IV. Contemporary Language Trends

Two trends are distinctly visible in the present day linguistic scenario – one, the diminishing usage, prestige and dominance of English and two, the rising importance of languages other than English in all domains of language use.

We have already seen above that in all the non-English speaking countries (except the Great India and her past sibling and present geo-cum-wisdom-neighbour Pakistan) where education was imparted in the English language, it is either phased out or is in the process of being phased out. Same is happening in other domains.

Around 2000, eighty per cent of internet content was in English; it has come down to below forty. Information now is available on the internet in tens of languages.

Coming to India, as per Microsoft, 95 per cent of commerce in India is in Indian languages and only 5 per cent in English.

The world has reached a linguistic state where you will be the last person to be offered a job by a company if you knew only English and didn’t know any other language. A recent article in a prestigious English magazine, The Economist,  stated that Britain are at a great disadvantage because they knew only English. The citation below provides an evidence for the linguistic direction the world is moving into:

“ Not only do today’s workers need to be able to communicate both orally and in writing in languages other than English, but they must be able to do so with persons who have not shared their own social and cultural experiences. @ (Stephanie Bell Rose, The Goldman Sachs Foundation; Vishakha Desai, The Asia Society, www).  

“As other countries create funding and policies that promote, and even help prioritize, the study of foreign languages, experts say U.S. students are falling behind and could suffer in the global marketplace. @ (Asia Society News, 2nd April, 2009, www).

“English loosing its monopolistic position….

“No single language will occupy the monopolistic position in the 21st century which English has – almost – achieved by the end of the 20th century.”

“It is thus clear that two trends will dominate the second wave of satellite broadcasting: other major world languages will increase their global reach and the larger providers will localise their services. Both trends indicate a more crowded and linguistically plural audio-visual landscape in 21st century.”

“The close association between English and information technology may prove a temporary phenomena….So whereas English speakers used to enjoy the best and latest technology, this is no longer so true.” @ (David Graddol. 2000 (1997). 

In almost all of the schools in the developed world are trying to teach their students other languages along with the mother tongue, and these other languages are not merely English.

Things have gone so far that you can now find Chinese medium schools even in the USA in which 90 per cent of students come from non-Chinese language background. (Though this policy is very much wrong, yet, this speaks volumes about the rise of Chinese language in the world). The number of  Chinese learners in the USA in 2007 were ten times more in comparison to 2000. (USA Today, 20^th November, 2007)

“Panama is moving to make the teaching of Mandarin compulsory in all schools, in recognition of China’s growing importance in the world economy. @ BBC News (www) 6th December, 2007) 

Even in the countries which speak English mainly, more and more people whose mother tongue is not English are abandoning the use of English. During the 1990 census in the USA, 31.8 million persons recorded that they did not use English at home. The number had grown to 47 million in the 2000 census. This increase in number is far higher than the increase in population of the respective language groups. The number of such Spanish population alone had risen by 60 per cent. From 1980 to 2011, the number of persons who did not use English at home had risen by 140 per cent in the USA, though the US population had increased only by 40 per cent during these years. This means that the number of people who had abandoned English at home had doubled in absolute terms during these years. The Indian elite (the rashTar swamis, sans information in this information age) have completely abandoned national self-respect, not English, and don’t miss to pay daily obeisance to English morn, noon, and night.

The following figures from Argentina are a good evidence to show how English is being pushed out of the media in the former English colonies:  49 per cent of Argentine media in 1983 was from outside the country. The figure for 1996 was 22 per cent.

Thus, there should be no doubt left that English is diminishing in all the domains where it had held a dominant position earlier.

With the advent of numerous language based technologies (internet, computer, mobile telephony, e-books etc.), the commercial prospects of native languages cannot be overstated.

We also need to weigh the educational, economic, commercial, and cultural losses that English language has caused us. A brief account of these is given in the section below.

Joga Singh, Ph.D. (York, U.K.), Mobile: +91-9915709582; E-mail: jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co

In 2012, Janek Kuwanr, Head Master of Lokkabi Haldhar Avasik Banavidyalaya visited me along with renowned poet Padmasri Haldhar Nag.  They proposed to initiate teachings in Kosali in the school and they invited me to the school. It was hot summer, I visited the school. A mud house with 2 rooms attached with a veranda and surrounded by jungle, no boundary wall no other facilities. A colour faded signboard hanging to the roof. That was Lokkabi Haldhar Avasik Banavidyalaya. The school is situated at Kudopali near Sohela of Bargarh district.

