education policy

I am the one who is in favour of learning in mother tongue as I had done so in my native village along with English as the second language from standard 3.Later Hindi became the additional third language which I studied till standard eleven and I had unusually a high level of proficiency in that language for a while.Fortunately the famous anti Hindi agitation in 1965 questioned the imposition of Hindi and  Nehru assured that Hindi will not be imposed on non Hindi speaking population.Despite passing Prathmic ,I had the finer sensibilities to join the anti Hindi bandwagon.i was matured enough to understand that no single language could be allowed to dominate and bulldoze other languages which were richer.

Where do I stand now when the new education policy is announced with a lot of Indianness appearing in many places.

Although studying in one's own mother tongue is good and it must be welcome the ground level reality is that many state governments have not equipped their local languages with updated books and to add insult to the injury English is undermined in the new scheme of things in the name of Indianness and homogenisation process.

 We must remind the deaf and the dumb and say that India is a continent comprising of states with a lot of diversity and heterogeneity in language art culture and traditions.There is nothing like Indianness that you can crow about.

Furthermore the stakeholders are the students parents and teachers whose preferences and choices matter most as the prime objective is not just to gain knowledge but to get jobs and also equip oneself adequately to stand on his legs  and become a self employed or emerge as entrepreneurs..The architects of new education policy thunder that this will lift india from deprivation to development and from seeking job to creating job and so on.

The so-called professionalism and the focus on national languages and the Indianness are the logical derivatives of the clearly defined and well crafted strategy to undermine and dethrone the international language namely English.

Why there's more dissent  and consternation ? what's home language and national or regional language....since India is converted into Hindia and Hinduthuva has become the only creed to be permitted as Muslims are treated as enemies ,the next logical step for them is to bring in Hindi-isation process and promote this language in Hindi speaking states and establish a hegemony of power in a graduated manner

Though education is in the concurrent list and the centre can't simply bulldoze the domain of the state, the feverish enthusiasm towards Hindi-isation stems from the fact that many states are coming under the spell of BJP either by ballet manipulated or through buying or bullying legislators, let us call it political re engineering.This is nothing but saffronisation and sanskritsation to the detriment of the vast majority functioning under the decentralised system now.

Long ago C N  Annadurai told that besides Tamil, English is sufficient to interact both domestically and internationally.The revival of three language formula once again is an unwanted burden. .To me, a Tamil with the exception of sister languages like Malayalam, Telugu and 

Kannada ,all other languages are foreign.Indeed they are more foreign than the customised English language which is more native to me by training and its standpoint of utility.

Going by  my experience in the last 50 years of Academic life till 8th standard the mother tongue can be tried as a medium of instruction in each state along with English as the important second language and there's no need for any third language in the form of an extra luggage. You can only force the donkey to bear this kind of burden and not insist a horse which wants to run with maximum efficiency without being burdened by ideological cobwebs and outdated concepts in the name of homogenisation.

Post independent India has made remarkable progress with all our constraint and challenges.Sunder Pitchai  the CEO of Google is a standing example to showcase....Hindi naheem malum and I can reach to greater heights through English and my own creative energtic intelligence..