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HINDI-ANGREZI BHAI-BHAI by Chandan Mitra
Hindi-Angrezi Bhai-Bhai
By Chandan Mitra
Opinion
The Pioneer
Saturday, September 4, 2004
Just when we thought that the English versus Hindi debate that once set passions aflame all over the Gangetic belt had finally got resolved, battle lines on this age-old confrontation have got redrawn in Uttar Pradesh. For reasons best known to him, the State's new Governor, Mr T V Rajeshwar, rather unexpectedly extolled the virtues of English pointing out that command over the Queen's language would vastly improve job prospects for UP's youngsters. Had he said this at some seminar on dwindling employment opportunities in India's most populous State, it may have gone unnoticed.
But the Governor chose to assert this in his Independence Day address, ensuring wide media coverage. This was too much provocation for Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. He has since been hitting back at the Governor with unfailing regularity. In any case, the doughty Yadav chieftain suspects the Congress High Command has
deliberately installed family loyalist Rajeshwar to keep needling him, which the Raj Bhawan has done last month by stalling various measures proposed by the Chief Minister on the educational front. Probably the Samajwadi leader thinks gubernatorial queries regarding setting up of a university in Mr Yadav's hometown of Etawah and a life post for his acolyte Azam Khan in another State-run educational institution are just the thin end of the wedge. The Governor's larger agenda could well include destabilisation of the Mulayam Government itself,
considering the combative remarks being made by the MP from Amethi - widely regarded as the Congress' heir- apparent.
Thus, even as Mr Mulayam Singh took a hesitant step to dilute the bitterness with the Congress by inviting Ms Sonia Gandhi and her son to a dinner for MPs from UP, he has shown no inclination to tone down his attacks on the Governor. Last week he again took potshots at "people who promote English on Independence Day" and vowed to never abandon his crusade against the colonial language. Personally, I doubt if the UP Chief Minister would have resumed his war cries had Mr Rajeshwar been more
circumspect in his championship of the English language. As a person who is not a native Hindi speaker, the Governor must have also got bugged with the excessive use of the Rashtrabhasha by overzealous UP Government
officials who are mandatorily required to communicate only in that language.
A hilarious situation arose some years ago when Lucknow sent a communication to the authorities in Chennai in chaste Hindi. Not to be outdone, Ms Jayalalithaa (in her earlier stint as Chief Minister) sent her Government's reply in equally classical Tamil. A massive search had to be mounted in Lucknow to locate somebody who could make sense of the correspondence. Eventually someone was found, but he could only translate Tamil into English. Thereafter, another translator had to prepare a Hindi version for the Chief Minister! I understand, subsequent correspondence between the two Governments was conducted in English.When he first became Chief Minister in 1990, Mr Yadav launched an energetic campaign to remove all vestiges of the English language from UP's official corridors. While he was reasonably successful, his diatribe against parents sending their children to English medium schools received a rebuff. Over the last 15 years, the urge to learn English has multiplied manifold in UP while the standard of teaching has declined precipitously. So- called English-medium schools have mushroomed even in the backwaters of the sprawling State; I find even Class IV staff in Government and private organisations coughing up a bulk of their salaries as school fees to provide a modicum of English education to their children.
I have not been to Etawah in nearly a decade, but I am certain that even in the beehad of the Chambal, Montessori schools claiming to impart teaching in English must have flourished in direct proportion to the intensity of Mr Yadav's campaign against the language. Therefore, Mr Yadav is running against the tide and is unlikely to ever prevent even his own constituency from believing that English holds the key to professional and social
mobility. Mr Mulayam Singh is probably being true to the conviction of his first political mentor, Ram Manohar Lohia, who first articulated the need for "Angrezi Hatao" in the early 1960s when he enrolled teenagers like the incumbent of 5 Kalidas Marg of Lucknow to his philosophy. The context has changed since then. In the last 40 years, India has become a powerful and upwardly mobile society locking horns with the West in professional excellence.