I discussed with many senior grammarians and wrote 2 books for the school; a grammar book and a story book. We released the primer “Aasa Kosali Sikhma” and “Aasare Pile Kathani Kahema”. The book was published by Beni group and supported by many well wishers.

When the CM wrote recommendation letter to the Union government urging to include Kosali in 8^th Schedule, there in the letter too he has mention about the school.

Now the school is in bit better position with some financial assistance from government and other well wishers. But that not enough, the government should undertake it fully and continue teaching Kosali.

Saket Sreebhushan Sahu comments on culture and politics

According to the oral narrative, once upon a time Patna was a dependency of Borasambar. There was no chief and the council of eight Malliks (Asta-Malliks) ruled over Patna. It was a reign full of mishap and disturbances. What’s more, it was a seat of Tantrism and cruelest form of blood sacrifice i.e. human sacrifice was prevalent before its reigning goddess Pataneswari. Everyday a man was sacrificed to the deity. But it was practically difficult on the part of the Asta-Malliks to arrange a man daily for the deity. Consequently, a well thought out practice was made with the hidden intent of human sacrifice at the religious Pitha of Pataneswari.

As per the practice, these eight Malliks were electing a chief each day from the common mass and taking him to the temple of Pataneswari so that he could seek her blessings before ascending the throne. In fact, they had clear objective of letting the man to be the sacrificial article of the deity. They asked the so called newly elected or selected leader to pay obeisance to the deity. No sooner had he prostrated himself then he was beheaded by these Malliks and sacrificed before the deity. After that, the Asta-malliks pretended that the deity considered him unfit to sit on the throne and for that reason devoured him. As a result of this practice, day by day a man was elected chief and subsequently sacrificed pitilessly.

This narrative intends to transmit certain historical information in a distorted and hazy form that Patna (Patnagarh) was a seat of Tantrism where human sacrifice was once established. In this context, it may be said that there is satisfactory sign to demonstrate and consider that Patna was a seat of Tantrism that led to the institution of a Tantrik Pitha (site) at Patna. It may be noted here that still a few years ago Patna was widely known as Kuanri-Patna or Kaunri-Patna which means the seat of maidens who lived in this township for some period of time and accomplished esoteric rites.

Most probably, these Tantrik maidens were non-Brahmins by caste or they were popularly acknowledged by their assumed non-Brahmin names like Gangi Gauduni, Sua-Teluni, Jnanadei-Maluni, Nitei-Dhobani, Luhukuti-Luhurani, Sukuti-Chamaruni and Patrapindhi-Saharuni. This suggests us to believe that they were very admired and worshipped mostly amongst non-Brahmin and tribal sections of the west Orissan society. There are popular tales and traditions in west Orissa depicting the occult practices and Tantrik activities of these seven maidens, at times branded as Sat-Bahen (seven sisters). They appear to be the supporters and followers of Lakshminkara who has propounded the Sahajayana Buddhism in west Orissa in the ninth century A.D.

Apparently, Vaijala Dev-II (1520-1540 A.D.) of Chauhan dynasty was also a worshipper of Hari-Hara and his Guru was well versed in Logic and Tantra. As late as the sixteenth century, Patna Rajya was known as Kaunri-Patna after the name of the headquarters town of that name as known from the Nirguna Mahatmya of the poet Chaitanya Das (Senapati and Sahu, 1968:50-51,489; Senapati and Mahanti, 1971:49,531; Panda, 1992).

The oral narrative further reveals that there was a Brahmin in Patna. On one occasion, on his visit to Borasambar he learnt that the Binjhal chief of Borasambar had given shelter to a Chauhan princess and her son. On his request, the Borasambar chief allowed him to take the mother Asavati and her son Ramai Dev to Patnagarh and to keep in his house. After sometime, the Brahmin was elected by the Asta-Malliks to be the chief of Patna. Being afraid of the inevitable consequence of death he sent Ramai Dev to represent him for this purpose.

Chitrasen Pasayat is an OAS and comments on culture

III. Foreign Language Learning and Mother Tongue Medium vs. Foreign Language Medium

It would be proper to start with a statement from the UNESCO:

“What seems to be standing in our way is a set of myths about language and learning, and these myths must be revealed as such to open people’s eyes. One such myth is that the best way to learn a second (read foreign – JS) language is to use it as a medium of instruction. (In fact, it is often more effective to learn additional languages as subjects of study.) Another is that to learn a second language you must start as early as possible. (Starting early might help learners to have a nice accent, but otherwise the advantage goes to learners who have a well developed first language.) A third is that the home language gets in the way of learning a second language. (Building a strong foundation in the first language results in a better learning of additional languages.) Clearly these myths are more false than true, yet they guide the way policymakers tend to think about how speakers of other languages must learn dominant or official languages.” @ (UNESCO, 2008:12).

