Hindi is not Hindu:

November 24/2014 : It seems, learning a foreign language as a third option after mother tongue and Hindi is a violation of the Indian Constitution. At the World Hindu Congress held at New Delhi last week, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani supported the replacement of German with Sanskrit in the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs)operated by her Ministry. It is surprising, to say the least, that a Union HRD Minister in this day and age can even claim that learning is a violation of the Constitution in any which manner. Gaining knowledge is probably one of the most fundamental rights of any human being. In today’s situation, every intelligent Indian and if we expand our horizon, probably every citizen of the world would like to know more languages and be better educated which certainly is the best path to prosperity. Individual’s freedom and the ability to appreciate it is definitely commensurate with the level of education. An uneducated society is considered primitive which clearly implies economic deprivation. In the quest for better living standards, every human being requires a base on which money can be earned. This base is education. When German, a prominent European language, is removed from the syllabus, obviously eyebrows were raised. It is highly improbable that KVs spread throughout the length and breadth of this country did have sufficient number of German teachers. Assuming that some schools did have teachers qualified enough to impart instructions in that language, it seems highly unreasonable to expect hundreds of students thronging to the German class. On the other hand, those few smart kids who saw an opportunity of learning an important foreign language must have been overjoyed with their luck. Kudos must be given to parents who might have encouraged their wards to learn such a language. The saddest part is that while German goes out, it is replaced by Sanskrit and not an acceptable alternate international language like Spanish or Mandarin. Apart from this, it is not believable that KVs did not have Sanskrit available as a subject. Thus, it implies that, instead of imparting education in international languages, our government is trying to turn the country into an archaic state by closing all windows of knowledge and wisdom.

Let us not forget the globally accepted idea that infants/children exposed to multiple languages grow up as intelligent and sharper individuals.

Continuing her speech at the same forum, Irani further said that a person reading and writing in her/his mother tongue would contribute better to the GDP. The Minister based her facts on a study conducted by IT giant Microsoft. The study was supposedly conducted in 20 countries and the report has illuminated our Union HRD Minister that a feeble presence of a foreign language in some very limited number of Central schools could adversely affect the GDP growth of India in future. This might indicate that we are moving towards a state that will not tolerate any language apart from Hindi and Sanskrit. This would exclude English too. It can be firmly said that English might eventually  get banned because it could also be termed a foreign language, though it no more is. Drawing a thread from the Minister’s utterances, it may be safely assumed that India, as a nation of diverse languages, cannot afford to impart education only in Hindi. When she claims that educating children in their mother tongue has direct relevance to the growth of national wealth, she must understand what she has said. In simpler terms, it may be understood that the HRD Minister wants KVs to teach students in their mother tongue. Therefore, the KVs in Orissa must teach in Oriya, those in Tamil Nadu mandatorily should teach in Tamil and those in Srinagar should teach in the medium of Pushtu. Could it be that the Minister was unclear of what she wanted to communicate when she uttered the twin words ‘mother tongue’. Alternatively, she may have spilled the beans too early about a probable machination to destroy every regional language of India and promote only Hindi to help in the now increasing hunger for power of the BJP.