Macaulay Ghost again!
Let us not impose Hindi on non-Hindi states as of now!
Let us leave education and much else like culture and literature better to educators, thinkers and intellectuals. Certainly, the current political scenario is not conducive to promoting Hindi language. Other Indian languages have equal claims for recognition and promotion.
Much has to be done in promoting regional languages and literatures also. The current atmosphere is fraught with not so liberal outlook nation-wide. Better we devote more attention to other developmental issues. The second term of the current government created a tremendous bout of energy and expectations. The energy and expectations still remain. But also suddenly there is a sort of great let down by the economic slowdown and other developments as in J&K.
In the midst of other new developments came some ghosts, the Macaulay ghost of English medium invasion across schools in the country; schools in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in particular that has opened thousands of English medium schools. This led to a cry of killing the mother tongues and educators and scholars called for new fights and pressure on the state governments to introduce local language medium in schools.
In the meanwhile enters Mr. Amit Shah, the Home Minister whose call for introducing Hindi, the most spoken language by Indians (some 40% of the people), as a national language which Mr. Shah said could unite the country! This raised a hornet’s nest and a spate of voices arose in the South to halt this indirect imposition of Hindi, which in the eyes of the Southerners is an alien language. English language growth is now not in any one country’s domain. English language skills of Indians are propelling the country and economy in an Internet-connected world.
The place of Hindi in the formation of Indian culture and ethos is a highly sensitive issue and it is politically wise to leave the place and growth of languages to a natural evolution and not impose it as a government policy. And we better improve our education standards by all other means. Education itself needs a very deeper intellectual creativity and the government better leave it to experts and thinkers.
Mr. Shah must have his own reasons and moreover timing to talk of Hindi as a national language. Given Mr. Shah’s status and skills as a powerful politician and given the way the governance parameters are drawn today the Hindi language issue might not blow over, it might rather escalate, it seems. Of course, there is a long history of anti-Hindi agitations in the South and given this perspective it is very likely that the question of national language is at the core of the Hindutva agenda and the days to come are likely to be controversial when the larger agenda of new education policy is put to implementation.
Already there are reports that the status of education in India is not so high. The latest report of the rankings of Indian Universities by the Times Higher Education Supplement doesn’t find a place for Indian universities. The status of Indian higher education is very patchy, no Indian university is in the world’s top 300 universities and with this pathetic record what the new all-powerful Modi government is going to achieve in Indian universities education. Also, already the PM had initiated many new schemes like declaring some 25 universities are of national excellence, even some other institutions (promised by some corporate houses) were given this tag.
What is the progress of already so declared central universities? See, education, like any other sector is not an easy one, it requires lot of dedication and determination to bring about quality improvements and given the state in which we find our education progress, a lot needs to be done and it takes time and also some sustained efforts to turn out quality education.
Also, the news comes about another controversy, this time by the Labour Minister Mr. Santosh J Kumar Gangwar who said the other day that there is lack of quality education for students in North India and that is why there is not enough employment generation in the Northern states.
Of course it is often easy to take offence at such remarks and so came the Opposition criticism on the minister’s remarks.
It is very difficult to bring about reforms in education, especially Indian education that has a colonial past gave us what we have still today, namely, the Macaulay Ghost-driven English medium of a low quality. Indian educated classes from the very beginning were clerical -minded peon pushers of a very low motivation and that stream only contributed to so many of our inherent national traits like inferiority complex, a submissive citizenry, a low self-esteemed and subservient mentality.
It is in this big picture we are advocating a very radical change in our outlook when we come to effect any reforms, if at all! Of course, there have been many developments in Indian education. First, there is the tremendous explosion in numbers who attend schools. There are so many new radical and timely changes in new laws like the Right to Education. Today no student of any status can be denied entry into quality schools and even the most prestigious schools can’t deny entry into their portals.
India is a diverse country with diverse socio-economic and cultural variations and so many discriminations and so we have to see things in broader perspectives. Girls education has also seen an explosion and so too the many new innovative welfare schemes like free uniforms and free cycles and even nutrition schemes. Let the parents’ aspirations educate their children in the medium they want.
English language is a universal medium and there is also much social status attached to English and so given the rising awareness about the prestige attached to English we have to retain English as a medium of instruction. Yes, there are academic discussions about the poor quality of instruction; teachers are not there to meet the demand for more teachers. There are a host of other problems. Given the Hindi medium education has rendered even the post graduates in the North Indian states, we have to go slow in the introduction of Hindi as a medium of instruction in more courses.
The IT revolution has given new technologies to impart education online and let us hope, given some more years, let us not tinker with our language policy. Hindi is a great language and given the time and space it would spread wider. So, imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi states is not a wise move as of now.