And for another Friday ……India’s “Achilles heel” – the language quagmire….. some thoughts …. some musings….
India is a huge multilingual country which is divided into States based on the language spoken by the majority of its residents of a given area ……..the issue of language is highly complex igniting emotional responses on language rights & cultural identity within a state ……the framers of India’s Constitution were acutely aware of the potential dangers hence the constitution did not designate any language as the “National language”……Hindi is only the official language of the Union Govt & English is also recognised for official purposes whilst the 8 th Schedule of the Constitution recognises 22 Regional languages …….there are however more than 2000 various dialects & languages some with script & some only oral ……its a massive tapestry of languages loosely woven into a federal structure …….
Politicians of every hue rake up the “ language” issue as a sharp weapon to polarise …. divide communities & curry favour with the majority with narrow short term political goals ….. the recent Maharashtra Govt order making Hindi compulsory as the third language as per NEP & the Shiv Sena agitation by which it is withdrawn to refocus on Marathi only rekindles this “ language monster”…. Tamilnadu leads the southern states in opposing Hindi imposition by any which way ….. Karnataka has its own brigade for street violence for protecting Kannada …..language is hugely emotive …. NEP 2020 ( National Education Policy2020) mandates 3 languages……..it’s a huge burden on students …. In a Bangalore English medium school….. kids in the first standard have to learn compulsorily Kannada , Hindi & of course English irrespective of the language the child speaks at home …… this is the dilemma in all Metro cities of India with NEP …………the issue needs serious introspection…..
Let us not put overemphasis on Mother tongue …. to eliminate English …….In today’s India quite often……..in most Metros in the country …….English is the Mother tongue for the millennials & their kids….. let us support Unity in Diversity…., let’s build India the Unified way …. The Sustainable way …. the SEEGOS way.