Needed: a linguistic awakening

Incredible, but true. Gujarat holds the dubious record of being the only State where even post-graduates and professionals seldom speak English. For the common man there, English continues to be an elusive dream because teaching standards in English have not improved for years. V. GANGADHAR analyses the issue.

THE tradition-bound Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, who is also a staunch follower of the RSS and the Swadeshi lobby, has to compete with other States in luring foreign investors and going abroad frequently to meet NRIs.

Such forays assume more credibility if the Chief Minister concerned were familiar with the English language. So, Mr. Patel is learning English. His government recently announced the introduction of the study of English from Standard V. Further, special coaching classes at nominal rates are being organised for those who had passed twelfth standard and want to improve their English. The State also offers special concessions to women, widows and people from rural areas to join the English classes.

"We should be proud of the Gujarati language, but we will show the world that we can be at home with English," said Mr. Patel. Brave words. It will be interesting to see how his government creates a work force to teach English at these special coaching classes. This is because teaching standards in English in the State are abysmally poor in view of Gujarat's traditional antipathy to English.

This was not manifested through violent means like burning English books or blackening English signboards. For over 40 years, anti-English politicians have used subtle propaganda to brainwash the people into believing that English was "foreign" and was not needed for an "ideal" kind of education taught at institutions like Gujarat Vidyapith. The lobby functioned under the leadership of Gandhian politicians like Morarji Desai and included stalwarts of similar thinking, Thakorebhai Desai, Maganbhai Desai and Ramlal Parikh.

The anti-English lobby saw to it that English in Gujarat schools was taught only from Standard VIII. It killed all the efforts made by enlightened citizens like scientist Vikram Sarabhai and industrialist Kasturbhai Lalbhai to teach the language, if not from Standard III, at least from Standard V. The "Eighth Standard" wallahs would have none of this. The teaching of English was the major issue in a bitterly-contested election to the Gujarat University Vice Chancellor's post in the 1960s when a person like Vikram Sarabhai lost to little known Maganbhai Desai who had the backing of the Morarji Desai lobby.

Such a fiasco was possible only in a State like Gujarat where people were not academically inclined. The Gujarati middle class which ought to be concerned with the state of education, was satisfied if boys and girls somehow acquired a degree and got jobs within the state. If this could be done without mastering a "foreign" language like English, so be it. And if English was taught only from Standard VIII, it reduced the overall burden on the students.

As a result of this lopsided policy on English teaching, boys and girls, who had learnt practically nothing beyond the English alphabet faced problems when they reached the college classes. During the 1960s, when I taught English at an Ahmedabad college, it was difficult to interpret the poems of Shelley, Keats or Tennyson or the essays of Lamb, Chesterton or Addison to students who had little background in the language. The local English teachers solved the problem by "teaching" English in Gujarati. The syllabus in those days, was literature-oriented and just refused to go down with the students. Today, the courses are more language-oriented, but many of the old problems still remain.

Meanwhile, the State continued experimenting with its English teaching policies. While the "Eighth standard" obsession continued for a long time, the Madhavsinh Solanki government during the early 1980s introduced English from Standard V, but as an optional subject. In the science stream in colleges, the marks obtained in English were not counted in the aggregate. While States like Punjab and Maharashtra began teaching English from Standards III, Gujarat lagged far behind.

Such a policy had an impact on the youth. Unable to study standard text and reference books in English which could enable them to compete with students from other States, boys and girls from Gujarat found it difficult to get selected to prestigious institutions like the IIM, the NID and the School of Architecture and Planning. During the heyday of the local textile industry, the technical and administrative jobs went to outsiders who were proficient in English. The locals had to be satisfied with menial or lowly clerical jobs. The State's representation in the Central Services cadre was shamefully low. I taught students from Gujarat who aspired to join the IAS, IFS and IPS and found their poor knowledge of English was a major factor in restricting their broad-based education.

Gujarat was the only State where even post-graduates, doctors or engineers seldom spoke English either at home or at office. Gujarati newspapers always scored over the English ones. Somehow, the reading habit seemed to have escaped them. Even among highly qualified and affluent Gujaratis, it would be difficult to discuss books, authors and literary movements. Stay away from subjects like Jane Austen's characters, T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" the antics of the Pickwickians or even the achievements of Perry Mason and Hercule Poirot. Of course, Gujarat has produced its quota of excellent doctors, engineers and architects, but most of them have grown up without appreciating the glory of the English language. For this do not blame the students, blame successive State governments.

Funnily enough, some of the most vigorous anti-English campaigners sent their sons and daughters to English medium or expensive boarding schools. For the common Gujarati, deprived of his due, English was an elusive dream. Anyone who had a second class Master's degree in the subject was regarded as a genius. College lecturers in English made a handsome packet through private tuitions. It was a curious state of affairs. Even while supporting governments biased against English, the average Gujarati entertained dreams of speaking the language fluently and making it to the West. Well, he did manage the latter, without ever having achieved the former. The large number of Gujarati NRIs who often returned to their home State, continued to speak only "Gujarati English"!

Will the situation change following the recent upgrading of English by the government? The bias and deliberate neglect of the past five decades, cannot be wiped out so easily. Gujarat must strengthen its infrastructure by training its English teachers, most of whom are not up to the mark. If they are let loose untrained on the present crop of students, the situation will remain the same.

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