Former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu writes: We should shed colonial legacy by creating content in mother languages

Why in News?

• The article highlights the critical need to preserve mother languages in the light of International Mother Language Day being observed recently.
• Mother's tongue/language is defined as the first language a child is exposed to from the time of birth and this language is first naturally acquired by humans.

 

International Mother Language Day

• About: The day is celebrated on the 21st of February every year to preserve and promote linguistic diversity and promoting mother tongue-based multilingual education.
  • UNESCO has been celebrating this day since 2000.
• Background: The declaration came up in tribute to the Language Movement done by the Bangladeshis (the then East Pakistanis) and in response to the declining state of many languages all over the world.
  • In Bangladesh the 21 February is the anniversary of the day when Bangladeshis fought for recognition for the Bangla language.
• This year’s theme, “Multilingual education — a necessity to transform education,” underscores the importance of using multiple languages in framing an impactful system of education.

 

Critical Need to Celebrate Mother Language Day

• The grim situation all over the world with 40 per cent of the speakers of 6,700 languages not having access to education in their mother tongue underlines pressing need to preserve natal languages.
• It is also significant in the Indian context because of the threat westernisation poses to the survival of as many as 42 of our dialects and languages which have fewer than 10,000 users.
• In the light of this, revitalising languages that are disappearing is the need because mother tongue helps in expressing with authenticity, an individual’s deepest thoughts, feelings, values and ideals, as also the literary endeavours.
• The UNESCO also expresses concern that a monolingual system of education may impact negatively learning performance, and the development of socio-emotional and foundational literacy skills.
  • Thus, multilingual education has pivotal role in upholding cultural and linguistic diversity.

 

Need to Preserve India’s Unique Lingual Diversity

• India is an ancient repository of hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects with rich linguistic and cultural diversity.
• India’s languages, hence being an integral part of her ancient culture, give us a sense of identity.
• However, as India celebrates Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, to mark 75 years of Independence, she has not been able to shed her colonial legacy of dependence on English.
  • Educators and parents continue to accord unquestioned primacy to English and, as a result, the child is compelled to study his or her mother tongue as a “second/third language” at school.
  • This is concerning as a number of studies have shown that children who learn in their mother tongue in their formative years perform better than those taught in an alien language.
• The emphasis on English has also made India’s educational system exclusive and restrictive.
  • For example, limiting the acquisition of knowledge in technical and professional courses to English medium has made it inaccessible to a vast majority of students.
  • In a survey conducted by AICTE in 2022, nearly 44 per cent of over 83,000 students voted in favour of studying engineering in their mother tongue.
• Unfortunately, India has scarcely seemed to realise that we were building barriers in the path of our progress by promoting English language alone.

 

Attempts to Promote Mother Language in India

• The Nobel Prize-winning physicist C V Raman said, “We must teach science in our mother tongue. Otherwise, science will become an activity in which all people can’t participate.”
• Mahatma Gandhi, in Young India in 1921, expressed concerns that the foreign medium has turned our children into crammers and imitators.
  • The foreign medium has made our children practically foreigners in their own land.
• The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 - a farsighted document, which advocates education in one’s mother tongue right from the primary-school level.
  • The PM of India while addressing the first anniversary of the NEP also hailed the AICTE’s landmark decision to permit BTech programmes in 11 native languages.
  • He added that the NEP’s emphasis on mother tongue as the medium of instruction will instill confidence in students belonging to poor, rural and tribal
• The UGC also in a welcome move, written to governors and CMs of various states to give a fillip to measures for the promotion of mother tongue education in colleges and universities.
• The Centre’s initiative to give prominence to native languages in employment and job creation is a welcome step.
• The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has also decided to conduct examinations in 13 Indian languages in addition to Hindi and English.
• Similarly, the Supreme Court’s decision to make verdicts accessible in all Indian languages is of great significance.

 

Constitutional Provisions Related to Mother Language in India

• Article 29 (Protection of interests of minorities): It gives all citizens right to conserve their language and prohibits discrimination on the basis of language.
• Article 120 (Language to be used in Parliament): It provides for use of Hindi or English for transactions in Parliament but gives the right to members of Parliament to express themselves in their mother tongue.
• Article 350A (Facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at primary stage): It provides that it shall be the endeavour of every State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups.
• Article 350B (Special Officer for linguistic minorities): The President should appoint a special officer for linguistic minorities to investigate all matters relating to the constitutional safeguards for linguistic minorities and to report to him/her such matters.

 

Promoting Vernacular Language Further

• Mainstreaming of mother tongue-based multilingual education should be accorded the highest priority.
• The process of content creation in mother languages, especially with respect to technical and professional courses need to be hastened by leveraging technology.
• Fast-track methods should be adopted to make quality education more accessible, equitable and inclusive by recognizing the role of artificial intelligence in transforming the educational landscape globally.
• All key stakeholders in education like policymakers, schools, colleges and universities, teachers, regulatory institutions and non-governmental bodies must also be involved to give fillip to mother language.

 

Conclusion

• The mother tongue is the eyesight and spectacles to other languages. The spectacles can function properly only if there is eyesight.
• Hence this analogy needs to be kept in mind while framing policies, in administration and in pedagogy.

 

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Q1) What does the eighth schedule deal with?

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the official languages of  India in Articles 343 to 351 comprising 22 languages like Hindi, Nepali, Bodo etc. 

 

Q2) Which article provides a directive for development of the Hindi language? 

Article 351 of Indian Constitution states that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India.

 

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Source: The Indian Express

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