Mother Tongue

One film’s ongoing legacy to reach African audiences in their mother tongue

Over 2,000 languages are spoken in Africa, with multilingualism a common feature of everyday life. Across the continent, though, millions of school pupils aren’t taught in their mother tongue.

With Mother Tongue Twisters, an online poetry initiative, Mohini Gupta hopes to inspire and delight young readers

Among the submissions already on writer and translator Mohini Gupta’s online initiative Mother Tongue Twisters (MTT) are Kashmiri lullabies, Vinda Karandikar Marathi poems, a Bhojpuri folk lullaby, Sampurna Chattarji’s set of original onomatopoeic poems titled Aw-Nuh-Mat-Tuh-Pee-Ah!, Allama Iqbal’s Urdu translation of The Spider and the Fly, Gutpa’s Hindi translation of Vikram Seth’s The Frog and the Nightingale, and some delightful English poetry.

Maharashtra govt considering to make Marathi language compulsory subject till Class 10, says Deputy CM Ajit Pawar

'We all live in Maharashtra and every child should read and write Marathi properly', said Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar

MHRD revises National Education Policy draft amid uproar over imposition of Hindi; new version advocates 3-language formula

The revision to the draft comes after many politicians and citizens slammed the government for imposing Hindi, in an alleged attempt to ‘homogenise’ the diverse linguistic fabric of the country which consists of many regional languages, especially down south where they have a prominent presence as a part of the Dravidian identity.

Over 43% of Indians name Hindi as their mother tongue, reveals Census data; Bengali, Marathi, Telugu in top 4

Hindi was entered as the mother tongue by a larger percentage of Indians in the 2011 Census in comparison to the 2001 edition, states the latest language data made public on Tuesday

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu says pragmatic policy needed to encourage mother tongues in schools

Calling languages as soul of society, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said that India should have a pragmatic policy to encourage mother tongues at early stages of school.

Indians should speak in their mother tongue more, less in English: Venkaiah Naidu

Favouring promotion of Indian culture and heritage and not looking towards the West, vice president M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday urged people speaking the same language to communicate in their mother tongue instead of in English.

Hindi debate: Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejects DMK's charge of language imposition

Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday assured there would be no imposition of Hindi and lashed out at the DMK for accusing the Centre of "wanton thrusting" of the language.

English or mother tongue in schools? A difficult question for PM Modi under RSS pressure

In Gujarat, the RSS has blocked teaching of English in government schools till Class V, by when it is too late. Modi's solution, which he explained to me, was to have some subjects taught in Gujarati and others in English.

The politics of language: Only-Kannada policy of Karnataka is a gift to private school cartels

The politics of language in schools is back yet again — this time in Karnataka. The state government on Tuesday amended the Right To Education (RTE) Act to make Kannada the mandatory medium of instruction from classes one to five. Through another bill, the Kannada Language Learning Bill, the government has also made learning Kannada mandatory from classes one to ten.