This statement is based on studies from 12 countries spread over all continents. The study included India too and it was funded by the World Bank, not an opponent of English.

A similar study is based on Finish children who migrated to Sweden. This study showed, “Overwhelmingly, the better a student knew Finish (as a function of having attended school for several years in Finland), the better he learned Swedish. An examination of language skills of siblings found that who moved from Finland at an average age of 10 have preserved an almost normal Finnish language level, and they also approach the normal level in Swedish of Swedish pupils… The children who moved under the age of six, or who were born in Sweden, do not do as well. Their Swedish language development often stops at the age of about 12, evidently because of their poor grounding in the mother tongue.”  @ (Paulston, 1977:92-3).

“Strong demand for EMI (Englis as medium of instruction) as a means of promoting fluency in English conflates two distinct areas of practice: EMI and English as subject (EaS). The confusion of language learning (EaS) with language and learning has created difficulties for schoolchildren and can pose a barrier to inclusive and equitable quality education. There is little or no evidence to support the widely held view that EMI is a better or surer way to attain fluency in English than via quality EaS. Expert estimates are that it takes pupils six to eight years to develop the cognitive and academic language proficiency (CALP) needed to support learning across the curriculum. A move to EMI in or just after lower primary, commonly found in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, yields too shallow a foundation of English to sustain learning across the curriculum from the upper primary years onwards. Early introduction of EMI is thus viewed as impairing learning in the formative years and limiting educational attainment.

The evidence-based position on MoI taken by major donors and development partners is one that supports a mother tongue-based multilingual education model of basic education. It rests on a wealth of data showing that children’s participation in well-designed multilingual programmes underpins learning in all subjects, including English, through use of the mother tongue or a familiar indigenous language. The British Council’s position on MoI likewise reflects a mother tongue-based multilingual education approach to basic education in low- and middle-income countries”. (pp.3).

British Council. 2017. English language and medium of instruction in basic education in low- and middle-income countries: a British Council perspective. London: The British Council.

Thus, it is clear that foreign languages are better learned by studying through mother tongue medium. The following tells why it is so:

“Butzkamm insists that we have to re-define the role of the native language as the major resource in foreign language learning and teaching. As children grow into their mother tongue, (1) they have learnt to conceptualize their world and have fully grasped the symbolic function of language; (2) they have learnt to communicate; (3) they have learnt to speak and use their voice; (4) they have acquired an intuitive understanding of grammar and have become aware of many of the finer points of language; (5) they have acquired the secondary skills of reading and writing. The mother tongue is therefore the greatest asset people bring to the task of foreign language learning. It provides an indispensable Language Acquisition Support System and makes instruction possible in the first place. @ (WIKIPEDIA).

“Successful learners capitalise on the vast amount of both linguistic skills and world knowledge they have already accumulated via the mother tongue. For the most part, they need not reconceptualise their world in the new language. They have acquired an L1 along with its accompanying discourse skills and pragmatic knowledge, which are directly available for incorporation into the target language system. For instance, they need not be told that requests, wishes or warnings can masquerade as statements. Also, the path breaking power of L1 grammar is not dependent on the fact that both languages share similar grammatical features. It is because all languages have evolved means of expressing abstract ideas such as possession, number, agent, instrument, negation, cause, condition, obligation etc., no matter how they do this; one natural language is enough to open the door for the grammars of other language because all languages are cut from the same conceptual cloth. In a deep sense, we only learn language once”. @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Butzkamm

The facts described so far should suffice to take the blinders off the eyes and pull the deafening wax out of the Indian policy makers. However, it won’t do any harm to look into what is happening in the rest of the world language wise.

In fact, wherever English has been the medium of instruction, though it being a foreign language there, it has been phased out or is at least diminishing day in and day out. Few examples should suffice as evidence.

Uganda decided in 2007 that for the first three years the mother tongues should be used as medium of education and English should be taught as a subject. This has brought them success too. An appraisal done in 2008 itself showed that the new policy had contributed to improvement in literacy.

