English-bashers8217; excesses

It is a recurring fit, the anti-English fervour that seizes a certain category of persons in positions of authority across the country. Eve...

It is a recurring fit, the anti-English fervour that seizes a certain category of persons in positions of authority across the country. Every once in a while, the alien tongue is proclaimed to be on its way to exile in one State or another, and threats are issued thunderously against unpatriotic attempts to protect it. While nameboards may bear the initial brunt of nationalists8217; wielding tar-brushes, greater concern is always caused by the grim assaults on English in education. The latest to be bitten by the Angrezi hatao8217; bug is Rabindra Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Subhankar Chakraborty, who once kicked up a row by punishing a girl student for wearing salwar kameez because it was an un-Bengali8217; dress. He has vowed to banish English from the university founded by Rabindranath Tagore with the objective, among others, of furthering international communication and understanding. He has not spelt out the details of his proposal, but the tenor of his observations on the subject, not distinguishable from trite chauvinism, has been disturbing enough to prompt some protest from friends of Shantiniketan. The attempt to impart academic respectability to an idea of this kind is even more objectionable than political English-baiting that has found yet another farcical illustration in Orissa Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik8217;s recent order to rid the State Secretariat of all English typewriters, obviously seen as the real obstacle to closer relations between the government and the people.

Chakraborty8217;s proposed experiment in English-free education is not something encouraged by West Bengal8217;s own experience. The determined efforts by the Marxist-led dispensation over the years to downgrade the imperialist legacy in the syllabi from the school level upwards were, in retrospect, doomed to failure. The issue only led to a rift in the Left Front itself, with a growing awareness of the damage the exercise could do to the State and its future. Similar has been the sorry experience elsewhere as well. Mulayam Singh Yadav8217;s crusade as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh against English in areas ranging from the courts to the campus is today remembered with no greater nostalgia than his service to the cause of mass-copying at examinations. In Tamil Nadu, where promotion of Tamil in education at the expense of English was once a plank of Dravidian politics, takers for Tamil-medium colleges are officially acknowledged to be too few.

In all such cases, there has been a clear link between the poor public response to English-bashing and the example set by the politicians in their personal lives. Leaders like Mulayam Singh, who prefer English-medium education for their own offspring, have not convinced the common people when they campaign against the language in public. It is not only the hypocrisy of the professional English-haters, however, that has denied them popular support. Even more, it is an increasingly wide awareness that English, a statutorily recognised language of India, is a historically inherited advantage that it would be folly to disown. Especially in an age when its learning is encouraged in countries like China, Japan and Germany, none of which can be accused of lacking in national spirit. We must keep the window on the world open, the Chakrabortys and their charades notwithstanding.