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The mother tongue fanatics are keeping India a poor, backward country

The new National Education Policy should have shown the courage to argue for English medium education from primary school onwards.

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Travelling by road from Jammu to Kashmir in a shared taxi many years ago, I met a Kashmiri man who was returning home from Germany, where he was pursuing a PhD in Chemistry. “Where in Kashmir is your home?” I asked. He named his village in Baramulla.

My jaw dropped to think he was a ‘villager’ speaking in English and doing a PhD in Chemistry in Germany. I can’t imagine travelling from Lucknow to Kanpur and meeting rural youth speaking fluent English and pursuing PhDs at foreign universities. If you can find such a person, chances are that s/he is making it to the news as a rare achiever.

In Kashmir, even government schools are English ‘medium’, that is, students are taught everything in English, right from primary school.

Sheikh Abdullah’s land reforms are widely acknowledged as one of the reasons why Kashmir and Kashmiris became prosperous. One reason that is not acknowledged is the implementation of English medium education.

A visit to a government school in Baramulla and to one in Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh) will be enough to know the importance of English medium education.

Of course, the quality of education also matters. You could have a bad Science teacher speaking good English and a good Science teacher speaking Hindi. But the issue here is not merely the quality of education. There are enough people worried about and working on the ‘quality’ problem. The elephant in the room no one wants to address is how we are depriving millions of young Indians the opportunity to exploit the best of global opportunities.


Also read: NEP finally ends science-commmerce-arts school trauma. But will Indian parents ever grow up?


English as the new Sanskrit

This is where the new National Education Policy (NEP) could have shown courage and recommended English medium education right from the primary level. There’s absolutely no parent in India who does not want to send their children to an English medium school. If a child in India is going to a non-English medium school, it means the parents couldn’t afford a better school.

Most government-run schools in India are non-English medium. Most state education boards offer the English medium option, but it is used only for some showcase institutions or by private schools affiliated to the state board.

The language divide cuts through all of India’s divides — caste, class, urban-rural, and so on. All politicians who argue for ‘mother tongue’ education should be asked to reveal whether they are sending their children to non-English medium schools. The answer will show how English has become the new Sanskrit: the language the elites use to deny knowledge, and thus better opportunities, to those they seek to exclude from the corridors of power.

Every now and then we hear of SC/ST students in engineering and medical colleges dying by suicides. Whether or not there was caste discrimination could be a matter of debate and investigation on a case by case basis. However, you will see that in most cases, the student came from a non-English medium background. Dalit intellectual Chandrabhan Prasad has long argued that English has been the greatest liberator of Dalits from caste hierarchy. No wonder then that we want to end access to English to the poorest Indians. How will we get cheap labour?


Also read: All about 3-language formula, the bone of contention between Centre & southern states


English as the new populism 

Here’s an idea for a politician with courage: promise English medium education to all your voters, in all government schools, for all grades starting nursery. Let the mother tongue fanatics protest all they want. Voters will respond to such a promise with all their votes and then some. This will be the mother of all populist promises.

China, Japan, Germany, France and Italy are some examples of countries that have progressed and prospered in their native languages, the argument goes. You might be surprised to know how much these countries spend on English learning and translation. Even so, why should India not exploit the advantage of English it has, especially since decades of English-deprivation hasn’t helped?

Another reason why ‘mother tongue’ education doesn’t work is because the mother tongue fanatics insist on pure, Sanskritised language, bereft of any foreign influence. The Hindi in the textbooks is an alien language when compared to the Hindi we actually speak. The mother tongue fanatics have destroyed Hindi as a language with their purity nonsense — and they don’t want us to learn English either. As a result, you can find many Indians who aren’t good communicators in any language.


Also read: NEP 2020 is a good document but its real job will be to weed civil servants out of academia


English for the knowledge economy

If we didn’t have English medium schools, we wouldn’t have had our information technology services outsourcing industry. We wouldn’t have many jobs — the software engineers making websites, answering customer calls, doing accounting and analysing data for English-speaking countries, all while sitting in India.

English along with the internet is a combination best suited for jobs, startups, global learning, prosperity, and bridging regional and global divides. The most revolutionary idea for India’s progress and prosperity in the 21st century would be to take English medium education to all government-run schools. Our continued submission to the nativist, regressive mother tongue wallahs is responsible for keeping India a poor, backward country.

The author is contributing editor, ThePrint. Views are personal.

