The Governor of Nagaland's ardent call for teaching students in mother tongue or indigenous knowledge at primary level is most admirable. “Primary education should be in our mother tongue,” he exhorted at a recent function.
His wisdom finds consonance with the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), which maintains that “mother languages are essential components of quality education.” The International Mother Language Day (IMLD), thus, is observed annually on February 21 to highlight its significance.
The UNESCO recommends the use of mother languages from the first years of schooling arguing that children learn best in their mother language.
This is pertinent. According to UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, out of 197 languages in India that are on their way to becoming endangered, around 25 Naga languages appear on the list under the category "vulnerable" while another was listed as “definitely endangered.”
However, the point of departure occurs when the Governor and the UNESCO give their justification of the usages.
For the latter, a language is not just a communication but “the very condition of our humanity.” “Our values, our beliefs and our identity are embedded within it. It is through language that we transmit our experiences, our traditions and our knowledge… [and]… reflects the incontestable wealth of our imaginations and ways of life,” the UNESCO stated on IMLD this year.
For the Governor, mother tongue has to be adopted as a counter against British educational system, which he argued, was based on ‘self centricism.’ To that end, he called for changing ‘mindset’ and education must be made “accountable to the family, society and nation.”
Lamenting that English was being favored in the country and the state, he highlighted that an awardee for Hindi Language is yet to be formally recognised by his own village.
Commenting on the status of Hindi in the state, the Governor further asserted that “the content of what is spoken is ‘more important than the language.’”
This is where the Governor's affinity with ‘mother tongue’ stops. For him, the Hindi education is a vehicle to move society forward, and the panacea for the ills that is plaguing the present system, a British legacy.
Taking a sharp detour from his assertion for “mother tongue,” he argued that a common language can facilitate increased interaction leading to increased job and business opportunities.”
Speaking in the same occasion, Nagaland Higher &Technical Education Minister was more candid. Calling for promotion of Hindi language in Nagaland, he reportedly stated, “Today, each and every person of us as Indians should be able to stand up and speak in Hindi”. Hindi is the vehicle for an integrated India, he implied.
One thing is clear from the above. The Governor’s conviction for indigeneity has two connotations. At one level, it is a call for learning ‘mother tongue,’ which again should be complemented and subsumed with larger “indigenous” language of India, i.e. Hindi.
This is nothing, but cultural imperialism sugar-coated in guise of indigeneity.
