Re: KDA report on education

[Padmanabha Rao <kvprao@igidr.ac.in>]

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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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On Sun, 11 Feb 2001, MV wrote:
 Are you suggesting that members of KDA, Ministers,
 Bureaucrats *can have choice* of sending their children/grand
 children to english medium schools and then they *can deny*
 the same fundamental right to other citizens of India?
 This is exactly what we call *Caste System* isn't it?
 Does this mean KDA is actually CDA?

I don't see how this is possible. If Kannada is compulsorily made the
language of instruction across the state, how could anybody send their
wards to a different school, whether s/he be a minister or not. As I said,
the origins of this problem lies in the govt-ordained demarcation of
states along linguistic lines. The solution is govt-inordainable. And
that's the problem.

At one level, i.e. the State level, it can be reined in by the kind of
legislations supported by the KDA. Hence I said that the ministers and
'crats don't matter as they constitute an extreme minority. I agree it's
an impossible proposition at the national level and where your counter
point about (better) english opportunities for national employees could
exist. Hmmm, how about championing for an xDA in every state ?! In
anycase, I don't see how a caste system could emerge here. If everyone in
the state are educated in kannada, the civil-services including political
representation have to come forth in kannada. If this is sustained for
enough time and people, it will establish itself for commerce
self-sustainably. To reiterate this wont hold at the national level where
better opportunities for non-kannada might exist, indeed will exist. Heck,
why did we want a Kannada-state or a Tamilnadu in the first place ?! I
understand this is an impossible problem. But we need to ensure that
languages aren't killed off by the kind of institutions we have today.
Hence the need for the legislations...it may mean more costs, but that's
the price we pay for the mistake of forming language-Nadus. Let us
remember that the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, the Italians and many
others still go about their international lives in their own languages.

Thanks.

Padmanabha



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