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186 COMMENTS

  1. Of course, English language fluency is an important skill in our globalized world. However, early education should be in the mother tongue because research shows that children learn best in their mother tongue. Many studies show that teaching children in a language other than their mother tongue is detrimental to their education. The mother tongue provides a strong base from which it is easy for children to pick up other languages. The medium of instruction for primary school should be in the mother tongue, with English introduced as a second language from an early age. Only once children are fluent in English, should the medium of instruction switch to English.

    Once children start learning highly technical subjects, like physics or computer science, then the medium of instruction should be English because a large chunk of highly technical, scientific research is done in English. So it is important that students are fluent in English so they have access to such research.

  2. Can anyone who supported Hindi/Sanskrit and opposed English willing to send their children to Hindi medium schools.
    If yes please write their names in the comment box
    If all the writters who supported Hindi/Sanskrit will accept to close all the English medium schools in India
    If they say yes then, they are genuine if say no then they are all Hindi fanatic

  3. Are you saying that India should adopt English as much as it can and give up its own languages? You are such a slave. English is only useful if you want to work for an outsourcing company, like a slave. If you want to be a doctor or lawyer in India, you don’t need English to talk to your clients. Our government should spend more money on creating in-house jobs, so that we don’t have to depend on English speaking countries to give us jobs, because we work for slave wages.
    On the other hand, Indians should treasure and adopt speaking in our national language as much as we can, because that will unify us as people of one great nation, that we are.

    • Which national language you’re referring to? If you’re thinking it’s hindi then get some life, coz it’s not. Only a bridge language like English can unite the country.

  4. This columnist is backward and has Slave Colonial mindset. These guys consider English as Class not language.
    Do they talk every time with their parants in English every time ?
    According to these guys, India couldn’t be developed without English. Then How could Germany, Russia, China, Japan, France, Spain etc be developed too much. Has India reached upto their Level?
    Instead, English Medium Education created Class Differences in Indian Society.
    People studied in English medium schools consider vernacular School Students Illitrate. Even English medium schools have fine on speaking native indian languages in school campus. That’s ridiculous.
    How could it be possible in india ?
    English was a tribal language of Anglo saxan Gemanic tribe. And it has less vocabulary of its own.
    60% of its vocabulary comes from latin and 30% from french and other languages.
    How could it be superior than native indian languages who have rich vocabulary and vast literature ?
    English is just 600 year old And has no writtng system of its own. It adopted roman script for writing.
    English should be teached as langauage in india not medium of instruction. And more emphasis should be given on speaking fluent english rather than craminng and mugging grammer.

  5. To all the the language fanatics out there – it is quite possible to preserve culture while teaching English medium in schools. The two don’t contradict each other at all.

    In many European countries, both the mother language AND English is taught in school. All Icelanders talk fluent English, while talking to each other in Icelandic.

    If you want to promote Indian culture, promote and nurture it’s indigenous art, music and literature. Put a number on each of these and see what we have come to:

    How many Indians listen to Indian classical music?
    How many Indians pursue or enjoy classical Indian dance forms like Kathak or Kuchupudi?
    How many Indians actively read classic literature in their mother language?
    How many authors in Indian languages of the caliber ofl Rabindranath Tagore do we have right now?
    How many people watch Arnab Goswami shouting on top of his voice about Indian cultural degradation while using borderline abusive language?

  6. Firstly what is the reach of this channel..
    The author starts with his experience of going in shared auto in Kashmir., so u know good English, so that should make u rich right then why u were using shared Auto?
    And u know good English then why have u not done PhD in Germany or England?
    There are only 1 to 2 lakhs jobs are created each year in Information technology Industry, how is that going to help one billion people get jobs??
    How many Indians really work for foreign companies? There are very less jobs in MNCs.
    Every year 2 lakhs Indians go to higher education in USA, out of more than 200 million students.
    And how many Indians can go abroad just because they know English??
    We don’t have regional jobs at all??
    One more thing is in India regional languages like Telugu, Tamil has more news paper readers than English.

    You must be aware that if u were working in any regional news channel, u would get better payment than in English.
    One more thing is English is only limited to jobs which are mainly related global business environment.
    Just look how many people are writing comments, if the same post was in any of the regional languages also u would be getting tons of traffic and make huge money.
    Practically we have more jobs in the regional markets, where regional languages are used and payment is decent.
    And English jobs are below average and temporary only. Once America stops outsourcing the projects to India then there be no jobs to English medium students.

