‘Idea of mainstreaming’ is weakening our roots.

Any language, which is spoken by not more than 10,000, is not reported in census in India. India is a multilingual country with some thousands of language. Instead of taking pride in our rich linguistic resources we are trying to homogenize the diverse linguistic communities. The ‘Idea of mainstreaming’ is hounding us and we are trying every possible means to realize this idea by choking the ‘side stream’.

Why the government is trying to impose Hindi on this vast multi-lingual country. Imposing Hindi in the name of unity is like carelessly handling the diversity instead of nurturing it. It is the diversity of this nation that makes it unique with the largest number of languages spoken in different parts of the subcontinent. Half of the population of this country does not speak Hindi but the government at the centre (whichever party it is) tries to prove Hindi as the language of Hindustan (India), thanks to the legacy of having most of the prime minister from the Hindi speaking belt. How come people from southern India are expected to speak Hindi? Large numbers of people have died in language wars at various point of time .Tamil Nadu had a fierce battle with the Congress against Hindi imperialism in late 1950s and it had laid the foundation of Dravida movement. They strongly oppose the dominance of Hindi and said they would not accept the second class citizenship in their own country. In eastern part like Orissa, Bengal, Assam and the cluster of seven sisters, strong sentiments for their mother tongue could be seen. They do not speak Hindi. They have their own proud mother-tongue and they all would have serious problem with the imposition of Hindi.

Jammu & Kashmir is a state which largely remains in news for terrorism and militants activities, has the largest number of languages spoken. How many of us know that? These side-stream languages are dying silently. Every fortnight, one language in India dies. Language is a potent force, which helps a community to retain its identity.

As of now Hindi and English are the official languages for the central government and the Constitution of India guarantees state governments the freedom to function in English and their respective languages. But there have been periodic attempts to impose Hindi on non Hindi speaking population. It is important to understand the richness of our languages and the government should try every possible means to conserve and promote them.

The 22 languages that are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution are well known. There are hundreds of other languages which are not even known and are silently dying. In 1961, India had 1,652 recognised mother-tongues, which were narrowed down to about 1,100 well developed languages. Today it is about 800 and there are around 200 endangered Indian languages, which are on the verge of extinction.

There is a great loss of languages with imposition of English. Children at early age of three, four years are forced to learn English instead of their mother tongue which is essential to conserve mother-tongue. The British rule has ended more than 60 years ago but India has yet to come out from the stigma of inferiority due to its colonial rule. The same bureaucracy who had served the colonial power is now serving the national government having undergone no change with dominance of English language in the bureaucratic set-up. The result of Civil service exam 2013 is itself revealing the truth in which top 25 successful candidates are from english medium. Education system in India has many loopholes, the government claims to provide free elementary education to all children. But the condition of government schools in India is pathetic. Except for two or three states, all the Indian states have poor educational statistics. We are proud that more Indian children are in school than ever before, but the quality of government schools has sunk to spectacularly low levels. The children in these schools come from poor families, those who cannot afford to send away their children to private schools elsewhere.  The government needs to show that it believes in securing equal chances for all children regardless of the accident of where they are born. 

The Three Language Formula, recommended by the National Commission on Education 1964–1966, was incorporated into the national education policies of 1968 and 1986. It emerged as a political consensus on languages in school education and was a strategy to accommodate at least three languages within the ten years of schooling. Due to unsatisfactory implementation, it does not prove to be an effective programme. Children are educated in the dominant language-policies that have the unfortunate effect of discouraging acquisition of the native tongue. The Three Language Formula, which emerged as a political consensus on languages in school education and was a strategy to accommodate at least three languages within the ten years of schooling. Children are educated in the dominant language-policies that have the unfortunate effect of discouraging acquisition of the native tongue The kind of linguistic imperialism which the government is trying to establish with Hindi is really threatening the rich languages of the nation. There is a need to understand that it is difficult to learn 3 languages for a child if Hindi and English both are not the mother tongue. English is necessary to learn because of its hegemony all over the world.

Why this idea of mainstreaming is so important? English is the language of gentleman and Hindi should be spoken all over the country to flaunt the unanimity in language and culture. Tribals and people in hinterlands are looked down as uncivilized and crude. Students in Tribal areas of Chattisgarh are not receiving their primary education in their own ‘Chattisgarhi’ language. It is the case in many other states where local and regional languages are not promoted and diminishing.  Sidelining their culture and language and cogently imposing a foreign language on them does not seems to be the right approach of the government. Word ‘Rape’ and ‘sexual assault’ do not exist in many tribal languages, and this shows that they (tribal communities) are far more civilized than we English speaking people. Homogenisation  brings unity is a myth and Indian Government is following this myth since a long time with a belief that the country would be united in a single thread with homogenization and a common language. This is unfortunate that we are trying to impose Hindi and English giving short-shrift to indigenous languages, causing their death. The idea of ‘mainstreaming’ is in no way successful in keeping our culture intact and actually disturbing the proud diversity.

There are communities which met their fate due to identity crisis. ‘Roma’ community known as ‘Gypsy’ and are Nomads living in different parts of Europe and America are original inhabitants of Western Punjab who migrated to Europe and now living in pathetic condition there. They do not have decent jobs and good living. Their language got transformed and evolved according to geography but still certain words are their which are similar to ‘Punjabi’ language.  An Indian woman said “Tu maa praa” to a Roma man in an European state, he replied “tu maa paiyn”. It was surprising to listen words similar to Punjabi from a Roma whose ancestors left India somewhere around 6^th century. They originated in the north-west region of India and thus their language even now has some punjabi words.

Hegemonies are at not merely at the national level but also at the regional level where several languages are subsumed by the language spoken by the majority. Some languages get absorbed into others or marginalised by system of governance and education system. Arunachal Pradesh alone has 90 languages. How many dialects are there is not even clearly stated. There is famous saying “Kos kos pe badle paani, dus kos pe baani” (Every kilometer taste of water change and language changes in every 10 km). After every few kilometers you gasp if you have entered a new zone. 

There is no doubt that there is a clamor of English language all over the world. Moreover it is an essential demand in this globalised world where boundaries are disappearing and the world has become a global village. But there should be proper education policy framework promoting mother tongue at primary level. There are languages that are falling out of use with newer generations switching to other languages for various reasons. There are incidents when people do not even like to claim their mother tongue because of the dominance of English. Languages cannot be preserved by making dictionaries. Languages live if people who speak the languages continue to live. We need a micro-level planning of development where language is taken as one factor.

In almost every country of the world, their languages are preserved and they feel proud on their mother tongue. There is an urgent need to challenge the homogenisation process with the dominance of Hindi and English reinforced in the name of unity and globalisation respectively.   

  

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