Politics of Dying Regional Languages

I am fortunate to have sufficient education to understand the growth contradictions of society. Especially, when I am trying to find the reasons for individual development, my education and experience helps me to look at the problems differently. I am convinced about the fact that the regional language plays a very significant role in our overall behaviour, relationship, habit and personality. It is not very difficult to find the people with regional accent at any platform in India. But these regional languages have no future in global village. Let us study why regional languages have no future? We will look into different aspects like education pattern, class struggles, professional options, and unification of languages.

Changed Education Trend

“I have never allowed my schooling to interfere with my education,” said Mark Twain, commenting on the lack of fun in learning in schools. Today with all the multimedia skill sets, you need a different kind of education. Life is fun and education must be focused on enhancing fun rather than making a school or education a prison. The depth of any subject you choose has increased tremendously. You as a human cannot go on learning to enhance your capabilities for a better life. There is no end of information or even knowledge to acquire. Today, you need to get educated to have a good and enjoyable life. Schooling is becoming a thing of the past. Now-a-days, people are forced to talk about unschooling. The educated and learned parents are not concentrating on course, syllabus or school. They are concentrating on other human or environmental activities.

School children need not go to library to search for books all the time. Sitting comfortably at one place at home, café or even a shopping mall she can access complete list of libraries at just one click of the mouse. And whole set of encyclopedias are available at a much cheaper price. It is not necessary that she spends Rs. 40,000 to 50,000 to have the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica at her premises; she can just spend Rs. 1000 approximately and have the original Britannica displayed on the computer monitor. Internet and other media have made knowledge accessible at your finger-tips at a much lower cost. Children can have access to information so fast and easily as never before in history. But the only constraint is the language.

Class Struggle and Language

We must understand the age old class struggle to evaluate the importance of language. Today, the whole of Indian continent has one of the biggest enemies of development and it is its regional languages. People are killing each other. Leaders in Assam, Maharastra or Karnataka are doing politics over it. People are dying for language affections. Language is dividing the networked environment developed by the growth of Information technology and telecommunication. This division has engulfed every walk of life. This division can be seen in politics, society and even in corporate world.

The struggle of class is not exclusive to Indian environment. Even US is discussing this issue on regular basis. Oprah Winfrey show is a typical example. She does not hesitate to discuss on latest issues disturbing people like class, language, sex, relationship and so on. In one of the show on class, she discussed that how people of different class can be categorized even the way they speak English. English is a global language and people have to understand this. In India, this discussion is very old but still not matured. Today I would like to remind all my friends who are religiously attached to their regional languages to get detached immediately to have a better and successful future. Language is the biggest hurdle in your global outlook.

For more information on Oprah Show, you can go to the website as below

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200604/20060421/slide_20060421_350_102.jhtml

The main question comes, is anybody interested to fall behind and see others moving ahead? I do not think anyone intentionally would like to do it unless compelled by the situations. Let us create a situation where we do not creep at later stage of our life.

Professional Options

The horizon of professions has altered drastically. The technological and economic changes have made profession a new domain altogether. Few years ago when beauty shops came in the limelight hardly anybody had an idea that it would emerge to be such a big profession. Today it has matured. Many ladies and gents are working in these shops. Similarly, other professions like modeling, stewardship, journalism, fashion designing, entrepreneurship, catering and hospitality management, tourism jobs, services industries and so on have emerged. The sudden emergence of call centers, BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) and other IT related services have changed the concept of working in society all across the world. These services have such manpower-intensive jobs with high financial stakes that it will almost delete the concept of the Gandhian philosophy of Charkha and Chakri. The requirements and search for jobs has to be done based on the latest craze and availability. The expertise of English language remains at the forefront in all these professions.

People cannot afford to rely on the old concept of government jobs or other conservative and conventional jobs. The new generation and the guardians of the new generation have to move from conservatism to look for better and progressive appointments. Today, organizations are not finding suitable educated people in cities. Jobs are moving to smaller towns and villages. Once, it reaches small towns and villages, the educated boys, girls, housewives, househusbands and parents will be forced to change the concept of job-search for their benefit and the benefit of the society. The unlearning of the old conventional jobs has to be done on a priority basis. With, this it brings the necessity of learning a global language to move ahead. It is not the question of getting the job today; it is a question of complete cultural shift.

Earlier, jobs were restricted to agriculture, law, engineering, medicine, management etc. The majority of the people were dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. But, now people will move to cities to get the basic facilities. As per, United Nations estimate, by 2030, 50% of the human population will live in cities. The global language will play its role in a new emerging society.

Trying to get government jobs is the old concept now. Few educated people could get government jobs. Very few will join the loss-making public sectors to have secure jobs. Gone are those days in this fast developing professional environment. The concepts of hard work and joining a profit making company have evolved. The open economy and market has given freedom to join multinationals. It has given freedom to select professions. People change professions like their clothes. Companies are starved of people. People have a luxury of choices. The changes have to be felt, realized, soaked, conceived and understood. Whoever has done this, unlearned the old trends and fears, is enjoying the fruits of growth. The fresh IIM graduates are on auction like the eligible grooms of Andhra Pradesh. Be proactive and chose the professions of the time.