It needs to be particularly mentioned here that there are 52 language groups in Uganda. The change in Uganda was based on the idea that a student learnt a foreign language better if he had a good foundation in the mother tongue. Before this new policy, the school education in Uganda used to be in English medium from the very start. (See Kavuma, 2009 for these facts). 

Malaysia decided in 2009 to teach Math and Science in Bhasha Malasia in National schools and in Chinese and Tamil in the Local schools.

There can’t be a better comment on the illiteracy of Indian policy makers than that Malaysia finds it correct to teach science in Tamil medium to Tamils but it is considered almost a crime here in India. There is a proverb in Punjabi which means that ‘without sense, even wells go dry’. We may not know much about that, but the English infected Indian heads have certainly gone empty. Anyhow, it won’t be bad to have some more evidence here.

“New Zealand and Britain have shown more regard for their indigenous minority languages (though not for immigrant languages) in recent years, which also shows in their employment as the medium of instruction in schools. The recent history of New Zealand’s policy regarding the Maori language and culture is highlighted by S. May, with an optimistic outlook (pp. 21–41). Initial assessments of the newly institutionalised Maori elementary schools (Kura Kaupapa), with Maori medium instruction, ‘suggest that the academic progress of children ( . . . ) is comparable to their mainstream peers, while providing the added advantage of bilingualism’ (p. 35). In the case of Hong Kong there has been an increase in the use of Puntonghua, which has also been introduced as a widely taught school subject, while indigenous Cantonese still serves as the medium of instruction together with English. Malaysia, in contrast, has restrained the status and function of English and substituted it by Malay (Bahasa Malaysia) as the sole official language of the country and the sole medium of instruction in public schools and universities (S. Kaur Gill, pp. 135–152).” @ (Ammon, 2004)  

It is clear, thus, that all English infected nations of yester years are bidding it farewell. The reason seems to be that none wants to be a friend of ignorance (except us, the Indians, highly addicted to mental slavery, and ignorance).

But why is it happening in India, then? The real reason for this is the Indian Manuvaad; The Indian elite want to plunder all and deprive other Indians of everything through the instrument of English language. Therefore, we need to demolish the ideological bases which sustain this Indian Neo-Manuvaad in the digital age. These bases are some myths, which have been nicely unmasked in a Stockholm (Sweden) University Report (see Benson, 2005). Some of these myths are described below.

III.2. Some More Myths Surrounding Language

III.2.1. “The one nation—one language myth. The colonial concept that a nation-state requires

a single unifying language has influenced policy-makers in many parts of the world,

yet imposition of a so-called “neutral” foreign language has not necessarily resulted

in unity, nor have relatively monolingual countries like Somalia, Burundi or Rwanda

been guaranteed stability. In fact, government failure to accept ethnolinguistic

diversity has been a major destabilizing force in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan,

Myanmar and Sri Lanka (Ouane 2003).” @ (Benson, 2009)  

III.2.2. “The myth that local languages cannot express modern concepts. Another colonial

concept is the supposed inherent worth of European languages in contrast to others,

but all human languages are equally able to express their speakers’ thoughts and can

develop new terms and structures as needed. Léopold Senghor once illustrated this by

translating Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into Wolof, a lingua franca of Senegal.

The difference lies in which languages have historically been chosen for

“intellectualization,” or development, through writing and publishing (Alexander

2003).”  @ (Benson, 2009)

As is made amply clear by the statements above, each language is capable of expressing any kind of concept. But such an ignorance prevails around in this regard that we need to go in a bit of detail.

No language can be dubbed rich or poor in terms of sentence formation. A cursory reading of  grammar books of any two languages should reveal this. Even a language without a grammar book is grammatically as rich as the ones with written grammars. So, sentence structure –wise, all languages are equally rich. It is the vocabulary which is root of all misconceptions about poverty or richness of any particular language.

It is often heard that our languages do not possess words for subjects like science and technology. But this view is based in a complete lack of knowledge about vocabulary.

