last month, the Government
of India issued a notification which included some retrograde provisions
regarding the place of Indian languages in central civil services examinations.
The notification also added further to the weightage given to English
language by proposing to include marks scored in the English compulsory
paper to calculate merit. This has stirred up the linguistic debate
once again. The present document was written in response to the situation
arising out of the Indian government’s issuing of the notification
mentioned above, a step taken a la ignorance par excellence.
The government withdrew
the notification on the 15th of March due to a very stiff
indictment by language experts and a strong opposition from various
political circles. The discriminatory attitude of Indian elite towards
Indian languages in India, however, is still worse even than that of
their colonial siblings. The language question is inseparably tied with
issues of education, scientific development, knowledge in general, culture,
heritage, and, very importantly, with the issue of the proper method
of learning a foreign language. This document is an effort to provide
a synopsis of professional international opinion on these matters.
Though the Indian languages
have never been granted their rightful and essentially required status
even after the British left, their plight has been worsening further
and at a faster pace for the past 30 years or so. The English language
is pushing Indian languages out even as medium of education in schools.
Though the real reason for this is the Indian elite’s misconceived
vested interests, the following kinds of false arguments are concocted
in support of this irrationality:
- That English is the language of science and knowledge and the mastery of English, therefore, is essential to make progress in these fields;
- English is the language of international communication and business and no international exchange is possible without it.
The above kinds of arguments
are a result of total ignorance about the relationship between language
and science, education, knowledge in general, and about the international
linguistic scene. The aim of this document is to pull the mask off this
ignorance.
II. Mother Tongue, Other Tongue, and Education
It would be proper to
first look at the international experience and scholarship with regard
to the relationship between language and education, the most important
domain of present times, and with regard to the relationship between
language and science and knowledge in general. The following statement
from the book titled ‘The Use of Vernaculars in Education’ published
by the United Nation’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) in 1953 is an eye opener; The book presents the essence of
international research and wisdom on the issue:
“It is axiomatic
that the best medium for teaching a child is his mother tongue. Psychologically,
it is the system of meaningful signs that in his mind works automatically
for expression and understanding. Sociologically, it is means of identification
among the members of community to which he belongs. Educationally, he
learns more quickly through it than through an unfamiliar linguistic
medium.” @ (UNESCO, 1953:11)
This opinion of UNESCO
was the result of a very comprehensive research. The UNESCO had stated
this again in 1968:
“...the use of
mother tongue be extended to as late a stage of education as possible. @ (UNESCO, 1968:691)
The following is recorded
in UN’s developmental report of 2004:
“In the Philippines
students' with the proficiency in the two languages of the bilingual
education policy (Tagalog and English) outperformed students who did
not speak Tagalog at home.” @ (UNDP Report 2004:61)
The following statement
is about the US, a country where the overwhelming majority are native
speakers of English:
“In the United States,
Navajo students instructed throughout their primary school years in
their first language (Navajo) as well as their second language (English)
outperformed their Navajo-speaking peers educated only in English.” @ (UNDP Report 2004:61)
I would personally and
earnestly request the Indian Anglo-maniacs to take the trouble to know
in what a big number the non-English medium schools exist even in mainly
English speaking countries such as the USA, Canada and New Zealand.
The statements presented below are from the studies carried out throughout
the world on the issue :
“Thus, the results
of research reported by Modiano (1968, 1973) in Mexico; by Skutnabb-Kangas
(1965) in Finland; as well as those from diverse studies summarized
by Gudschinsky (1975) for Latin America where a higher proportion of children who are introduced to schooling
in their vernacular and later bridged into the second language, develop
literacy in their mother tongue, achieve higher level of content mastery and second language proficiency
and remain longer in school than children who are schooled exclusively
in the second language.” @ (Tucker, 1977:3). (Read ‘second language’ as ‘foreign
language’).
