English medium

Sir, - Kudos to Mr. Venkatachalapathy for `The English mania' in the Open page April 4. What is hurting and saddening is that nowhere in India is one's mother-tongue looked down with such disdain and trigger the kind of protests that it did in Tamil Nadu. Yet in no other State, will the mother-tongue be capable of arousing such frenzy. While emotive and rabble-rousing speeches where made on one hand, on the other, there was a steady erosion and displacement of Tamil. A whole generation of children have grown without knowing even to read or write their mother-tongue. Psychologically and socially the harm done cannot be reversed.

What are the root causes for such a situation? Why this only in Tamil Nadu? This has its ramification in a whole range of areas. While interviewing a candidate for the post graduate course in Social Work (some years ago) I requested her to answer in Tamil - her mother-tongue was Tamil. To my utter disbelief she quietly replied, `Maam I cannot speak in Tamil, but know a little `servant Tamil'. Has one heard of servant Hindi, servant Malayalam etc.? The tradegy is that we take pride in speaking English with an anglicised accent. While referring to a particular politician the media very much stressed this aspect-as though this made a person better or a better qualified politician. Having taught `Pedagogy of the Oppressed' I very much appreciated the author's assertion of, ``our children would have a mind that is unbridled''. Language is liberating only if one uses one's mother-tongue, especially during the growing period. With language comes values and the establishment of relationships.

If the mother tongue is not used at this period then, an alienation sets in and a disassociative personality variable is inserted - for to think in one language and to speak in another will create hurdles and a false reality picture in the mind. Take the word `love' and apply it to people. In Tamil it has its appropriate love denoting terms like `pasam', `nesam', `anbu', `kathal' etc. depending on the relationship to the person. But in English it is just `love', be it God or my favourite brand of icecream-which I love!

An elite college in Chennai which is 53 years old has various disciplines both at the graduate and postgraduate levels but does not have a Tamil B.A. This clearly shows that Tamil is something not very important and which can be written off! Mother, mother- tongue, motherland, are all interlinked and inter twined, each having its actions and interactions on each other. Hence it is significant in one's growing and nurturing period- and has its sacredness. One can point at politicians and accuse them of not practising what they preach. But then politicians must never be cited as role-models when we have to make a decision for the best of our children, and thereby set right a wrong trend. We owe that to our children and to posterity.

Hilda Raja,

Chennai

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