    English is not the language of jobs anymore

    • भाईसाहब आपने बिलकुल ठीक बताया है आपके इस प्रतिक्रिया में……भाईसाहब इन लोगों को यह सब समझने का कोई विशेष फायदा नहीं है… इन जैसे लोग इसी देश का खाते हैं और इसी देश के संस्कृति एवम् विविधताओं पर हंसते है….कुल मिलाकर बात सिर्फ इतनी है के इस आदमी को अंग्रेज बनने की कुछ ज्यादा ही जल्दी है।

  7. Dear Kili Jolsiyar:
    I see you have one common and valid point in your thoughts: “is it practically possible to teach mother tongue to children who have moved from their native place to a different state in India?”. My answer to this is “absolutely yes”. Hear me out before you make judgments.

    First, we see that several parents are preferring English medium because of its global prominence. Does that preference make it the right choice for our future generations? My humble opinion is that it is a misguided preference that will only have detrimental effects in the not too foreseeable future if we continue on the same path. My assertion is based on the fact that “language, identity and culture are interconnected”. When I say language, it includes any mother tongue across the world including English. When you start ignoring mother languages, the diverseness of our country will begin to erode. In fact, this erosion has already begun.

    In today’s world, the mother language can be established in other states (in fact in any country too if we put in proper efforts). A key tool that can help us is technology. You know that anyone can watch a news channel or a movie of any language in any part of the country. Is it so difficult to use TV or a similar tool to teach mother tongue as part of school curriculum? When several parents have no objection in letting children watch Englush rhymes or games (which is depressing to see), why can’t we utilize some of that time to teach their mother tongue? As far as teaching a language of the state where they reside, some spoken classes initially would be good enough along with basics of the alphabet. This local language can be kept out of academic grading. Overall, I think this is practically possible without excessively burdening children.

    • Mr Bhargav K: Thank you very much for your sober feedback to my comments.

      You are completely right in your observation that the rapid inroads that English is making all over the world, including in India has had a deleterious effect on linguistic diversity. Languages are dying off at a fast clip (ref: nyti.ms/39ZNcn6) and we as human beings are poorer culturally when that happens. Thus, colonial languages such as English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese etc. displace indigeneous languages in the regions where the coloniser sets his feet. For instance, ever since China annexed Tibet in 1950-51, the Sinicization policies of the Chinese state have marginalised the Tibetan language and culture and have sought to erase the Tibetan identity. Exactly as you point out in your comment.

      Yes, like you, I too find it tragic that many parents – themselves poor in English – get their children to regurgitate English nursery rhymes and attempt to speak to them in English. I remember that as a child growing up in Madras in the 70s, many of my friends would address their parents as “mummy” or “daddy”, would speak English at home and took pride in their English skills. You aptly describe this situation as “depressing” and I fully agree with you. I do not argue for the replacement of the mother tongue by English. Not at all.

      But my previous comments have not been about culture, identity and the role of language in linking these. I am merely making a limited point about the impracticality, unaffordability and low demand for mother tongue based education in India as NEP envisages. We cannot escape the fact that parents want English medium education and are prepared to make the necessary trade-offs when it comes to loss of culture, identity and so on. Lamentable perhaps, but that is what people want. And if the BJP government tries to force its ill-thought out ideas on the people, there will be serious rioting. And who wants to have another round of the vicious language riots that one saw in the 60s and 70s?

      Today, the GOI spends about 3.8% of GDP (ref:bit.ly/2Du25l2) on education – an abysmally low amount and most of this is anyway wasted in poorly run government schools. If the GOI were to be serious with regard to mother tongue based education, it would have to allocate considerably larger chunks of the budget to education and development of an educational infra-structure in each Indian language. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

      To sum up: my assertions are about the sheer impracticality of mother tongue based education as it applies to all Indian children, and not just children in families that move from one language belt to another. There is much greater demand for education in English medium and it is better to accept this fact rather than fight against the forces of economics. Andhra Pradesh, where government schools too run in English medium seems to grasped this.

      Finally, thanks for the civil, respectful tone in your comment Mr Bhargav K. I appreciate the fact that you are one of the very few that engages in a debate with me as opposed to applying labels to my views. We can surely disagree without getting to be disagreeable to each other.

      Merci beaucoup !