The following citation
is from the study carried out on the Finish children who had migrated
to Sweden:
"The Finnish-language
skills shown by the test results are fairly closely connected with the
grade in mathematics. In the upper level, Finnish seems to be even more
important for achievement in mathematics than Swedish -- in spite of
the fact that mathematics, too, is taught in Swedish. This result supports the concept that the abstraction level of the
mother tongue is important for mastering the conceptual operations connected
with mathematics.... Subjects such as biology, chemistry, and physics
also require conceptual thinking, and in these subjects migrant children
with a good mastery of their mother tongue succeeded significantly better
than those who knew their mother tongue poorly. @ (Skutnabb-Kangas and Toukomaa, 1976)." (quoted in Paulston, 1977:94)
Let us have a look at
another statement about the USA :
"Likewise, in the
United States, there has seemed to emerge a gradual awareness that many
non-English residents are not best served by being submerged in a monolingual
English education system where no attention is paid to the development
of their native language." @ (Tucker, 1977:3)
This one is from a study
on Ghana:
“Bokamla and Tlou
(1977:45) report that in Ghana only 5 percent of all children who leave
elementary school go on to secondary school. In Zaire, only 30 percent
of the children who enter elementary school complete the first four
grades. The authors attribute this to inability to master the language
of instruction.” @ (Fasold, 1984:306)
Further, “It is not
true, however, that students will not learn science and mathematics
if they do not know English. The ideas of science are not bound by one
language and one culture. The Russians, Germans, and French boast of
excellent scientific discoveries without using English. The top five
performers in the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMMS), namely Singapore, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese
Taipei, and Japan, are countries where English is not the first language.”
@ (Ricardo and
Nolasco, 2009:6)
All of us know the proud
place ancient India and the Arab world held without English in the field
of knowledge. In a sense, English was not even born then.
The Norway’s Global
Monitoring Report (Benson, 2005) states thus:
“The
Six-Year Yoruba Medium Primary Project (Fafunwa et al. 1975; Akinnaso
1993; see Adegbiya 2003 for other references) demonstrated unequivocally
that a full six-year primary education in the mother tongue with the
L2 taught as a subject was not only viable but gave better results than
all-English schooling….”
“More
recent work demonstrates similar findings and goes beyond these to illustrate
the positive aspects of mother tongue-based bilingual programs listed
above....” @ (Benson, 2005). (The mother tongue-based bilingual education
means that the education be imparted in mother tongue and the foreign/second
language be taught as a subject).
Thus, we find that it
is proved time and again throughout the world that the success in education
which can be achieved through mother tongue medium cannot be achieved
at all through a foreign language medium. Hence, it is not incorrect
to state that successful education is possible only when it is mother
tongue based. The following statement brings out some of the reasons
for this:
“One’s own language
enables a child to express him/herself easily, as there is no fear of
making mistakes. MLE (multilingual education – the education method
where mother tongue is the medium of instruction and other language
is taught as a subject - JS) encourages active participation by children
in the learning process because they understand what is being discussed
and what is being asked of them. They can immediately use the L1 to
construct and explain their world, articulate their thoughts and add
new concepts to what they already know. MLE empowers the teachers as
well, particularly when they are more fluent and adept in the local
language than in the languages of wider communication. Because the students
can express themselves, the teachers can more accurately assess what
has been learned and identify areas where students need further assistance,
MLE creates the conditions for the integration of the people’s community
knowledge—the knowledge that informs their lives and give them meaning—into
the school system. MLE makes it possible for the community to produce
its own culturally relevant reading materials and teaching aids, together
with the local writers, illustrators, cultural groups and other stakeholders
in the community. MLE also empowers the parents who can take an active
part in the education of their children because the school’s and the
community’s language are also their language. MLE brings the community
closer to the school and its programs.” (Ricardo and Nolasco, 2009:4)
The experts on language
and education opine that if the child’s mother tongue is not the medium
of education, child wastes many of his/her years in learning the
language, because in this way “…the young learners and their teachers will concentrate on the language, not on Science
and Math and literacy (that is more fundamental to learning). The best way
to learn basic science and math, problem solving skills, and reasoning
skills is through the L1.” @ (Ricardo and Nolasco, 2009:11)
We have seen above that
the worldwide research and the expert opinions provide a definitive
proof that success in education is possible only through the mother
tongue medium. But, here in India, the people in control of language
and education policies are hell bent on English and are keeping their
eyes and ears shut. They are ruining India’s education, language and
culture beyond redemption. As stated earlier, a humble aim of this write-up
is to remove the blinders off their eyes and the thick wax off their
ears.
The findings of the international
research being described below will further help in piercing this dastardly
ignorance. These findings show that the mother tongue medium is essential
for success not only in education, it is better than foreign language
medium even for learning a foreign language.
