Smriti isn't completely wrong: Teaching German is against National Education Policy

HRD Minister Smriti Irani’s decision to suddenly yank the teaching of German out of Kendriya Vidyalayas and substitute it with Sanskrit has rightly been criticised for being arbitrary and whimsical. At the very least, it made no sense to inflict this decision on students who had already opted for German. They can’t now be asked to learn a language they did not sign up for. In all policy changes, there is a simple concept called grand-fathering that needs to be followed. A major shift in policy emphasis needs you to first ensure that people who operated under an old rule are allowed to continue to the logical end. The changed policy – whether it is about a four-year degree course or Sanskrit - should apply only to new students. This is the basic norm that needs to be ensured if the Kendriya Vidyalayas want to offer Sanskrit as an option instead or in addition to German. Otherwise, the matter will land up in court. However, Irani is surely right in affirming that teaching German as the third language is not quite in the spirit of the National Education Policy of 1968 which specifies what the three-language formula is about. That policy was evolved in the context of the anti-Hindi riots in Tamil Nadu in the 1960s, which brought the DMK to power in 1967. That three-language formula had national integration as a key purpose. Briefly stated, that policy said that schools will teach three languages – the regional language of the state, Hindi and English. The expectation was that in the south, English, the regional language and Hindi would be taught, while in the Hindi heartland, students would be encouraged to learn one south Indian language as the third language. [caption id=“attachment_1806751” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Smriti Irani. Reuters.[/caption] That formula remains a good one even now, but the policy has not quite been implemented the way it was intended to by almost any state. While Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Tripura declined to offer Hindi, the Hindi-speaking states did not promote any southern, or, for that matter, any non-Hindi language (Bengali, Gujarati or Marathi) as third language in schools. The net result is we are poor in all national languages. So what we now have by default is a two-language formula (Hindi and English in the Hindi states, and English and regional language in many southern states) – with the third language being a toss-up between Hindi or something else. It is in this context we should view the HRD Minister’s decision to declare German as not being part of the original scheme. She’s right on this score, though her intent can be questioned. The three-language formula was meant to be about Indians learning two Indian languages (including Sanskrit), plus English. German could have been taken up only as an optional outside the three-language school curriculum. But since the three-language formula is now observed only in the breach, the question is: what is the way forward? To me, the only two obvious and compulsory language choices for any state (education is on the concurrent list, and the states have as much say on it as the centre) are regional language and English. The third language can be Hindi, Sanskrit, another modern Indian language or a foreign language (Chinese, German, French). The chances are Sanskrit, as a non-spoken language, will not be chosen by too many students. Its formal promotion should thus be left to private advocacy groups to take it to the population at large – including schools. Some organisations like Samskrita Bharati already do this. Sanskrit cannot be popularised by shoving it down people’s throats for the simple reason that people choose languages partly for their utility in the job market, and Sanskrit currently does not have that utility. We need a new sanity in the three-language formula, and the third language ought to be a matter of choice for the student in a globalising world. Sanskrit, which is a key repository of Indian culture and civilisation, ought to be a labour of love.