[lg policy] India: Smriti Irani fiddles with language policy while education burns

Sat Jan 30 15:44:33 UTC 2016

Command and control
January 30, 2016, 12:03 am IST Kanti Bajpai
<http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/author/kantibajpai/> in TOI Edit
Page <http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/> *|* Edit Page
<http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/>, India
<http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/> *|*

The HRD minister wants to make Sanskrit compulsory in schools. What an
ambition! India’s educational system is in shambles and needs a massive
overhaul. Smriti Irani meanwhile wants to fiddle with language policy, Nero
like, while the education sector languishes and is convulsed by
controversial, badly-conceived reforms and appointments.

Personally, I loved learning Sanskrit back when I was a schoolboy. I found
it easier than Hindi, and I enjoyed its structure and rhythms. Quite why
everyone in India should have to learn Sanskrit, though, is beyond me.

The three-language policy of the 1960s was a sensible compromise that
assuaged the feelings of those who were not Hindi speakers. It said
essentially that everyone should learn Hindi, the national language, at
some point in their school careers. In addition, Indians were to be taught
in their state language. Finally, they were to know English, again up to
some level of competence, so that India had a link language across the
length and breadth of the country.

The three-language policy never quite worked as well as its engineers
hoped. Some states went slow on Hindi, others on English, and a few on
both. Nevertheless, Hindi is the fastest growing language in India. It has
therefore joined, indeed surpassed English as the link language. Despite
the games that various states played with the policy, ordinary Indians
invested in Hindi and to a much lesser extent in English. And of course
they studied in their state languages.

If it is not broke, why fix it? If the three-language formula has worked,
why is the minister playing around with it when there are so many other
things to do in the education sector? India is united by many cultural,
social, economic and political links between people. Surely it does not
need tinkering with the language policy to deepen its unity.

The Sanskrit initiative has little to do with national unity or improving
education standards. It probably has everything to do with a cultural
agenda. BJP ideologues want control of the commanding heights of culture
and knowledge-production to reshape the “idea of India” in ways that will
help the party politically. School and higher education is the key to
establishing control and the way we think about our political choices.

Poor old Sanskrit is to be the vehicle for this programme. Classical
languages, the world over, don’t do well as languages of daily use. They
never did. That is the lesson of Latin and classical Mandarin. In the case
of classical Arabic and classical Greek speakers are diglossic, that is,
they move in and out of the classical and modern variants depending on the
linguistic occasion and context. But in these two latter cases, there was
no real break in the use of the classical variant. That is hardly the case
with Sanskrit. It was never widely spoken or written, even in northern
India.

There are those who genuinely love Sanskrit and quite understandably want
it to flourish linguistically. Is this the motive of the HRD minister?
Kanimozhi, DMK MP, has been quoted as saying: “Sanskrit is a very Hindu
language, it is not used by Christians or Muslims. So why do you want to
impose it on everyone?” She was speaking rhetorically of course and has
provided the answer to her own question. Her point is that Sanskrit is
sought to be imposed precisely because it is associated with Hindus.

One of the very real problems of India’s school education is the appalling
way languages are taught – all our languages including English. Hindi
should be taught effectively, as hundreds of millions use it even if many
are relatively “passive” users. English is the greatest world language,
whether we like it or not, and something must be done to check alarmingly
declining standards. And the state languages must be taught well for
cultural and educational reasons.

The HRD minister should turn her attention to fixing the general level of
language teaching and attainment rather than wasting time over Sanskrit
instruction. Language is the vehicle of thought. Knowing a language well is
a vital skill; it is not mere cultural adornment.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/command-and-control/

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write
directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this
may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20160130/a69180a6/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list