mother tongue

I have heard many times this.  Mother tongue is the best medium for a child's education. I don't have any shades of doubt about this. However, in the name of promoting a native language, the language fanatics take it too far to denigrate other languages including English and eventually end up forcing this down the throat of some one to compulsorily hold onto one's native tongue.

I have seen this with eminent poets and writers in at least the few Indian languages I have been exposed to like Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam.

These writers and poets have ulterior motive I feel when they insist on native languages. It is also understandable. As most of them have their daily bread and butter (now it is towards Merc and villas) pinned down on people reading and writing in these languages. Obviously if their market share goes down with people taking to English or others because that gives them the opportunities, then how do they survive? I may be criticised for this view but I would like to point out that their view of the world is also  quite narrow and the fact that most of them have rapport with the ruling politicians, who then blindly insist that Tamilnadu for Tamils and Kannada nadu for Kannadigas or Kerala nadu for malayalees.

I feel this kind of soft insistence finally leads to a divided society. Because general public does not have the time to think deeply and they rever these local heroes, their words become so important. When you keep dividing the people, one day you may have to face the division within your own community and family between you and your son and daughter.

A divisive mind does not foster an environment of empathy and love for fellow beings. Instead it frowns upon the existence of others as being a threat to you. I don't say that you speak English and worship it dropping whatever your mother tongue is. I am only telling you to clearly identify these people who create divisions in the society in the name of a language because they have certain gains to make. I also say that there are really good guys out there in the literary circles who are with a broad mind and who are well read and are very clear in their head about larger goals beyond the constraints of a language.

If you enjoy learning a language do it. But not under any one's compulsions. It should be done out of your own will. Whenever you see a trend where you suspect the motive is to divide people, never support it, for it will backfire on you one day.

Ignore people creating divisions and look out for such people in every Indian state.

Try to learn whatever you feel is good for you.  If you enjoy the rich literature of a language enjoy it. But don't take it beyond that. After lot of time thinking about what is in a language, I feel the native language or mother tongue sort of becomes the first and easiest language for you as it is imbibed in you when you had nothing else in your head. But remember that blindly sticking to it because you find it easy and you can express yourself means you are not exploring the richness of thoughts in some other language. That also does not mean that you waste your life learning all possible languages.  The rule of thumb I have is, if I find something interesting, I don't mind learning it, no matter how hard it is. Irrespective of which language a thought was born, we should be able to have a look at it.

People fear that if they stop speaking their mother tongue, then it will die and with it the whole race can extinguish. Every language ultimately gets its due share I believe. Sanskrit died in the spoken world because it probably was not a easy language to use and speak by majority. However, the richness of sanskrit in terms of literature and the vedas or upanishads have not died. It is living and have been migrated into various other languages of the world. Now as long as the essence of the thoughts that originated in the days of vedas has survived, it is only a desirable thing that the language that was used to convey such refined thoughts also survive. But if it did not, then what can you do about it? You cannot force people to learn and speak it. It is not possible.

English as a language has taken within it a lot of others and especially the modern day aspects. It never rested with the Shakespearean literature. It has evolved and adapted because the people of that language  transcended beyond it and tried to understand other cultures. The language also expanded with it. This shows that the need to be 'listening' to others and expanding on one's own language to incorporate new thoughts will go a long way in surviving a language.

Again this does not mean, literally translate everything in English to native language. This is what the French do and probably others like Japanese. I feel the English though they had conquered most countries in the world, had some eye for detail into each culture, documented, contributed and enabled the exposure of the gems in those languages to other cultures because they were being the connecting points by virtue of their conquests. A job probably being done by internet to some extent and I feel it will only increase as internet expands to include more of native languages and by improvements in language translators. This could be a very subtle thing that happened, because the English are not emotionally tied to their language unlike Indians are.

If you drop the emotional tag on the language and start using it to expand your and other's knowledge with it, language is a very powerful tool that can change the history of man's existence. However, with emotion, it leads to fanning of egos and aggression on other cultures who don't speak yours.