      • I also wanted to mention that I personally like the new NEP overall, especially the focus on activity based learning, teaching of values and development of skills from a young age. If implemented well, this can be a much needed reform we need in our education system.

        • You grossly overrate English. Most Indians will not leave India or even their provinces. They will have to have a good grasp of their mother tongues or Hindi to get ahead. Most Indians will never work in the IT sector. And electronic translation is more and more making it unnecessary to know English. Technical literature in English can be translated with a bit of work. In Japan a minority knows English. The rest get on perfectly well without. Even Israel manages with a Hebrew that was revived after 2500 years !

          Your contempt for Indian languages smacks of a colonial inferiority complex. English is not so great. I far prefer French, and elegant and cultured language. If we have to abandon our languages for English it would be an enormous cultural loss.

          Your own English is full of mistakes, ironically.

      • I had actually posted a lengthy reply with a few more thoughts on your reply. But I am very disappointed that the moderator did not want to publicize the reply and has removed it. Do not know what exactly they found offensive in my reply. I am pretty sure part of my reply did not align with their thoughts expressed in this article.

        The gist of my reply was that it is essential to give importance to mother tongues in today’s India. I am increasingly seeing several Indian parents ashamed of their heritage and don’t want to teach their mother tongue. They have a misinformed idea that everything western is better and have a deep rooted inferiority about our culture. Rather, they should understand how several countries proudly protect their identity and heritage and try to follow that “idea”. Not doing so will only result in children aping someone else in the name of progressiveness and only cause them to grow into confused adults who don’t have any idea of their roots. Only when we embrace our heritage can our future generations realise a “truly developed” India in the future.

        I also mentioned the following in part of my blocked reply but want to say it again now:
        Thanks sir for your respectful dialogue here too. As always, everyone has different opinions on any matter and it doesn’t require that we indulge in name calling. I believe that “only when you give respect, you can get respect”. That is the best way to bring positive change. I am not sure if this reply will also be blocked but hope it gets through.

    • Commonsense: Are you trying to suggest that what works in Germany or many other richer European countries with small homogeneous populations will work in India with upwards of 450 recognized languages, 22 major regional languages and a small education budgets ? Not to speak of distance, rural vs urban divides and a weak educational infra-structure?

    • Commonsense: Your pathetic comment reminds me of a quote from the French writer François_Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (1694-1778)

      “Common sense is not so common” !!!

  8. There are many commenters here who support mother tongue education. But it is odd that that one almost never meets any of them whilst one is in India !

    Yes, it is my anecdotal experience that nobody wants to study in local languages. Even in my extended family, as well as neighbours in the apartment complex in Madras where my parents live and in my extended friends circle, I am yet to meet a parent who does not want English medium education. Without exception, they also want their wards to study a foreign language to improve possibilities of work and education outside India.

    Indeed, I have noticed that even staunch BJP supporters have started hedging their bets. They grudgingly admit that under the BJP/RSS regime, there is far too much Hindutva, Hinditva, pseudoscience and economic and political turbulence in India and want their kids to get out. NEP appears to be the hair that broke the camel’s back for the middle classes, particularly the South Indian ones.

    • Your obsession with English as the great answer for India is absurd.

      Most Indians are going to stay in India, in their own provinces. Without a good grasp of their mother tongues or Hindi they will not get far. Comparatively few Indians will be employed by the IT sector. With electronic translation becoming ever more sophisticated the need to know English will diminish fast. Technical literature is often in English but can be translated. In Japan no more than a minority speaks English. The majority manage just fine without. Israel functions splendidly with a Hebrew they revived after 2500 years. The difference between the strength of will of the Israelis who made a long dead language the national language when few knew itat the start, and the weak will power India which fails to make Hindi the national language even when half of the population knows it, is mind-boggling.

      English in itself lacks beauty. French is far more elegant and cultured.

      Your own English is clumsy and crude.

  9. There are many commenters who rightly point out the importance of education in the mother tongue. And a considerable body of research supports their view. Indeed, most richer, developed countries generally have education in the national language – right from the primary school stage and all the way up to graduate studies at universities. Even countries where the national languages are spoken by less than 10 million people have this approach. Norway, Sweden, Finland and even Iceland (pop. 364,000) resort to teaching in the national language i.e. the mother tongues of most students.

    But the trillion dollar question is not whether schooling in the child’s mother tongue is beneficial but the implementability of mother tongue based education in India. One needs to scrutinise many important questions pertaining to feasibility, actual demand, parental preferences, school and educational infra-structure, availability of teachers etc. etc.

