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RE: Language issue
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I totally agree with the sentiment expressed by VenuGopal.
Not only in communication with an outsider, even with in households, it
has become more 'acceptable' to use English, people repeat same sentence
expressed in mother tongue or substitution of lot of words of english in one
sentence. Parents sending children to convent try to speak only in English
thinking that helps their career. Venugopal has woderfully expressed that no
where else people will be so 'apolagetic' about their own languages.
Surprisingly Hindi speaking people seem not to be taken by this Bug this
much atleast in their household communication. So also others.The malady
seems predominant in Telugus than any one else to my understanding .Not with
Bengalies or Tamils or others where if one tries to use english he will
rather be 'ridiculed'. So the apprehension of 'wide' acceptance of english
every where is also doubtful.
If some body wants a solution to language erosion.. probably there is :
When people are panicking there is Police force to control the mobs.
Currently what is going on is language 'panic' which again has to be
controlled both by Govt agencies as well as 'Significant' groups in
Society..like arts related, social activity related groups.There shall be
innovative programs in Media, Schools, even Offices, people speaking pure
form of language should be recognised and be rewarded . Not just putting up
boards which some times show awkward translations. What use it is when the
people working there prefer to speak some thing else. Imagine -- if the same
office 'encourages' by various means pure form
Of their language. It is just pursuation. Not a force I suggest. As a
solution, Special efforts are needed just like any special efforts against
aids, cholera, family planning etc. What if there is an advertisement
sponsored by local Govt that advises its people to use 'Their language' as
much as possible. But not in a fanatic manner as in TamilNad where , even
on city buses except bus numbers nothing alse is understood.These is no
tallying Chart displayed in each bustation atleast in English and local that
shows busnumbers and destination. Probably this is reciprocated else where
with same fanatic fervour.That is simply madness.Even a temorary visitor to
those Cities is supposed to learn by heart their language ! Ridiculous.This
is just linguistic fantism having got political approval and Officials
(beaurocrats') apathy. That does not reflect in itself in language
appreciation and respect among natives.
In a positive effort to conserve languages,-->
--There shall be competitions in their languages at every level in Offices
and schools, clubs.
--Media (like movies ) should show acceptable personalities of the film (or
TVSerial) speaking their language extensively with out adulteration.
Especially when there is adulteration, there should be a scene where it is
ridiculed .(But we now find it glorified ! For example in a program on
telugu songs,
SP BalaSubrahmaniam says a thing (repeat) in English for emphasis where
as you do not see same in TVS Saregama .Just an example !)
--IT also should be able to be handled in local languages.. to the extent of
keyboards in local languages.
--Group discussions, debates, elocutions and essay writing every thing in
local language should hold prominence at par with English.
I am not saying no English. I am saying don't let the current practices
kill Indian languages and dialects.Give equal importance and respect.
--Encourage, by all means educational institutions which teach in local
language till High School as medium of instruction.I dream of 'local
language Convents' competing with english convents, showing equal or
better results in open competitions.
And Here is a novelty please :
--Every week competetion among employees to speak for 5 mts on any current
event topic with not a single word adulterated with non local language,
and win a prize. If it is a bank, involve customers also. Just a brief
break of few mts in weekend like Friday/Saturday, so that regularly not one
employee alone wins the prize. This will inculcate respect even among
employees to speak and help a common man visiting the office for some
work.Not just 'Boards' with awkward translations I repeat.
Parameswar
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From: venugopal [SMTP:gvvs@nird.ap.nic.in]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 5:37 PM
To: debate
Subject: Language issue
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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate
it!
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The other day I was in Delhi and interacted with a north indian
social
worker, who asked me a simple question. He said, " I want to learn
Telugu. I can devote three hours in a week. Can you tell me where I
can
learn Telugu?". I searched around in Delhi and found that AP Bhawan
does
not have such programme. There is a Telugu samajam, but they just
meet
once at Ugadi or organize some kuchipudi dance once in a while, but
they
do not have wherewithal to organize this kind of effort. ( I shall
be
more than glad if somebody can prove me wrong, as my friend over
there
is still waiting to learn Telugu). New Delhi is a lovely city, where
you
can learn German, French, Russian and so many languages. All
languages
in the world are good and have beautiful literature, no doubt. But
here
the point is that in New Delhi, there is no place where somebody can
learn a south indian language. There are more than thousand places
in
Delhi where you can learn computer languages. And may be about 500
places, where you can learn spoken english.
