In a country which is home to over 20 regional languages and many more dialects, language has always been a bit of an issue.
During a recent book launch in Andhra Pradesh, Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari suggested that a key to national integration could be learning an Indian language other than Hindi. Mr. Ansari said it rare to find students in Hindi-speaking states who are learning “a south Indian or another non-Hindi language.” He added that limiting the use of English to mediate between languages could also help improve cultural ties between various parts of India.
While it is hard to disagree with Mr. Ansari, his statement also raises questions on how useful it actually is to learn multiple Indian languages. We asked experts from the fields of business and education.
Speaking to India Real Time, Anjan Roy, Adviser for Economic Affairs at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said Indian languages were not so central. “A good tradesman will always be good at his work irrespective of the language he speaks. He should be proficient in his area of expertise with a general proficiency in English.” Mr. Roy also said that English is only really helpful above a certain level of professional expertise.
From the perspective of education, Anil Sadagopal, former dean at Delhi University’s Faculty of Education looked at the difference between India’s predominantly Hindi-speaking north and the country’s south, where people have languages other than Hindi, such as Tamil or Telugu, as their mother tongue. But while in southern India people usually speak Hindi too, in the north it is rare for people to speak south Indian languages.
Mr. Sadagopal, who is also a former member of India’s Central Advisory Board on Education, said southern India fared better than the north on the language front. He described that in northern states people mainly speak Hindi and English, something he described as “a major handicap.” He said that rather than turning to English, people should learn other Indian languages. This, he argued, will help people learn to appreciate the literature and cultural history of India as a whole.
The fear that English had taken precedence over some Indian languages was addressed at a roundtable meeting on how to protect local languages from extinction. Employment opportunities were identified as the main reason people were drawn to English.
Since employment is a top priority for most of India’s youth, learning the country’s other languages may neither be feasible nor desirable. Considering the investment students would have to make to learn these languages, in terms of time, money and energy, the returns are questionable.
Kapil Kapoor, a retired professor of language, literature and cultural studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said trying to learn too many languages could get problematic. “We shouldn’t load our students with too many languages since there is a limited time given to schools and colleges to finish the course. Students have to find time for other significant subjects as well.” He noted that facilities for learning more languages should be there but it shouldn’t be done forcefully. “Language is, after all, only a medium of communication,” he said.
But Mr. Kapoor said it would be wrong to see India’s multiplicity of languages as a limitation. “Historically, language was never a problem,” Mr. Kapoor said. “Thanks to the politics of creating language states, we have forcefully put down the language identity on people. This has also made language a tool to get a new state,” he added.follow @WSJIndia