III. Foreign Language Learning and Mother Tongue Medium vs. Foreign
Language Medium
It would be proper to
start with a statement from the UNESCO:
"What seems to be
standing in our way is a set of myths about language and learning, and
these myths must be revealed as such to open people’s eyes. One such myth is that the best way to learn a second (read foreign
- JS) language is to use it as a medium of instruction. (In fact,
it is often more effective to learn additional languages as subjects
of study.) Another
is that to learn a second language you must start as early as possible.
(Starting early might help learners to have a nice accent, but otherwise
the advantage goes to learners who have a well developed first language.) A third is that the
home language gets in the way of learning a second language.
(Building a strong foundation in the first language results in a better
learning of additional languages.) Clearly, these myths are more false
than true, yet they guide the way policymakers tend to think about how
speakers of other languages must learn dominant or official languages." @ (UNESCO, 2008:12).
This statement is based
on studies from 12 countries spread over all continents. The study included
India too and it was funded by the World Bank, not an opponent of English.
A similar study is based
on Finnish children who migrated to Sweden. This study showed, "Overwhelmingly,
the better a student knew Finnish (as a function of having attended
school for several years in Finland), the better he learned Swedish.
An examination of language skills of siblings found that who moved from
Finland at an average age of 10 have preserved an almost normal Finnish
language level, and they also approach the normal level in Swedish of
Swedish pupils... The children who moved under the age of six, or who
were born in Sweden, do not do as well. Their Swedish language development
often stops at the age of about 12, evidently because of their poor
grounding in the mother tongue." @ (Paulston, 1977:92-3).
Thus, it is clear that
foreign languages are better learned by studying through mother tongue
medium. The following tells why it is so:
"Butzkamm insists
that we have to re-define the role of the native language as the major
resource in foreign language learning and teaching. As children grow
into their mother tongue, (1) they have learnt to conceptualize their
world and have fully grasped the symbolic function of language; (2)
they have learnt to communicate; (3) they have learnt to speak and use
their voice; (4) they have acquired an intuitive understanding of grammar
and have become aware of many of the finer points of language; (5) they
have acquired the secondary skills of reading and writing. The mother
tongue is, therefore, the greatest asset people bring to the task of
foreign language learning. It provides an indispensable Language Acquisition
Support System and makes instruction possible in the first place.”
@ (WIKIPEDIA).
“Successful learners
capitalize on the vast amount of both linguistic skills and world knowledge
they have already accumulated via the mother tongue. For the most part,
they need not re-conceptualize their world in the new language. They
have acquired an L1 along with its accompanying discourse skills and
pragmatic knowledge, which are directly available for incorporation
into the target language system. For instance, they need not be told
that requests, wishes or warnings can masquerade as statements. Also,
the path breaking power of L1 grammar is not dependent on the fact that
both languages share similar grammatical features. It is because all
languages have evolved means of expressing abstract ideas such as possession,
number, agent, instrument, negation, cause, condition, obligation etc.,
no matter how they do this; one natural language is enough to open the
door for the grammars of other languages because all languages are cut
from the same conceptual cloth. In a deep sense, we only learn language
once”. @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The facts described so
far should suffice to take the blinders off the eyes and pull the deafening
wax out of the of the ears of Indian policy makers. However, it won’t
do any harm to look into what is happening in the rest of the world
language wise.
In fact, wherever English
has been the medium of instruction, though it being a foreign language
there, it has been phased out or is at least diminishing day in and
day out. Few examples should suffice as evidence.
Uganda decided in 2007
that for the first three years the mother tongues should be used as
medium of education and English should be taught as a subject. This
has brought them success too. An appraisal done in just 2008 showed
that the new policy had contributed to improvement in literacy.
It needs to be particularly
mentioned here that there are 52 language groups in Uganda. The change
in Uganda was based on the idea that a student learnt a foreign language
better if he had a good foundation in the mother tongue. Before this
new policy, the school education in Uganda used to be in English medium
from the very start. (See Kavuma, 2009 for these facts).
Malaysia decided in 2009
to teach Math and Science in Bhasha Malasia in National schools and
in Chinese and Tamil in the Local schools.
