Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin has framed the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as an instrument of linguistic imperialism. How well-founded are his fears that the Tamil cultural identity will be undermined by the NEP’s trilingual formula? On the flip side, can it serve as a tool for preserving the linguistic diversity of the Dravidian languages?
In the context of Stalin’s claim, a quote from David Schulman’s ‘Tamil: A Biography’ is particularly apt: “In modern South India, Tamil has become a major criterion for collective identity, often seen now as forged in opposition to Sanskrit and an invasive north Indian culture and ideology.” Drawing ethno-linguistic distinctions between north and south is one thing, charging the north with imposing cultural hegemony on the south is another.
At the outset, it’s important to examine the logic of trilingualism. The benefits of bilingualism are well-established. Children who are fluent in more than one language exhibit better cognitive abilities than monolinguals. Logically, trilingualism should offer additional ‘brainy’ benefits. While studies have indicated that trilingual adults have a better ‘cognitive reserve’, resistance to brain-ageing, than bilinguals, linguists are wary of treating the cognitive impact of trilingualism as a mere extension of bilingualism.
Learning three languages simultaneously could arguably overburden and confuse a child, thereby negating the benefits of bilingualism. But that might not be the case if languages are learnt sequentially. While there is no theoretical limit on the number of languages a person can acquire, most people can handle three or four. Again, more studies are urgently needed on the implications of trilingualism for children and young adults.
For parents, trilingualism in children is desirable for practical reasons. The children can use the native language at home and the standard language of communication outside it while learning a third language of practical value. If the native and standard languages are the same, they can acquire two useful ‘prestige’ languages.
‘Prestige’ is the operative word here. Usually, the language spoken in the capital is the official language, but for historical reasons, English is the de facto language of the central administration and, therefore, one of India’s two official languages. Native English speakers often find Indians surprisingly Anglophonic.
In the north, Hindi and English are regarded as ‘prestige’ languages and, in several cases, preferred over mother tongues. This has led to the disappearance or decline of numerous regional languages. For example, although Kumaoni is spoken by some 2.5 million people, it is regarded as a vulnerable language because parents want their children to be fluent in Hindi and English. The Uttarakhand government has, therefore, resolved to make Kumaoni mandatory in government schools, with the objective of preserving the language.
The same problem exists vis-à-vis Dravidian languages, other than Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. For example, the Kodava language of Coorg is listed as critically endangered because native speakers prefer Kannada and English. Likewise, Irula is listed as endangered and Tulu as vulnerable. There are other reasons for the decline of languages, such as out-migration, better educational opportunities in other languages, political shifts or urbanisation, which demands a common mode of communication.
To preserve India’s rich linguistic heritage drawn from four language families – Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-asiatic and Tibeto-Burman – it makes sense to educate children in their mother tongue while in primary school. The main benefit, however, is that children learn more effectively in their home language than in an imposed one, or so research indicates.
The NEP funding could be deployed to create print and audio-visual resources in the target language, recruit and train teachers from the community, beef up the Preservation of Endangered Languages scheme and conduct research under the National Research Foundation. The centre can draft Mysuru’s Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) towards this end.
Coming back to Tamil Nadu, how is it affected by the trilingual formula? Tamil and English will continue to be taught, and the state government is at liberty to choose another Indian language, not necessarily Hindi. However, schools and parents may pragmatically prefer Hindi to other native Indian languages so that students have some exposure to the dominant language of the north. Even so, Tamil will continue to enjoy primacy and is in no danger of being overwhelmed by the ‘imposition’ of Hindi.
For one thing, Tamil is spoken by 90 million people worldwide. Its incredibly rich literary tradition, thriving film industry and status as a recognised language of India and a co-official language in Singapore and Sri Lanka ensure that it is as much a ‘prestige’ language as Hindi. It is and will remain a determiner of the Tamilian cultural identity.
The antiquity of Tamil is well-established, although the claim that it is the world’s oldest living language and was once spoken across the entire sub-continent (as evidenced by speakers of Brahui, a Dravidian language in Baluchistan, Afghanistan and Iran) is taken with a pinch of salt. Linguists have established the connection between the Sanskrit and Dravidian languages, which have interacted since the early Vedic age and influenced each other’s vocabulary, phonology, grammar, and syntax.
Languages are living and continually evolving entities that interact with and enrich one another. No language is a museum piece, hermetically sealed off and unchanging for all time. In these post-colonial times, mutual influence doesn’t mean one language stamping out another. Fears of cultural and linguistic dominance can be left where they belong, in the past.
Bhavdeep Kang is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author.
