It’s too late for professional courses in Indian languages

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 25 in Chikkaballapur, Karnataka, criticised non-BJP political parties for letting down Indian languages in teaching professional courses. He alleged this was done as they did not want students from poor and backward classes to be doctors and engineers. The allegation in an election-bound state demonstrated the attempt to seek political mileage out of it. The reality, however, is that making Indian languages eligible to be mediums to teach professional courses is a Herculean task sought to be taken up too late.

Experts admit that if medium of education is the mother tongue, cognitive skills of such individuals develop better. But, primary and secondary schooling apart, to teach professional courses in Indian languages when they have not been developed adequately to be mediums for medical, engineering and scientific courses, would be chaotic. Although not impossible to achieve, it is replete with challenges. Disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. It would take decades for it to see the light of day, and even end up in a mess.

Selecting quality faculty members to teach students in Indian languages, developing native terminologies in technical subjects, and ensuring no confusion in communication when doctors and engineers from various states use different terms for the same processes, would make it a confusing affair. Our ancestors should have had the foresight to equip Indian languages as mediums to teach professional courses at least two centuries ago. For instance, China and Russia teach professional courses in their own languages, but it did not happen overnight. Had Indians done so in a sustained manner, medicine and engineering degrees could have been attainable in our own regional languages today.

Unfortunately, there was no such effort. Thomas Macaulay, British politician and historian, pushed English as a medium of teaching for native Indians in 1835. Thousands of middle- and upper-middle-class Indian youth rooted for English education then, viewing it as the solution to the “intellectual stagnation” in India compared to the European countries. The medium of English in professional courses is a unifier across India today. It is best to retain English for professional courses while Indian languages can support art, culture, theatre, social sciences and humanities—without making it a political issue for votes.