Are we losing our languages?

Like any other kid growing up in the 90s in a small town in India, I was also pushed into the race of getting an education from the best ‘English medium’ school in the town. A mode of study where the English teachers are the most revered ones and a teacher of any other language exist just because they have to. I have nothing against English language and English teachers but I have come to realise that amid this race in being educated in English, we are losing our very own languages. The saddest part is that I cannot type and possibly communicate this story with others in my native language.

I cannot blame my parents, my teachers or my school administration for the current situation we stand in. This has to do more with how do we, our society as a whole, see education. Education in schools is seen as a way to get jobs with huge paychecks. The prestige associated with the company you work with and the compensation that you get is taking a huge toll on our society. I must confess that I was also blindfolded until very late. Till the age of 22 to be exact. At 22 after being done with my graduation and landing in a job with a decent paycheck, I thought if this is it? Everyone from my family continuously kept on asking me to get a better job or go for an MBA to boost my career. At times, I felt very depressed with what I was doing with my life. I decided to go ahead and make my passion as a part of my career. Being interested in music and having computer science knowledge, I went to do a masters in Sound and Music Computing from Barcelona, Spain. This is when I came to realise the value our native languages hold in them. People in Spain or in general in Europe loved their native languages and are fighting to save them. Barcelona is in the province named Catalonia and they have their own language called Catalan. It was amazing to see that people living in Catalonia took so much pride in their language and used it as a primary mode of communication whenever possible (even at an international platform). This is exactly opposite to what happens in India.

As a child, my father used to take me to Hindi poetry conferences (Kavi sammelan as they are called) in my town. I used to dearly love them but would not talk a word about them with my friends in school. The fear of being labelled as old-fashioned didn’t allow me to do that. English was (and is still) the new cool. It is sad to see that instead of properly teaching how to read and write in their native languages, the young generation is entertained to use English as a primary language even in their homes. Blindfolded by the aspiration of bringing the American dream back home, we are failing to pass on the rich literature and wisdom withheld in the works in our native languages. This has also resulted in lesser and lesser people taking literature and poetry as a profession in their native language.

Changing lives through beautiful literature: There have been so many amazing poets and writers in the last century whose wisdom and amazing perspectives about life are available in the rich literature that they have left behind. Be it stories by Munshi Premchand about the then problems in the society and the hard-hitting reality that they hold. Once you read them, you realise that the situation has not improved a bit but rather worsened. Munshiji puts up the plot in such a plain plot that it seems like a story of someone you might know. I get a sense of being humble after reading his stories.

On the other hand, we have stalwarts like Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. Though his major contribution might be in fuelling the independence struggle of India, a lot of his work still stands a meaning today. These are just a few examples. There have been several other poets and writers who have written on different topics and I think we should promote them in our school literature. There is a lot to be learned from all this literature.

Creating new opportunities for employment: A majority of people in India still reside in small villages where they don’t have English medium schools. It is a great opportunity for promoting and creating a generation who are well versed with literature in their native languages. The only hindrance in this is in creating a huge workforce of teachers who are more than happy to go to villages and actually help in building a nation bottom up. People in cities who are blessed enough to get an education in cities and are well-read in their native languages are the ones who will make this change. There are two hindrances that I see here. One is the infrastructure in the villages that might not attract top talent to the villages. This might be a blessing in disguise as this might also create other job opportunities related to infrastructures in the villages. Other is the financial incentives given to these people. Let’s face it, if the top talent is not given a decent pay, they would never turn towards the villages. If these things are in place, people would definitely want to go to the roots and help there. I myself have seen my friends and colleagues wanting to go back to small towns and lead a life there. They say that social life is much better, the air is much purer and vegetables taste more natural :). The only thing stopping them is good opportunities. The government has to incentivise this and push more money into the education sector so that top talent comes in this. If the youth sees equal opportunities in education sector vs. engineering and medical, there will be a lot more people coming into it for sure. Only good teachers can build good nations.

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