There can’t be a better
comment on the illiteracy of Indian policy makers than that Malaysia
finds it correct to teach science in Tamil medium to Tamils but it is
considered almost a crime here in India. There is a proverb in Punjabi
which means that ‘without wisdom, even wells go dry’. We may not
know much about that, but the English infected Indian heads have certainly
gone empty. Anyhow, it won’t do anyone any harm to have a look at
some more evidence here.
“New Zealand and Britain
have shown more regard for their indigenous minority languages (though
not for immigrant languages) in recent years, which also shows in their
employment as the medium of instruction in schools. The recent history
of New Zealand’s policy regarding the Maori language and culture is
highlighted by S. May, with an optimistic outlook (pp. 21–41). Initial
assessments of the newly institutionalised Maori elementary schools
(Kura Kaupapa) with Maori medium instruction ‘suggest that the academic
progress of children (. . .) is comparable to their mainstream peers,
while providing the added advantage of bilingualism (p.35). In the case
of Hong Kong there has been an increase in the use of Puntonghua, which
has also been introduced as a widely taught school subject, while indigenous
Cantonese still serves as the medium of instruction together with English.
Malaysia, in contrast, has restrained the status and function of English
and substituted it by Malay (Bahasa Malaysia) as the sole official language
of the country and the sole medium of instruction in public schools
and universities (S. Kaur Gill, pp. 135–152).” @ (Ammon, 2004)
It is clear, thus, that
all English infected nations of yester-years are bidding it farewell.
The reason seems to be that none wants to be a friend of ignorance (except
us, the Indians, highly addicted to mental slavery, and quackery in
policy making).
But why is it happening
in India, then? The real reason for this is the Indian Neo-Manuvaad;
The Indian elite want to plunder all and deprive other Indians of everything
through the instrument of English language. Therefore, we need to demolish
the ideological bases which sustain this Indian Neo-Manuvaad in the
digital age. These bases are some myths, which have been nicely unmasked
in a Stockholm (Sweden) University Report (see Benson, 2005). Some of these myths
are described below.
III.2. Some More Myths Surrounding Language
III.2.1. “The one nation—one language myth. The colonial
concept that a nation-state requires a single unifying language has
influenced policy-makers in many parts of the world, yet imposition
of a so-called “neutral” foreign language has not necessarily resulted
in unity, nor have relatively monolingual countries like Somalia, Burundi
or Rwanda been guaranteed stability. In fact, government failure to
accept ethnolinguistic diversity has been a major destabilizing force
in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka (Ouane
2003).” @
(Benson, 2009)
III.2.2. “The myth that local languages cannot express modern concepts.
Another colonial concept is the supposed inherent worth of European
languages in contrast to others, but all human languages are equally able to express their speakers’
thoughts and can develop new terms and structures as needed. Léopold Senghor once
illustrated this by translating Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into Wolof, a lingua
franca of Senegal. The difference lies in which languages have
historically been chosen for “intellectualization,” or development,
through writing and publishing (Alexander,
2003).” @ (Benson, 2009)
As is made amply clear
by the statements above, each language is capable of expressing any
kind of concept. But such ignorance prevails around in this regard that
we need to go in a bit of detail.
No language can be dubbed
rich or poor in terms of sentence formation. A cursory reading of grammar
books of any two languages should reveal this. Even a language without
a grammar book is grammatically as rich as the ones with written grammars.
So, sentence structure wise, all languages are equally rich. It is the
vocabulary which is root of all misconceptions about poverty or richness
of any particular language.
It is often heard that
our languages do not possess words for the fields such as science and
technology. But, this view is based in a complete lack of knowledge
about the language word stock.
Actually,
each language has similar word power, because all words of a language
are constructed from some basic elements called ‘roots’ and
‘affixes’. And, there is no marked difference among languages
in terms of the number of these basic elements. The following English
words can illustrate this very easily:
1. “Haem. A prefix signifying blood.
2. Haemocyte. A blood cell.
3. Haemagogue. Medicine that promotes the catamenial and haemorrhoidal
discharges.
4. Haemal. Pertaining to the blood.
5. Haemalopia. An effusion of the blood into the globe of the
eye; bloodshot eye.
6. Haemngiectasis. Dilatation of a blood vessel.
7. Haemangioma. A malformation of a blood vessels which may occur
in any part of the body.
