Is English everything?

Resetting educational priorities!

Is Indian higher education facing a serious case of misplaced priorities? We seem to be entering an era of higher education where the medium seems more important that the content itself. The obsession to give importance to English above everything else is dangerously veering the values of Indian institutions away from content towards the medium. We are moving in a direction where anyone who knows how to use English well can pass off as knowledgeable. The ability to put things in good English seems to be more important than the content. Such tendencies are acceptable in certain fields of study or activity like advertising or commentating; but, when the same tendencies start appearing in areas such as research where content should be of paramount consideration, then it is time to worry about what our priorities are – is it to be really top-quality, or to appear top-quality by using fancy English.

This tendency to place English usage above subject proficiency comes from a conception that English rules the world. This is not a misconception, but needs to be looked at from a different perspective. A language cannot be the one that dominates; it is the people who use it. It is not the language that decides that stature of the people, it is the people who use the language that decide its importance.

For instance; using the word ‘color’ in an examination about 15 years back would have got an Indian student a ‘red mark’ on his answer script for a spelling error. Today, the words ‘color’, ‘neighbor’, ‘harbor’ and all such spellings are more than accepted; in fact, there are places that prefer ‘color’ to ‘colour’. Has English changed in the last 15 years so much that these spellings are accepted? Has Oxford accepted these spellings? No; but, we have accepted them. Is it because of the power of English or because the Americans have become far too important to the urban Indian for us to ignore they way they use English? It is because America means more to us than England. That should give you a fair idea of how important English – it is only as important as the people who use it!

American English came to be accepted around the world not because they were essentially right, but because the Americans and their dollars were too important to be ignored. So, we were willing to ditch a few ‘u’s and ‘l’s in our spellings to sound more American. That’s all that English counts for.

 Those who think that English is the only way to development; you don’t have to look too far. China is one country that has given the quality and efficiency of its industries more importance than the quality of English. And, Japan – they give priority to the perfection of engineering than the English they speak. Both these countries still send out research publications in their own languages. Peers world over are willing to take the pain or pay to get these publications translated into English because they are sure that the information is worth the effort. Can you imagine a research publication in Tamil or Hindi being given the same status? No, and it is not because (as some politicians might tell) the world is on a conspiracy to end all traditional Indian languages. It is because they are not sure whether the information will be of any use to them – in other words, the quality is suspect!

If quality is assured, then language is only a minor barrier. Else, the Thirukkural would never have got translated. Indian education today is a place where one can get away with poor technical know-how if one knows good English (of course, competitive exams are thankfully exceptions). But, within a college or a research institution, sometimes, English seems to be the only skill one needs to survive. Priorities need to be reset in a way that expertise in the subject is the single most important factor that determines how far one can go. Or else, we might become a country that knows nothing but English and we should fear the time when English is no longer the dominant language in the world.

The Viswaroopam ban - Who pays?

Is there a cultural emergency in India? Most of the media seems to concur on that after Kamal Haasan’s Viswaroopam was kept out of most theaters in India while it took a grand opening in many parts of the world. Even though we cannot see or hear it, the world could very well be laughing at us; at the fact that we are too narrow minded to differentiate between a great work of art and a petty-minded jibe at a religion. Would anyone be crazy enough or a big enough religious fanatic to put in all their life’s savings, two years of work and a huge reputation at stake just to take a dig at a religion? And, if there is a small group of people who think this way, should their voices be heeded to and given so much importance that the work of art itself be banned? This incident opens a Pandora’s Box of questions, the least of which is the question of how big or how old a group or organization or movement should be before it is considered representative of a community.

But, those questions cannot be answered in an emotionally charged time period. Decisions made at such times are bound to be wrong. Instead, we should be asking ourselves whether, in the process of exercising the fundamental right of protesting, a group should be allowed to come in the way of ‘business as usual’. In this specific case, the release of Viswaroopam was put off by a minimum of 4 days. Now, this might look like a pretty small period, but in the business of cinema, these 4 days means a huge amount of money. And, it is not just Kamal Haasan’s money that is being held at gun point here. All people who commercially associated themselves with Viswaroopam at some level or the other must be facing troubled time now, which includes distributors and exhibitors. If you care to imagine the number of people who’s calculations would have been upset by this 4-day delay, just by counting the number of distribution territories and theaters in Tamil Nadu, you might be able to gauge the real far-reaching impact of this ban ­– its not just about Kamal Haasan. It’s a big industry’s applecart that has been upset, and it is tough to imagine that the government bowed down to demands without making an effort to protect (in some cases) the livelihoods of people. This is not like asking an art exhibition to close down or a song to change its lines. Cinema is an industry first and the government must understand that there are far more livelihoods at stake than what appears to the eye. And to think our CM was in the showbiz herself!

 And, it does not stop with Viswaroopam; the effects are going to cascade on to the well-laid out release plans of so many movies to follow, leaving theaters in quandary about which movie to accommodate and which agreement to honor. Really, it’s a roll of dice to find out who comes out unscathed from this and who gets crushed. But, we can be sure that the likelihood of someone getting hurt really badly is a very distinct probability. I wonder what the government would have to say if they decide to take to the streets.

Finally, a desire to see some accountability! Our country grants us the fundamental rights, and we cannot and don’t want to change that. But, are fundamental rights being twisted, turned and misused in a way that we lose sight of what they were actually made for. Shouldn’t there be accountability along with the right. Let’s say that someone files a PIL against a movie and gets it stayed or banned or whatever he/she pleases to. If upon investigation, the allegations are found to be hollow and baseless, will the complainant be subject to judiciary-initiated proceedings for misusing the fundamental rights? Will he/she or the organization be held responsible for the losses incurred? Not at the moment. In the current set up, someone files a PIL, causes a whole lot of ruckus and costs someone crores of rupees and then gets to walk away. We need a provision where the complainant cannot walk away, but will have to stay, explain and pay up if found guilty. Let’s then see how many people call for bans.