It is often argued that Russia, Japan and even China have performed better than India without the crutch of
English. Those who say this forget none of the three was ever colonised and therefore never lost their social and cultural continuity. Besides, they were all largely cohesive nation-states for many centuries, whereas recurrent invasions violently disrupted Indian society forcing localised rather than national evolution of our polity, society and economy. English, consequently, emerged as a godsend for the country's unification. Over time, it has also ceased to be the language of the urban elite. Within a decade or so, I am certain India will have the largest number of people in any country speaking this language, even outstripping the US. Already, India ranks third in this category.
Most importantly, however, I see no contradiction between promotion of Hindi and pursuit of English. In recent decades there has been a massive convergence between Indian languages and the linguistic legacy of
colonialism. It is not that people who study in English lose touch with their mother tongue. Take the media for example. Most of the rapid growth in this sector is happening in the regional languages, including Hindi. But the demand today, across the board, is for people who are bi-lingual if not multi-lingual. Without command of English, it is not possible to be a good journalist for a Hindi (or any other Indian language) newspaper or TV channel. Conversely, those who only communicate in English automatically circumscribe their future
prospects. I, for instance, have no formal training in Hindi. As I have admitted earlier in these columns, the only Hindi we learnt at school in Kolkata was confined to recognising the alphabet. But over the years, I taught myself how to communicate in that language to the point that I no longer hesitate to speak in Hindi before TV cameras, never mind the gender mix-ups that occasionally betray the influence of my mother tongue.
The point, therefore, is that Mr Mulayam Singh need not worry about the future of his native language; it is thriving and will continue to prosper. Governor Rajeshwar has only said the obvious: Job opportunities will improve only for people who also know English. Those who are making a beeline to study in English-medium schools do not even remotely wish to discard their mother tongue. English is the language of aspiration; it is the language of career advancement. But the mother tongue is what it must always be: The most beloved, which can never be replaced by an acquired language. So, Mr Yadav let your people learn English in larger numbers; there may be some hope for UP yet.
- Chandan Mitra
More at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. - Matthew 10:34-36.
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read, considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number. o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are not necessarily those of the poster.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed withoutprofit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
By Chandan Mitra
Opinion
The Pioneer
Saturday, September 4, 2004
Just when we thought that the English versus Hindi debate that once set passions aflame all over the Gangetic belt had finally got resolved, battle lines on this age-old confrontation have got redrawn in Uttar Pradesh. For reasons best known to him, the State's new Governor, Mr T V Rajeshwar, rather unexpectedly extolled the virtues of English pointing out that command over the Queen's language would vastly improve job prospects for UP's youngsters. Had he said this at some seminar on dwindling employment opportunities in India's most populous State, it may have gone unnoticed.
But the Governor chose to assert this in his Independence Day address, ensuring wide media coverage. This was too much provocation for Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. He has since been hitting back at the Governor with unfailing regularity. In any case, the doughty Yadav chieftain suspects the Congress High Command has
deliberately installed family loyalist Rajeshwar to keep needling him, which the Raj Bhawan has done last month by stalling various measures proposed by the Chief Minister on the educational front. Probably the Samajwadi leader thinks gubernatorial queries regarding setting up of a university in Mr Yadav's hometown of Etawah and a life post for his acolyte Azam Khan in another State-run educational institution are just the thin end of the wedge. The Governor's larger agenda could well include destabilisation of the Mulayam Government itself,
considering the combative remarks being made by the MP from Amethi - widely regarded as the Congress' heir- apparent.
Thus, even as Mr Mulayam Singh took a hesitant step to dilute the bitterness with the Congress by inviting Ms Sonia Gandhi and her son to a dinner for MPs from UP, he has shown no inclination to tone down his attacks on the Governor. Last week he again took potshots at "people who promote English on Independence Day" and vowed to never abandon his crusade against the colonial language. Personally, I doubt if the UP Chief Minister would have resumed his war cries had Mr Rajeshwar been more
circumspect in his championship of the English language. As a person who is not a native Hindi speaker, the Governor must have also got bugged with the excessive use of the Rashtrabhasha by overzealous UP Government
officials who are mandatorily required to communicate only in that language.