8. Haemarthrosis. The presence of blood in a joint cavity.
9. Haematemesis. The vomiting of blood.
10. Haematin. An iron-containing constituent of haemoglobin.
11. Haematinic. An agent improving the blood-quality.
12. Haematinuria. The presence of haematin in the urine.
13. Haematocele. A swelling filled with blood; haematoma.
14. Haematocolpos. Retention of the menses due to a congenital
obstruction of vagina.
15. Haematogenesis. The development of the blood.
16. Haematoid. Having the nature or appearance of blood.
17. Haematology. The science dealing with the formation, composition,
functions and diseases of the blood.
18. Haematolysis. Destruction of blood cells and liberation of
haemoglobin.
19. Haematoma. The blood tumour; H. Auris, the blood tumour of
the external.”
( With thanks from Rawat, 1985)
20. Haemophilia.
Tendency of blood not to clot.
At
first sight, it would appear that our languages do not have words equivalent
to these ones. But the truth is that all of the words above are derived
by adding suffixes (endings) to the root (base) ‘Haem’, meaning
‘blood’. The following Hindi parallels, respectively, of these words
will make it clear that either our languages do have their equivalents
or we can get them in no time.
1. rakt 2. rakt-koshika 3. rakt-prerak 4. raktiya 5. raktiya-netr 6. raktvahini-paasaar 7. rakt-massa 8. raktjoR-vikaar 9. rakt-vaaman 10. lauhraktiya 11. raktvardhak 12. raktmuutr 13. rakt-granthi/suujan 14. rakt-maasdharmrodh 15. rakt-utpaadan 16. raktruup 17. rakt-vigiyan 18. rakt-hraas 19. rakt-granthi 20. rakt-jamaavhiinta.
Thus,
to state that our languages lack in vocabulary can only be a sound proof
of one’s not being in a sound state of information.
The
English words cited above bring out another significant fact about the
touted richness of English language; none of these words is an English
one; all of them have been borrowed directly from Latin. It is a misconception,
thus, to believe that one would understand the scientific vocabulary
better if one were fluent in English, because a vast proportion of the
scientific vocabulary in English is either Latin or of Greek origin.
Another
myth responsible for the chronic English infection is the misconception
that fluency in English will open the doors to the whole world. It is
essential, therefore, to know what is happening around in the world
linguistically.
III.2.3. “The L2 as global language myth. The foreign L2
is often seen as necessary for further education, work and other opportunities,
yet, as Phillipson (1992) points out, this has not happened in a political
vacuum but is the result of deliberate promotion by powerful countries
or groups of their respective languages. Meanwhile, employment in the
informal sector of low-income countries involves 50 percent or more
of the population and is increasing, and primary schooling is still
terminal for most. The vast majority will not be integrated into the
global marketplace and will have little use for the L2 (Bruthiaux 2002).” @ (Benson, 2005)
IV. The Contemporary
Language Trends
Two
trends are distinctly visible in the present day linguistic scenario
– one, the diminishing usage, prestige and dominance of English and
two, the rising importance of languages other than English in all domains
of language use.
We have already seen above
that in all the non-English speaking countries (except the Great India
and her past sibling and present geo-cum-wisdom-neighbour Pakistan)
where education was imparted in the English language, it has either
been phased out or is in the process of being phased out. Same is happening
in other domains.
Around 2000, eighty per
cent of internet content was in English; it has come down to below forty
now. Information is available on the internet in tens of languages today.
Coming to India, as per
Microsoft, 95 per cent of commerce in India is in Indian languages and
only 5 per cent in English.
The world has reached
a linguistic state where you will be the last person to be offered a
job by a company if you knew only English and didn’t know any other
language. A recent article in a prestigious English magazine, The Economist,
stated that Britain are at a great disadvantage because they knew only
English. The citation below provides an evidence for the linguistic
direction the world is moving into:
" Not only do today’s workers need to be able to communicate
both orally and in writing in languages other than English, but they
must be able to do so with persons who have not shared their own social
and cultural experiences.” @ (Stephanie Bell Rose, The Goldman Sachs Foundation; Vishakha Desai,
The Asia Society, www).
"As other countries create funding and policies that promote,
and even help prioritize, the study of foreign languages, experts say
U.S. students are falling behind and could suffer in the global marketplace.” @ (Asia Society News,
2nd April, 2009, www).
