The two language policy is again in the news. The argument in favour of a two language policy is that a three language policy imposes a heavy burden on the student where he has to study three compulsory languages and still doesn’t find time to learn a language of his choice.

Challenges

The question often arises: what should be India’s national language. The problem does not end merely by deciding what shall be our national language. More than a national language what we require is a comprehensive language policy. We have many languages widely used in our country, but what shall be the appropriate role of each? What language shall be used for inter-state communication? What language shall be used by the central government for official purpose?

What language shall be most appropriate as medium of instruction in schools? Should we have a different medium of instruction for higher education? How many languages should a student learn in school and at what stage? These are some of the questions a language policy is expected to answer.

It has now come to be accepted that the medium of instruction in schools should be the regional language. Thus, the medium of instruction shall be Malayalam in Kerala, Telugu in Telengana, Hindi in UP and Haryana, Bengali in West Bengal and so on. In most cases, this does not create any difficulty as for instance when the regional language and the mother tongue of the student happen to coincide. But, this is not always the case. Take the case of a Hindi-speaking family settled in the state of Tamil Nadu. The local schools shall have adopted Tamil as the medium of instruction.

Read: India’s Language Policy – Challenges

Under a three language policy we study English, Malayalam and Hindi in schools in Kerala. I had a desire to study Sanskrit but was unable to study this language to this day. I always dream that my school had followed a two language policy and instead of Hindi I was allowed to study Sanskrit. My desire to study Sanskrit remains unfulfilled even at my present age of 64 due to the compulsions of the language policy followed by my school.

We are a country still striving to achieve full literacy. We find it difficult to teach even one language to our children. But in policy making we dream of teaching three compulsory languages to our students. Only English and the mother tongue should be taught to children as compulsory languages.

Link Language and its importance

There is still the problem of communication between people of different regions and problem of communication between states and center and people all over the country. What language, for instance, shall the central government use for communication with a person living in West Bengal?

What language shall the Tamil Nadu government use for communication with a business firm established in Kanpur. What language shall be used as a medium in inter-state trade and commerce? What language shall a tourist from West Bengal use while he is on tour to Kerala?

What language shall a student from Karnataka use for local communication in Kolkata? An appropriate language policy shall have to give suitable answers to each of these problems.

We have elaborated on the issues that arise in framing a Language Policy. At present, most of these problems do not arise since English is used as the medium for inter-regional and inter-governmental communication and as medium of instruction in higher education. But problems shall arise if we try to remove English from its pre-eminent position.

Read: India’s Language Policy – A Link Language

The third language should be optional. Otherwise like me a child will have to shoulder the burden of studying four languages if he is to study a language of his choice under a policy of teaching three compulsory languages to children.

The Solution

We now try to suggest some solutions to India’s complex language problem. As regards usage of languages, our prescription would be as follows: English should be the medium of instruction in higher education and the medium for official work in central government.
English should also remain the medium for inter-governmental communication and inter-regional communication among individuals. English should continue as the medium for inter-state trade and commerce. But the medium of official work in state governments can be the local language and so also the medium of instruction in most of the schools.

Care should be taken to see that language learning should not become much of a burden on students. At present we have accepted the three language formula in schools and a student is required to learn three languages over which he has no choice.

Studying a third language should be fun – the third language could be Sanskrit, German, Urdu, French, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Persian, Arabic, Latin or Hindi.

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