A hilarious situation arose some years ago when Lucknow sent a communication to the authorities in Chennai in chaste Hindi. Not to be outdone, Ms Jayalalithaa (in her earlier stint as Chief Minister) sent her Government's reply in equally classical Tamil. A massive search had to be mounted in Lucknow to locate somebody who could make sense of the correspondence. Eventually someone was found, but he could only translate Tamil into English. Thereafter, another translator had to prepare a Hindi version for the Chief Minister! I understand, subsequent correspondence between the two Governments was conducted in English.When he first became Chief Minister in 1990, Mr Yadav launched an energetic campaign to remove all vestiges of the English language from UP's official corridors. While he was reasonably successful, his diatribe against parents sending their children to English medium schools received a rebuff. Over the last 15 years, the urge to learn English has multiplied manifold in UP while the standard of teaching has declined precipitously. So- called English-medium schools have mushroomed even in the backwaters of the sprawling State; I find even Class IV staff in Government and private organisations coughing up a bulk of their salaries as school fees to provide a modicum of English education to their children.
I have not been to Etawah in nearly a decade, but I am certain that even in the beehad of the Chambal, Montessori schools claiming to impart teaching in English must have flourished in direct proportion to the intensity of Mr Yadav's campaign against the language. Therefore, Mr Yadav is running against the tide and is unlikely to ever prevent even his own constituency from believing that English holds the key to professional and social
mobility. Mr Mulayam Singh is probably being true to the conviction of his first political mentor, Ram Manohar Lohia, who first articulated the need for "Angrezi Hatao" in the early 1960s when he enrolled teenagers like the incumbent of 5 Kalidas Marg of Lucknow to his philosophy. The context has changed since then. In the last 40 years, India has become a powerful and upwardly mobile society locking horns with the West in professional excellence.
It is often argued that Russia, Japan and even China have performed better than India without the crutch of
English. Those who say this forget none of the three was ever colonised and therefore never lost their social and cultural continuity. Besides, they were all largely cohesive nation-states for many centuries, whereas recurrent invasions violently disrupted Indian society forcing localised rather than national evolution of our polity, society and economy. English, consequently, emerged as a godsend for the country's unification. Over time, it has also ceased to be the language of the urban elite. Within a decade or so, I am certain India will have the largest number of people in any country speaking this language, even outstripping the US. Already, India ranks third in this category.
Most importantly, however, I see no contradiction between promotion of Hindi and pursuit of English. In recent decades there has been a massive convergence between Indian languages and the linguistic legacy of
colonialism. It is not that people who study in English lose touch with their mother tongue. Take the media for example. Most of the rapid growth in this sector is happening in the regional languages, including Hindi. But the demand today, across the board, is for people who are bi-lingual if not multi-lingual. Without command of English, it is not possible to be a good journalist for a Hindi (or any other Indian language) newspaper or TV channel. Conversely, those who only communicate in English automatically circumscribe their future
prospects. I, for instance, have no formal training in Hindi. As I have admitted earlier in these columns, the only Hindi we learnt at school in Kolkata was confined to recognising the alphabet. But over the years, I taught myself how to communicate in that language to the point that I no longer hesitate to speak in Hindi before TV cameras, never mind the gender mix-ups that occasionally betray the influence of my mother tongue.
The point, therefore, is that Mr Mulayam Singh need not worry about the future of his native language; it is thriving and will continue to prosper. Governor Rajeshwar has only said the obvious: Job opportunities will improve only for people who also know English. Those who are making a beeline to study in English-medium schools do not even remotely wish to discard their mother tongue. English is the language of aspiration; it is the language of career advancement. But the mother tongue is what it must always be: The most beloved, which can never be replaced by an acquired language. So, Mr Yadav let your people learn English in larger numbers; there may be some hope for UP yet.
- Chandan Mitra
More at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. - Matthew 10:34-36.
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read, considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number. o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are not necessarily those of the poster.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed withoutprofit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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