"English loosing its monopolistic position….”
"No single language
will occupy the monopolistic position in the 21st century which English
has - almost - achieved by the end of the 20th century.”
"It is thus clear
that two trends will dominate the second wave of satellite broadcasting:
other major world languages will increase their global reach and the
larger providers will localise their services. Both trends indicate
a more crowded and linguistically plural audio-visual landscape in 21st
century."
"The close association
between English and information technology may prove a temporary phenomena....So
whereas English speakers used to enjoy the best and latest technology,
this is no longer so true." @ (David Graddol. 2000 (1997).
Almost all of the schools
in the developed world are trying to teach their students other languages
along with the mother tongue, and these other languages are not merely
English.
Things have gone so far
that you can now find Chinese medium schools even in the USA in which
90 per cent of students come from non-Chinese language background. (Though
this policy is very much wrong, yet, this speaks volumes about the rise
of Chinese language in the world). The number of Chinese learners
in the USA in 2007 were ten times more in comparison to 2000. (USA Today, 20th November, 2007)
"Panama is moving
to make the teaching of Mandarin compulsory in all schools, in recognition
of China's growing importance in the world economy.” @ BBC News (www) 6th December, 2007)
Even in the countries
which speak English mainly, more and more people whose mother tongue
is not English are abandoning the use of English. During the 1990 census
in the USA, 31.8 million persons recorded that they did not use English
at home. The number had grown to 47 million in the 2000 census. This
increase in number is far greater than the increase in population of
the respective language groups. The number of such Spanish population
alone had risen by 60 per cent. From 1980 to 2011, the number of persons
who did not use English at home had risen by 140 per cent in the USA,
though the US population had increased only by 40 per cent during these
years. This means that the number of people who had abandoned English
at home had doubled in absolute terms during these years. On the contrary,
the Indian elite (the rashTar swamis sans information in this information
age) have completely abandoned national self-respect, not English, and
don’t miss to pay daily obeisance to English morn, noon, and night.
The following figures
from Argentina are a good evidence to show how English is being pushed
out of the media in the former English colonies: 49 per cent of
Argentine media in 1983 was from outside the country. The figure for
1996 was 22 per cent.
Thus, there should be
no doubt left that English is diminishing in all the domains where it
had held a dominant position earlier.
With the advent of numerous
language based technologies (internet, computer, mobile telephony, e-books
etc.), the commercial prospects of native languages cannot be overstated.
We also need to weigh
the educational, economic, commercial, and cultural losses that English
language has caused us. A brief account of these is given in the section
below.
V. Other Serious Losses Due to Keeping all Eggs in the English
Basket
Due to the impelling commercial
necessities, almost all countries of the world are presently engaged
in learning the languages of other countries. But, we keep moon walking
in the English cemetery, night and day. We are not paying any attention
to need for learning of other languages. Due to this, we are suffering
great economic and commercial losses. We will be left in complete isolation
in the near future if we didn’t learn the languages of other countries.
Today, Chinese and Spanish should be more important to us than English.
But we are completely blind not only to the near future but to the present
as well. The English is being phased out throughout the world of all
the mother tongue domains, which it had occupied earlier. But we are
increasingly handing over all our education, culture and communication
spaces to the English language. A cursory look at the decreasing Indian
share in the world trade should be enough to know what benefits it has
brought us. In 1950, the Indian share in world trade was 1.78 per cent.
It has now come down to 1.50 per cent. The increase in the spread of
English in India during these years is pretty obvious to all of us.
This constant decrease in India’s share in the world trade tells that
the Indian policy makers’ English ride is a fine children’s story
of ‘one eyed mare and the blind rider’ (kaani ghoRi andha svaar).
A few days back, the honourable minister Mr. Shashi Tharoor, of
UNO fame, had stated that English was the key to India’s progress.
Had he read some UNO document on language, while he was at the UNO at
least, he would have never said that. But why should an Indian minister
read when illiteracy pays better dividends! A recent survey about the
ranking of Indian universities in Asia should be of great interest to
honourable Shashi Tharoor ji; No one of Indian universities is amongst
the first 40 of Asia. And important Asian countries such as China, Japan,
South Korea are teaching their university students in their mother tongues.
