Don't Lose Yourself

It has been taught to us since childhood that language is a way of communication by which people transfer and share information. Since humans are the only species who are capable of speech, they had the privilege to develop their own languages and dialects depending on their region and culture. Since ages the generations have passed on the cultural values, science, art with the help of these languages, either orally or through written texts.

According to Ethnologue, there are around 7000 languages spoken in the world today. But sadly, half of world’s population speaks only 8 of these languages which has put thousands of rest of the languages on the verge of extinction. India, which has always boasted its diversity on global stage, has around 200 endangered languages and dialects. If we think of language as a mere tool of communication we need not worry since we will always have one or the other language to communicate (mostly English as years roll by).

But language is much more than a tool of communication, it is a repository of science of linguistics, anthropology, prehistory and psychology. If we lose linguistic diversity we would lose every valuable thing attached to it. To understand it better take a moment now, close your eyes and recall all the different cities of the world you have been to, think of the entire experience, the environment and the people. Now imagine how you would feel if all those people spoke in the same dialect as you do, if all the streets looked the same as your hometown, if you didn’t get to learn any new stories about the place and people as they weren’t aware of the cultural history and traditions. Vacations and tourism would lose its essence. Thus, just like preserving the endangered animal species, we must make a collective effort to preserve the existing languages.

To tackle any problem it is essential to understand its cause. UNESCO has stated two major reasons why people abandon their native tongues:

1.       It belongs to a minority group which makes them feel left out when they move out of their locality, or

2.       If they come in contact with an invasive, economically stronger culture (like English in India).

Because of similar reasons Indian parents encourage their children to learn English:

1.       To become competitive as fluency in English increases your chances of employment

2.       Fluency in English is attached to prestige and higher social status.

It is disheartening to see that if a person is unable to speak his mother tongue well but has a good command over English people don’t mind or think of him highly but if someone is not well versed with English but is an expert in his mother tongue he is actively or passively ridiculed. To add to this, we find several “English Speaking” classes but rarely do we find a course for regional language.

Another problem lies with our official languages at the Centre. India has English and Hindi as its official language out of which there are hardly any native English speakers in the country (0.02%). The standard Hindi is spoken by 26% of the population whereas if you combine its dialects then the number increases to 53%. This number is still very less when compared to Mandarin in China (71%), Russian in Russia (81%), French in France (88%) and German in Germany (95%).

These languages would live on their own because of the percentage of population using them. If we have to preserve the 49 dialects of Hindi and various other regional languages we need to officially recognize and include them as unique languages. The reason why we have all the 49 dialects of Hindi combined under one name (for official and educational purpose) is people fear that if they are given a separate identity, it would harm the standard language. But that is a flawed perception. Konkani was considered to be a Marathi dialect until Goa made it the state language, but it didn’t affect Marathi in any way. Rather it helped Konkani gain the reputation of a language and put it on India’s map.

Once we understand few of the issues as stated above, we think of several methods to preserve our cultural and lingual diversity:

Languages should be included in the educational system from childhood to higher education. India adopts the policy of 2-3 languages in its schools which are generally English, Hindi and the regional language but this isn’t the case with all the minority languages. Students should be taught and encouraged to speak grammatically correct English, Hindi and a regional language. Higher Education Students should be encouraged to take up new languages as a part of their curriculum by granting scholarships.

We also need to remember that a language lives only if it is spoken in day to day life. Thousands of European students learn Latin in Universities but it is still a dead language, thus along with schools even parents should encourage the kids to speak in their mother tongue/new regional language and take pride in that. Social status shouldn’t be decided by the fluency in English.

Politicians should understand that language shouldn’t be used as a tool to divide people. It creates false pride in some, repels some to learn other regional languages and discourages the rest from even thinking of this topic.

More institutes should be established to teach the hundreds of languages we have. People who excel in this field should be awarded and celebrated. Teachers should get the respect they deserve, people should be encouraged to take this field as a career which would also help increase the employment.

Preserving our cultural diversity will also provide huge boost to the tourism industry. If utilized properly India can be the biggest tourism destination of the world. I can say this from my personal experience. Last month, I took two of my friends to Nashik and that was the first time I realized that even Nashik has such a history that it can easily be a 2-3 day visit. Tourism can do wonders to the employment and economic scenario of India.

It is a long shot but we Indians should stop living in the past and start working on the present with pride for a beautiful tomorrow.

“In Indian curricula of higher education there should be a place for Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English besides other local languages.” – Mahatma Gandhi, a self-taught polyglot.