Linguistic Populism in India (prelude to Alternative language principles for an Indian school)
Övrigt konferensbidrag, 2019
Each state imposes its own language. Indian governments have for 70 years given majority speakers unearned privilege but little else: all science, technology and higher studies are done in English. The politics has been only about power. In most subjects, no Indian language has been developed to a level fit for higher study.
Language skills have declined across the board. People no longer learn languages neighbouring their own; they talk to people from neighbouring states using the bad Hindi they learn for Government jobs. Many call Hindi the ”national” language (it isn’t). Othering is widespread. People sing Hindi songs in ”national” competitions where their pronunciation is mocked. Hindi films get laughs by simply showing a caricatured ”South Indian”. Tarun Vijay of the BJP in 2017: ”If we (Indians) were racist, why would we ... live with South Indians? We have blacks ... all around us”.
Globalisation brought high-paying jobs requiring technical skills and English; Hindi and state languages lost their status. But now even the poor want English-medium schools. Since most teachers can scarcely speak English, their schools will teach bad English and little content, exacerbating India’s education problems.
One could instead teach children in their first language, giving them a strong foundation in their culture (and their often hoary literary traditions) and in English as a foreign language. Will India pause its rush to disaster and implement this or other solutions?
globalisation
science
administration
education
linguistic
India
populism
first language
Sanskrit
English
Hindi
Författare
K V S Prasad
Chalmers, Data- och informationsteknik, Funktionell programmering
Gothenburg, Sweden,
Ämneskategorier
Språk och litteratur
Utbildningsvetenskap
Social och ekonomisk geografi
Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik
Studier av enskilda språk
Statsvetenskap
Pedagogik