    I raise a few questions and I venture my own answers.

    1: Can schooling in the mother tongue be realistically deployed in India – across 25 states and in some 22 odd languages ?
    ANSWER: NO
    There is simply no educational infra-structure for offering schooling in most of the 8th Schedule languages. Pupils with mother tongues such as Bodo, Santhali, Konkani, Dogri etc. face additional pressures as these languages are written in many scripts or even have no widely accepted, single script. No teacher training facilities are available in many of these languages nor are there textbooks, teaching aids, standardised tests, a developed vocabulary in the context of schooling etc. etc. Indeed, even for more widely used languages such as Tamil, Telugu etc., English language textbooks and terminology is being used.

    2: Is there parental preference and demand for such schooling in the mother tongue?
    ANSWER: NO.
    Parents recognize the practical difficulties of schooling in languages with weak educational infra-structures and also the need to futureproof their child’s education. English is preferred. Indeed, recognising parental preferences, Andhra Pradesh has gone all out and instituted English medium in government schools.

    3: What costs would be incurred by the Centre and the States as a result of this shift to mother tongue based schooling ?
    ANSWER: A LOT !
    As of now, the GOI spends a low 3,8% of GDP on education. Compared with Norway (8%), Finland (6.9%), France (5.7%) and other OECD countries, this is a low figure. Burdening a creaking, underfunded system with the additional costs needed to move to a mother tongue based education will necessitate much higher outlays for education. Not only to transition but also to keep the new multi-lingual system operating in many languages.

    4: Will a mother tongue based system hinder mobility across India ?
    ANSWER: WILL HINDER MOBILITY
    Today, most big cities like Bombay, Madras, Delhi, Bangalore etc. have seen a surge in migrant workers from the hinterlands. So, how would the child of an Oriya speaking family fare in a Tamil medium school? Or will this kid have to find an Oriya medium school in Madras? Additionally, many large cities have long settled linguistic minorities. Thus, there are many Telugu and Malayalam speaking families in Madras. How would their children fare in Tamil medium schools? As the richer southern and Hindi-less states have prospered, they have attracted many North Indian settlers. How for instance will a Hindi speaking family get their child to study in fiendishly complex languages like Tamil or Malayalam ?

    BOTTOMLINE: While education in the mother tongue is surely beneficial and works in small, rich countries with 1 or at the most 2 languages and a long history of teaching in that language, that model will not work in India. India’s linguistic heterogeneity, demographics, internal and external migration patterns, small educational budgets as well as important historical factors such as the prevalence of English make education in mother tongue an infeasible option. Additionally, there is no uniform educational infra-structure for teaching in the many languages that Indians speak, especially when they themselves are linguistic minorities in other states. This idea should be scuttled.

  10. I did my 10 in Verna and +2 and professional course in English and now senior teacher in a professional college teaching in English medium. Didn’t find any difficulty in any stage. In fact I found it immensely advantageous to be able to read and write in my mother tongue and think in my own language.

    • Mr Srijan: Your anecdotal experience cannot be generalised to all Indian languages, to all strata of society and to all parts of the country. Problems with your sweeping statement are:

      1: You do not mention the language you were educated in. Were you educated in an Indian language that is relatively widespread and has some semblance of educational infra-structure in terms of availability of teachers, textbooks, computer aids, an examination infra-structure and so on? For instance, were you educated in the relatively less used langauges such as Santhali, Bodo, Konkani, Oriya, Dogri ? Or were you educated in more prevalent languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Tamil etc.?

      2: You do not mention whether you studied in rural India or in urban in India. After all, educational facilities are less developed in rural India aren’t they?

      3: You do not mention the stratum of society you belong to. Did you choose the local language because you could not afford education in English?

      4: You do not mention whether the choice of education in an Indian language was by necessity i.e. non-availability of English options or whether it was by choice.

      Care to factor in these aspects when you generalise Mr Srijan?

