When I returned to India after years, my
first desire was to speak in my mother tongue in my motherland. I was visiting
India on a nostalgic note to connect with my roots and to let my son connect
with his. He is born in Europe and is multi-lingual, well-versed in German,
French, English and yes, Hindi. I want him to learn the mother-tongue. In a
foreign country, separated seven seas by his ancestral land as also his
mother’s land, his only connect with the country is the language. While many of
the second-generation Indians prefer to speak English with their children, my
love for my country never let me do this injustice to my child.
Language is the thread that connects hearts
to hearts. Until I was growing up in India, proud of my very middle class
upbringing as also my bilingual linguistic abilities, I always preferred to
speak English. Not only for my articulation as also appreciation of my neutral
accent, but I also took proud in speaking the language of the elite. The
abilities took me far. Far ahead I imagined at an early stage of my life. And
it was only when I was far rooted from my motherland, I saw the big divide in
India. The English speaking elite as opposed to the intellectual in retrospect,
possibly original thinkers who spoke only one language, the Hindi. As I
globe-trotted, I was often asked, so what language do you speak. Proudly, I
always replied, that most of us speak English. And the instant response was, 'right, India was the former colony of the British and you have a legacy from
your imperialist rulers. You are benefitting from the language. Apparently all
the call centers and back office work is getting shifted to India.’ I do not know how does an average Indian feel
about this, but personally, having globetrotted, the emerging call center
culture does not make me very proud. It made me question, why did the British
introduce English in the first place? Was their objective to unite India, to
emancipate India or to connect India to the world. Actually speaking, none of
these. Lord Macualy, who is credited with introduction of English, as a medium
of instruction in the country, while presenting his thoughts in “Minute Upon
Indian Education” stated:
“We must at present do our best to form a
class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a
class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in
opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the
vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of
science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees
fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”
Today, having successfully fulfilled that
objective, Lord Macualy must be smiling in his grave. We have a class of
Indians, who speak the language of the elite, all the new literature is
produced in the language of the elite and your success in life, in modern India
depends more on the knowledge of foreign language and literature, then the
knowledge of your own national language or mother tongue.
Today, someone’s knowledge of Hindi,
Sanskrit, or any of the vernacular languages will not get him even a post as
collector in a distant Indian village; rather one should be able to speak
fluent English to clear even entrance exams. One’s knowledge of the rich Indian
literature, of the thoughts of Premchand, Bharatahiri, shlokas from Bhagwad
Geeta or the Chankaya Neeti will not help one clear the interview and the group
discussion; instead I must know what Shakespeare and Mark Twain said.
There are many negative fallouts with this.
First, on one hand, while the modern English-speaking elite is getting
connected to the outer world, whereas on the other, the simple Hindi-speaking
villager is getting more and more disconnected to his own Indian fellows.
Second, language is an important thread in
a culture. Language unites people. When I speak French to a French, they
consider me as one of their own. But when I am speaking in English, to an
Indian which is a foreign language for both of us, what is the emotional
connection that we develop?
Third, one of the frequent criticisms, one
reads in newspapers against Hindi in offices is that English produces
intellect. But this is not true. It is well-known that different parts of the
brain perform different functions. Left-brained people are usually more
logical, analytical and objective whereas the right-brained are known to be
intuitive, thoughtful and subjective. Intellect is a function of the brain, as
also a desire to learn. No language, until it teaches you logic can help
develop your logic. If the objective was to develop logic, then why do not we
have German as the official language? German is much more structured, much more
logical and hardly has any exceptions. Or perhaps Sanskrit or Latin, which
albeit dead, are extremely logical languages.
If we really want to connect India to the
world, we must first have a cultural and linguistic ethos that connects each
one of us to each other. It is sad to see that India is the ‘only’ country of
its size and history, that does not have one common language spoken by all its
citizens.
If language means intellect, I believe the
nation should embrace the diversity of its languages. Some 450 million Indians speak Hindi and the
language is that Hindi is the only means of communication for them. So, this perhaps is the easiest way to spread literacy and education amongst those millions of Indians.
And finally, I am not arguing to turn away
from English. I only argue to take pride in Hindi. I only argue for the country
to have a national language that unites the country and that everyone can speak
perfectly. So, either, we should invest enough in teaching some 1.3 billion in
speaking coherent, perfect, mother-tongue like English or we should embrace and
officially communicate in a language that the nation naturally speaks.
