Kerala minister condemns decision to remove Arabic & Mahal from Lakshadweep’s curriculum – ‘deeply disturbing’

Mahal, also known as the Maliku dialect, is a variant of Dhivehi, the official language of Maldives. The language retains some features of an older Maldivian but also has Malayalam influences.

“Kerala expresses solidarity with the people of the Island. All democratic forces, academic fraternity and organisations in the education sector should raise their voice against this linguistic injustice and urge the authorities to revoke the decision. The move of the Union Government to unilaterally foist educational reforms that would marginalise regional cultural and languages should be desisted,” he said in the statement.

The decision of the Lakshadweep administration to remove the island’s mother languages Arabic and Mahal from school curriculum is a matter of concern, the statement said.

“This decision was taken under the guise of implementing the National Education Policy and it is against the professed policy of the union government to promote mother languages and regional diversity in education. By denying the Lakshadweep students the right to learn their regional languages, the Union Government is violating the constitutional rights of linguistic minorities,” he said.

The Kerala government had already raised its concerns about the framework of National Education Policy 2020 and the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India, or the PM Shri – a central scheme to improve education infrastructure, he said.

“Our decision to oppose the policy had stemmed from this concern,” he said.