Less said the better about
the cultural losses the English language has caused us and still continues
to cause increasingly. A farmyard generation is being raised, a generation
who neither have any intimate connection with their language, literature,
culture, history, religion, knowledge or even science and nor they can
have any deep sensibility for higher artistic creation or appreciation.
The Indian elite who flirted with the Persian language earlier were
called ‘malechhas’ (the fallen ones) by Baba Nanak at that time.
Now, when the present Indian elite have buried even Baba Nanak’s message
deep, who will listen to Gandhi Mahatma. He wore ‘dhoti’ only. The
things would have been different had he pronounced Bye-Bye to Indian
culture and worn tie-vie.
VI. The Death of a Language
In a recent article (Joga
Singh, 2013) , I had stated that even a language like Punjabi, which
has a literary history older (and perhaps richer too) than English ,
is the 10th largest spoken language of the world and is first
official language of India’s Punjab state, has entered the process
which ultimately leads to the death of a language. The condition of
other scheduled Indian languages is almost the same. Hindi too can be
included in this list. Less said the better about the non-scheduled
languages. A number of them are already on verge of extinction. I request
the readers to read UNESCO (2003) document `Language Vitality and Endangerment’
to make assessment of Indian languages themselves. I will not go into
more details on this. The following statements will, however, provide
an indication of the direction the Indian languages are moving into.
“This mirrors the typical
process of language death; people become ashamed of their own language
and abandon it in favour of a more prestigious one. Eventually, they
no longer pass on their native tongue to their children so that ‘the
minority language is then effectively deserted by its speakers, becoming
appropriate for use in fewer and fewer contexts, until it is entirely
supplanted by the incoming language’ (McMahon,1994:285)”. @
(Eckert, T et al, 2006)
“However
language loss... is also due to the absence of local languages in educational
system. Schools play key role in preserving minority languages and consequently
their culture.” @ (Eckert. T et al, 2006). But the Indian elite would
close all mother tongue medium schools tomorrow, if they could. The
Indian Knowledge Commission is the most ignorant agency in this regard.
To find out the truth, you please read the Knowledge Commission’s
recommendations on English language yourself.
VII. An appeal
This
document has been prepared from some parts of my forthcoming book on
language policy. The book was taking some time but I realized that the
issue required an immediate response. I thought that the international
opinion on the language issue needs to be immediately brought to the
notice of Indian citizens. Hence, I decided to publish this booklet.
A lot of this booklet has already been published in Punjabi in the Punjabi
media. It has also been presented by me in a number of lectures at various
places in Punjab. This booklet is being published in Punjabi, Hindi,
and English versions (and possibly other Indian languages too), so that
it could reach wider audiences. Therefore, I request all Indian people
who love their mother tongues and who are convinced that India cannot
make progress as a modern nation without the foundation of mother tongues
to bring this booklet to the notice of other Indians. An essential task
is to translate this document into various Indian languages. Whoever
can do this for whichever language, please do this. I shall be thankful
to the core of my heart. Since few persons have already taken the responsibility
for some languages, please get in touch with me before you translate
it. Along with the reasons described behind, there is an essential other
reason to embrace our mother tongues; the wisdom of thousands of years
preserved in our mother tongues needs to be imbibed and passed on to
the coming generations. This is our utmost moral responsibility. A little
delay can result in civilizational losses.
I
have added a relatively longer bibliographic section here so that anyone
interested in a further investigation on the issue could make use of
it.
Acknowledgements:
A large number of citations from the research work of numerous scholars
have been used in this document. I express my heartiest thanks for all
of them. Their hard labour and commitment only have provided the strong
ideological support for the mother tongues. Victory to the Mother Tongues!
The Hindi Version:
The Hindi version of this document has been published by Lokmittar Prakashan,
1/6588, Puurvi Rohtas Nagar, Shahdara, Delhi - 110032.
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Send By:
Joga Singh, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. (University of York, U.K.)
Commonwealth Scholarship Awardee (1990-1993)
Professor & Ex-Head, Department of Linguistics & Punjabi Lexicography
Director, Centre for Diaspora Studies
Punjabi University, Patiala - 147 002 (Punjab) - INDIA.
Mobile: +91-9915709582 Home: +91-175-2281582 Office: +91-175-304-6241/6511
E-mail: virkjoga5@gmail.com , jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co.in
E-mail: virkjoga5@gmail.com , jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co.in
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