  11. The writer of this article is ignorance personified. Here is why I say so: How to learn English well? (Kindly share with as many people as you can): The following quote from a UNESCO worldwide study tells that: ‘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 peoples’ eyes. One such myth is that the best way to learn a foreign 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 foreign 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 foreign 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, Improving the Quality of Mother Tongue-Based Literacy and Learning, pp.2, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000177738)
    This is what the British government agency for teaching English worldwide, The British Council, states on the issue:“There is little or no evidence to support the widely held view that EMI (English as Medium of Instruction) is a better or surer way to attain fluency in English than via quality EaS (English as Subject). Expert estimates are that it takes pupils six to eight years to develop the cognitive and academic language proficiency (CALP) needed to support learning across the curriculum. A move to EMI in or just after lower primary, commonly found in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, yields too shallow a foundation of English to sustain learning across the curriculum from the upper primary years onwards. Early introduction of EMI is thus viewed as impairing learning in the formative years and limiting educational attainment.”(English Language and the Medium of Instruction in Basic Education…, 2017, pp.3)
    Research proves that the persons above 15 years of age learn foreign/second language quicker and better than the younger ones. Research also shows that the gap in educational achievements between rich and poor children is less if mother tongue is the medium of education in comparison to foreign language medium of education.
    My videos on language issues are available in Hindi and Punjabi at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcuqlzPpaMJogbwN3I6DLkg/videos?view_as=subscriber&fbclid=IwAR201FwT3EKmLXp3alGGegfxfHeLZszzg4Glao__zMmF9_hU-LFlIYFMt0A
    My booklet titled‘International Opinion on Language Issues: Mother Tongue is the Key to Education, Knowledge, Science and English Learning’ provides detailed information on the findings of worldwide research and expert opinion on language matters and the current international linguistic scene. It is available in Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Maithili, Dogri, Nepali, Marathi, Kosali, Hindi, Urdu and English from the websites https://archive.org/details/@joga_virk?tab=uploads and http://punjabiuniversity.academia.edu/JogaSingh/papers. Some of my other write-ups are also available on these sites.
    jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co.in +91-9915709582, 9988531582 (Whatsapp)

    • Mr Joga Singh Virk: You are absolutely right when you cite research about the efficacy of mother tongue based education, especially in the initial primary school phase of a child’s schooling. That is not the bone of contention here. What a few other commenters such as Ms Manjari, Rena, Ms Asha Pramod, Ms Kiran K, Messrs. Rajan, Sridhar Reddy, Kiran Maddu and myself point out is the sheer impracticality of mother tongue based education in a country as diverse as India with its linguistic, demographic, class and other complexities.

      For instance, as a Punjabi, were you to move to Madras and the only education available was in Tamil medium, what would be the consequences for your child? After all, you wouldn’t be speaking Tamil in your home and you would not be able to assist your child with homework etc. in Tamil. You might even run into difficulties communicating with the school. And now imagine getting transferred to Trivandrum and the language changing to Malayalam. How would you and your child cope with this ? Not very well I am afraid.

      I deliberately cited South Indian examples in my previous paragraph. India’s southern states have vociferously rejected Hindi and have opted for the English + local language formula with an increasing emphasis on English medium education, especially in urban areas. And they have been able to reap the benefits of a relatively larger English speaking population in that most of India’s vast IT services sector have been based out of South India. The resulting influx of both skilled and unskilled North Indians from the “gaurakshak belts” have actually benefited from the availability of English medium education. The guards and menial workers in my parents’ apartment complex in Madras are happy that their children get English medium education and see that as a ticket out of poverty for their kids.

      Indians have leveraged English to their advantage. Unlike the political class – particularly the RSS & the BJP – which views and projects English solely in nationalistic and cultural terms, the vast majority have Indians reject that view in practice. They see the commercial benefits of English and endorse the language. Mother tongue based education is dead on arrival in India.

      • You say: “Indians have leveraged English to their advantage. Unlike the political class – particularly the RSS & the BJP – which views and projects English solely in nationalistic and cultural terms, the vast majority have Indians reject that view in practice. They see the commercial benefits of English and endorse the language. Mother tongue based education is dead on arrival in India.”

        This is an absurd statement. You must know that every state in India does impart education in the local main language. And today the use of digital technology is vastly empowering the mother tongues and Hindi. Knowing them well is essential economically. Western countries that allowed Indian immigration are closing their doors. The USA is being replaced by China as the premier world power. China gets along fine with Chinese. no reason why India can’t with Hindi.

  12. fools why do u need english.. so isro leader sivan had his schooling in english. is it?…. former president kalam…. mother plays a role idiots

    • You are the idiot
      India is not a Hindi country
      It is Sanskrit
      Why is Hindi forced into everyone without a vote in it?
      Is this the priority now? Just like the arrogant stupidity of Ram Mandir!!
      Focus on what matters . And by the way you call everyone fools because you are stupid!!!