Actually, each language has similar word power, because all words of a language are constructed from some basic elements called ‘roots’ and ‘affixes’.  And, there is no marked difference among languages in terms of the number of these basic elements. The following English words can illustrate this very easily:

1. “Haem. A prefix signifying blood.
2. Haemacyte. A blood cell.
3. Haemagogue. Medicine that promotes the catamenial and haemorrhoidal discharges.
4. Haemal. Pertaining to the blood.
5. Haemalopia. An effusion of the blood into the globe of the eye; bloodshot eye.
6. Haemngiectasis. Dilatation of a blood vessel.
7. Haemangioma. A malformation of a blood vessels which may occur in any part of the body.
8. Haemarthrosis. The presence of blood in a joint cavity.
9. Haematemesis. The vomiting of blood.
10. Haematin. An iron-containing constituent of haemoglobin.
11. Haematinic. An agent improving the blood-quality.
12. Haematinuria. The presence of haematin in the urine.
13. Haematocele. A swelling filled with blood; haematoma.
14. Haematocolpos. Retention of the menses due to a congenital obstruction of vagina.
15. Haematogenesis. The development of the blood.
16. Haematoid. Having the nature or appearance of blood.
17. Haematology. The science dealing with the formation, composition, functions and diseases of the blood.
18. Haematolysis. Destruction of blood cells and liberation of haemoglobin.
19. Haematoma. The blood tumour; H. Auris, the blood tumour of the external.”

( With thanks from Rawat, 1985)

At first sight, it would appear that our languages do not have words equivalent to these ones. But the truth is that all of the words above are derived by adding suffixes (endings) to the root (base) ‘Haem’, meaning ‘blood’. The following Hindi parallels, respectively, of these words will make it clear that either our languages have their equivalents or we can get them in no time.

1. rakt 2. rakt-koshika 3. rakt-prerak 4. raktiya 5. raktiya-netr 6. raktvahini-pasar 7. rakt-massa 8. raktjor-vikar 9. rakt-vaaman 10. lauhraktiya 11. raktvardhak 12. raktmuutr 13. rakt-granthi/suujan 14. rakt-maasdharmrodh 15. rakt-utpaadan 16. raktruup 17. rakt-vigiyan 18. rakt-hraas 19. rakt-granthi

Thus, to state that our languages lack in vocabulary can only be a sound proof of one’s not being in a sound state of mind.

The English words cited above bring out another significant fact about the touted richness of English language; none of these words is an English one; all of them have been borrowed directly from Latin. It is a misconception, thus, to believe that one would understand the scientific vocabulary better if one were fluent in English, because most of the scientific vocabulary in English is either Latin or of Greek origin.

Another myth responsible for the chronic English infection is the misconception that fluency in English will open the doors to the whole world. It is essential, therefore, to know what is happening in the world around linguistically.

III.2.3. “The L2 as global language myth. The foreign L2 is often seen as necessary for

further education, work and other opportunities, yet, as Phillipson (1992) points out,

this has not happened in a political vacuum but is the result of deliberate promotion

by powerful countries or groups of their respective languages. Meanwhile,

employment in the informal sector of low-income countries involves 50 percent or

more of the population and is increasing, and primary schooling is still terminal for

most. The vast majority will not be integrated into the global marketplace and will

have little use for the L2 (Bruthiaux 2002).” @ (Benson, 2005)

Joga Singh, Ph.D. (York, U.K.), Mobile: +91-9915709582; E-mail: jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co

1. About this Document

Last month, the Government of India issued a notification which included retrograde provisions for Indian languages for central civil services examinations. The notification also added further weightage to English by proposing to include marks scored in the English compulsory paper to calculate merit. This has stirred up the linguistic debate once again. This document was written in response to the situation arising out of the Indian government’s issuing of the notification, a la ignorance par excellence.

The government withdrew the notification on the 15^th of March due to a very stiff indictment by language experts and a strong opposition from various political circles. The discriminatory attitude of Indian elite towards Indian languages in India, however, is still worse even than their colonial siblings. The language question is inseparably tied with education, scientific development, knowledge in general, culture, heritage, and, very importantly, with the issue of the proper method of learning a foreign language. This document is an effort to provide a synopsis of professional international opinion on these matters.

Though the Indian languages have never been granted their rightful and essentially required status even after the British left, their plight has been further worsening at a faster pace for the past 30 years or so. The English language is pushing Indian languages out even as medium of education in schools. Though the real reason for this are the Indian elite’s misconceived vested interests, the following kind of false arguments are concoted in support of this irrationality:

1. That English is the language of science and knowledge and the mastery of English, therefore, is essential to make progress in these fields;
2. English is the language of international communication and business and no international exchange is possible without it.

The above kinds of arguments are a result of total ignorance about the relationship between language and science, education, knowledge in general, and about the international linguistic scene. The aim of this document is to pull the mask off this ignorance.

Joga Singh, Ph.D. (York, U.K.),  Mobile: +91-9915709582; E-mail: jogasinghvirk@yahoo.co