This illustrates that there is no market in indian languages. 'It
does
not pay to learn indian language'.
Second point to be noted is that language is power. If I request
something from a clerk across the counter in a government office
and
speak to him in indian language, there is sometimes reluctance to
part
with information. But if I use English, the guys thinks I am great
or
that I could put him to trouble and does the job without much
hassle.
Thus, growth of English or Hinglish or whatever is making public
services more available, of course, very gradually, to english
speaking
people and gradually excluding others. Now, is it possible that we
can
ever have the 'beautiful' day when everybody in this country is
'nicely'
educated in english, who can appreciate Shakespeare and who conduct
themselves with English manners? For the vast majority of our
people, we
are not able to teach their own languages in terms of reading and
writing. How can we ever conceive of teaching english to the masses?
Therefore the conclusion is that it is ok, let the masses not have
it,
but middle class and upper class people will have English. From the
point of rising incomes of these people, it may be ok, but the
inequalities in the society would be widening, by the gradual
decline
of indian languages. I have no case against IT. But, we cannot say
that
thousands or a lakh of people getting employment in Information
Technology has contributed to development of the masses.
Thirdly there is something about a nation's honour. What makes
somebody
tick as an indian, if one cannot converse with the masses in their
own
language? Nowhere else in the world are people so apologetic to be
speaking in their own mother tongues, as you find here in India. Was
it
possible that Gandhiji would have been able to bring the entire
national
consciousness together, had he not communicated in indian languages?
If
social mobilization and participation are increasingly considered as
real tools for development, would it ever be conceivable to use them
without indian languages? Could even Kaun Banega Karorpati become a
success without Amitabh Bachchan using Hindi?
Fourthly, there is a treasure of ideas and history of understanding
and
reforming our society through great works of various people
throughout
the country, apart from sheer beauty of literature and poetry. In
Andhra, for example, you have Vemana, Kandukuri Veeresa Lingam,
Gidugu
Rama Murthy, Gurajada Appa Rao, Sri Sri and so on. Similarly, you
have
the works of Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra or Fakir Mohan Senapati or
Gopinath Patnaik in Orissa. Decline of usage of indian languages
would
mean that the next generations would be deprived of the valuable
lessons
of history, however efforts one might make in terms of translations
to
English. Instead of building upon the social capital which such
people have contributed over generations, we may be aping the west
for
a quick buck now, but perhaps we as a nation would not be able to
reach
farther, as definitely the vast majority of the people are not
included
in this journey through english language.
Fifthly, there are many indian languages, especially tribal
dialects,
which are not recognized as languages. There have been
anthropologists,even foreigners, who learnt tribal languages and
tried
to understand them, bringing unique insights and valuable
understanding
of their societies. There is a need to protect and promote such
languages too, if we are interested in our collective progress as a
pluralistic society.
Sixthly, there is no factual basis to think that children in India
are
getting unduly burdened, as they are made to study a number of
languages. There are studies which have shown that for a small
child,
the more opportunities it has for varied communication, it is the
better
for its overall mental growth and skill absorption in later life.
I conclude by saying that it is ok for some or many people to learn
English, as they have inherent individual liberty. Of course,
English
is a good link language for communicating between people across
different States. But, growth of English should not be at the cost
of
decline of indian languages. Vigorous efforts need to be made at
Government level and also by the society at large, to protect and
nurture indian languages, which are now facing a severe threat of
extinction. This is the only way to promote cutural plurality and
diversity, which is extremely important for the overall development
of
the society.
I wish we had the means of sharing this piece with the IPI members
in
any Indian language. The absence of such facilities illustrates
further
the point I tried to make here.
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