    • Mr Monish Keshav: Your puerile post reminds me of a quote from the American politician and author Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

      “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do “

  13. An absolutely biased article reflecting the prejudices and the ignorance of the author and perhaps those of the elitist english language school lobby. Print should not allow such one sided, amateurish articles without publishing the other view also. Please listen into the expert debates on TV and learn to distinguish between english medium and learning english as a language .
    The NEP only says medium of instruction should be the mother tongue/local language and that too in primary school. Whether we like it or not It is accepted world wide that in the initial years schooling pedagogy should be in the mother tongue. How will a child who doesn’t understand english learn basic maths? Neither the teacher, nor the student nor the parent in rural areas knows english enough to guide the children. In fact by insisting on mother tongue everywhere- even in the ‘english medium schools’ the NEP is actually making it a level playing field. If we don’t teach children in their mother tongues in India who will? English as a language will anyway be taught and that has nothing to do with english as a medium of instruction. And after primary schooling anyway English can be a medium. Let us get rid of our colonial and slavish mind set.

    • Definitely not. English is used by 30% of the world population. This is the link language in India too because chaste Hindi is used in some north Indian states like Uttar Pradesh only. If u look at the spelling of lever in the back of lorries, you can see written as liver. This occurs because English is NOT taught at all in school. It should be started from the primary school itself or else correct usage and pronunciation will get affected.

      • Exactly!
        And look at the H1B who are abroad. The BIGGEST issue with them is not speaking good English
        They say yes when they mean No, they say ok when they are actually meaning -I understand but the other person is saying- your work shows a lack of understanding of your job.
        Many are protected by their consulting firm goons otherwise H1B visa from Indua would have stopped long ago
        And they all hanging around to get a green card in the USA
        Maybe instead of Hindi, Modi and his goons need to focus on keeping their dear Hindi speaking idiots at home in Indua?!!!?

        • Agree with you Ms Rena. Loved your sharp, no holds-barred, no prisoners taken attack !

          India’s jingoistic middle classes might scream theselves hoarse that “there is no alternative to Modi”, India needs a decisive, Delhi University educated Gujarati to run the show and so on and so forth. But many know which side of the bread is buttered and will not sacrifice their own interests to uphold the atavistic ideals of the RSS and the BJP. Mother tongue based education seriously compromises the future prospects of children and will only sow massive confusion as there is no proper infra-structure to teach in the 22 odd regional languages.

          Indian education suffers from stratification based on class and the rural urban divide. It will now face another level of stratification as richer, better educated South Indian states reject mother tongue based education and deploy English with greater vigour. Andhra Pradesh has already done so with all government schools now using English medium.

          In any case, the groin scratching gaurakshaks that go on a rampage in Adityanathisthan are what Modi needs to keep his electoral machine running. The South – barring the Yedyurappa lovers of Karnataka – has soundly rejected the BJP and its attempts to create a Hindi speaking, Hindu Pakistan. Meanwhile, for the short time that federalism will survive in the country under Modi, one needs to keep these crazy, self-defeating educational policies of the RSS at bay.

      • Excellent comment Mr Ravikumar Bhaskaran Menon !

        Almost all the servants, guards and menial workers in the apartment complex in Madras where my parents live are from UP and Bihar. They are extremely happy with the fact that they can get to send their children to English Medium schools in the South, something they could not do so in their backward North Indian states. The BJP and Adityanath and Modi might scream from rooftops about Hindutva and Hinditva. But many of their North Indian victims are quiety voting with their feet and escaping to the South. In the end, I guess only itche groined, testicle scratching gaurakshaks will be left behind in these states !!

    • “How will a child who doesn’t understand English learn basic maths?” It is impracticable to teach Maths in five different languages in one school, especially in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore where students speak different mother tongues. Will the school get different language-speaking teachers for one subject or maybe a Maths teacher who speaks 5 languages?

  14. The 8th Schedule to the Constitution of India lists 22 different languages, these being: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri. Barring Sanskrit, most of these languages roughly correspond to regions or states in India. Additionally, there are 38 languages that have asked for inclusion in the 8th schedule, see ref: bit.ly/3gkCvOa

    The “educational infra-structure” for each of these languages varies considerably with the richer Southern states better equipped to teach in the state’s language – as compared to North Indian states. And by my hastily concocted and rather crude term “educational infra-structure” for a given language, I refer to the following: availability of textbooks, teachers trained in that language, availability of teaching aids, Internet materials, computer hardware and language specific keyboards, software, exam and testing capabilities, standardisation of syllabi across languages, availability of schools and classrooms and so on. And as things stand, many of the languages in the 8th Schedule have poor to non-existent educational infra-structure.

    Additionally, the existing education infrastructure in major languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi etc. is already creaking. Expansion to newer languages is simply not possible in the short run, perhaps not even in the long run. At least not without massive funding, read taxes.

    The mother tongue based schooling idea of the NEP is going to be rejected both by parents as well as by states. Already, Andhra Pradesh has made English the medium of instruction in all government schools and is unlikely to implement NEP. NEP is dead on arrival !

  15. Such a limited view of use of mother tongue. Most of the developed countries in the world use their mother tongue in everything.
    Is Japan backward in using mother tongue?
    Is Germany ,France and whole of EU backward?
    Is Norway and whole of EEA?
    Is USA ? UK whose mother tongue is English?

    The best and most advanced nations work and talk in their mother tongues.

    Mother tongue is the most important aspect for a nation to Prosper, appreciate values and culture .

    India must nurture its originality , develop all technologies in Indian languages…This is sustainable.

  16. I know this is a stupid as you are not grasping clearly. But the policy is for fixing the developmental issues of kids in their early years only and it doesn’t restrict anybody learning as many languages as exist in the world. Just shut up and stop lecturing what you feel is the only good thing.

  17. I know this is a hate India Chanel. But the policy is for fixing the developmental issues of kids in their early years only and it doesn’t restrict anybody learning as many languages as exist in the world. Just shut up and stop lecturing what you feel is the only good thing.

  18. Working as a language assistant in an European country, teaching English, I have to say that not all developed nations have succeeded by getting educated in their native language. If English wasn’t necessary, why would there be programs funded by the government (in developed nations) to teach English? Ex: Aux program in France, Spain, and Japan are just few examples that I am aware of. I know there are many.

    • All the people who are supporters of Mother Tongue medium are simply hypocrites, they will or would have sent their children to English Medium schools.. Mostly they want less competition for their children from village students..

  19. You are one of the best writers and I really like your arguments. But I guess you are 200 years a head of our culture. I will say tone down – you have the best thoughts for better India and a very reasonable India – but Indias neither want it to be better or reasonable – they need the resonance of WE WE WE WE ….sort of things in their life, even though it is not a pragmatic in the long run. We look for buzz rather than content. Finally to conclude – Yes If we need to evolve and compete with the World – time has come to admit English is the New Sanskrit (it takes another 200 years for common man to realize this). We do not have the proven science written in our own mother tounges (like Germans or Koreans or Chinese, so we cannot hang on to the drama of mother tongue). Then conceptual learning and making language as one of the essential components of admission into professional colleges and also funding to research and creating more jobs in Academia. That is the only way education evolves – rest is all intellectual gamble (we are experts in that since ages so no worries). Most of my education is in my mother tongue Telugu – but now I am a faculty in one of the world class universities – but the transition was so tough.

    • We don’t have proven science in our mothe tongue just wow at your ignorance

      Surya siddhantha
      Hindu calendar
      Ayurveda
      Sushrata samhita
      Kannada numerals
      Sulba shastra

      Just to name a few but the list is endless.

      This is a prime example of colonized mind and psyche when instead of looking inwards we look outwards. Only when it comes through western reimport and recycling like yoga we appreciate the heritage.

      • Neil: You left out the following major contributions of Indian Science which were discussed in the Indian Science Congress:

        – Narendra Modi gravitational waves proposed in the 106th Indian Science Congress (ref: bit.ly/33na2U3)

        – Vedic aircraft that facilitated inter-planetary travel using fuels derived from the faeces and urine of cows as explained in the Indian Science Congress of 2015, see ref: bit.ly/39OwjeU

        Shame on You for this lapse !

    • If we keep copying and adapting everything of other Western countries we won’t have anything of our own….

      Everyone has adapted to Western clothes… Now you guys have problem with Hindi language… No one in America can’t speak English because it is the language of that region…

      Hindi is the language of India …. It is one of the things that defines and differentiates us as Indians….

      It is good to have originality of your own … Rather than being a replica of another….

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