English Has No Alternative

In a recent report, it became clear that regional languages have no future. Many languages are dying out because of population movements, cultural oppressions, wars and economic disasters. Experts say as many as half of the world’s 6,900 languages are endangered. In the name of Olympic Games even China is quietly learning English to join the global community.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a huge discussion in all the institutions across India whether we should study English or not. Even today, there is great confusion prevailing in India in particular and other developing nations in general. The people have been given a dose of nationalism in terms of languages. But how far is it advantageous? Is it in a position to give you comfort of knowledge? Is it giving you a better life?

You join any professional Institute; you are forced to study in English. There are hardly any good books available in other languages. All the high level professional books are available in English. There is a tremendous difference in the availability of professional books in English and any other language. The local languages are left for the utilization of local ‘tribes’ only, not for the global person. There was a time when there was a requirement of less information and that too in a different mode like books or drawing or painting or any art medium; but, today when you surf the net for the ocean of information, you are forced to learn, think and act globally. You can not access global information in regional language. The people across the globe are feeling the handicap of being attached to regional languages. Many have started cursing their parents and teachers for the failure. People have started questioning the governmental indecisiveness to implement global languages in school. Karnataka is a typical example of this. Narayana Murthy has already questioned the apathy of governments in state and center. A digital divide starts from regional languages. People are being forced to remain deprived.

Language Unification

The advent of technology has forced humanity to think about the concept of unification of languages. Even the famous Nobel Laureate, Rabindra Nath Tagore, who wrote many poems and prose in Bengali, a local regional language of India, was forced to learn and translate his own writings in English to get a wider audience and recognition, leading to the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.

The advent of the computer has given a beautiful tool to humanity. If this intelligent machine is to be utilized then in the years to come, the people have to learn fewer languages. The development of an Operating System is a very difficult and tricky proposal. Once it has been developed and matured in approximately a decade’s time, it may be very difficult to develop with those rich features in any other languages. The availability of www.google.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, indiatimes.com and so on would ensure some kind of unification in the development and spread of languages in the years to come. As the use and spread of mobile devices increase, more unification of languages will be forced upon the human being. When good professional books were not produced in the last century even with the high level printing technology, is there any reason to believe that, operating systems or other software would be produced in any regional languages?

There was a time when people from South India used to fight against the forceful imposition of Hindi on them. The people from North used to get emotional about the language issues. Schools, colleges and institutions had the tremendous task of keeping a balance between the propagation and utilization of different languages. Now the situation has to converge. Language unification should be taken as an international mission to avoid the gaps between different people and to spread a global culture in this world. The spread of one language will put less pressure on students to learn and master it. People will be able to concentrate on more fruitful work for humanity rather than fighting over languages. We must learn from the statement of the famous thinker, Edward de Bono, who says, ‘Language has been a most important step in human evolution. Language is now the biggest barrier to further evolution.’ He writes further in his famous site http://www.edwarddebono.com that language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Politicians who send their children to Harvard or Boston for higher studies and do politics over Hindi or other regional languages at their native place should not be able to make a fool of large sections of people.

It was the far sighted vision of American policy makers to accept English as national language after British left their land. The two centuries of magnificent development is the result of this policy. People are not killing or dying based on languages, they are focusing on development and better lifestyle. The result of learning English is so obvious, US is able to create Bill Gates and Stephen Covey.

Today, there is no other option than to unlearn regional languages. People need to unlearn their attachments to regional languages. People must keep themselves away from regional feelings. To have global access, global opportunities, global success and so on people need to be a global citizen with the ability to speak, read and write in global language. 

Age Old Game - Blame Game to Win Sympathy

Blame Game – Is west responsible for east misery?

If East has not exploited Industrial Revolution, leadership of developing countries should look internally. Why only leadership, even the intelligentsia’s mis-information creates contradictions in the growth of civilization. The right information is not reaching to right people at right time.

The growth of electronics industries remained untapped by the developing world. The semi-automatic and automatic machines based on the electronics circuitry were never exploited for the benefit of the people of developing world. The inventions remain with west. The products like Intel or Microsoft were used by the people all over the world. The benefit certainly went to the inventor and that is west.

Information technology especially services part could develop because of its technological depth. In this field, logic and conventional wisdom did not work. It became difficult for the governments of developing world to put hurdle. Now, governments of few countries from East have shown remarkable shift from the traditional wisdom to grab the opportunities. However, many countries lacked behind miserably. Just take the example of very successful venture of an IT company called Infosys. After 23 years of long struggle, Infosys could make $2 billion; while on the other hand, Bill Gates alone earns around $20 billion every year.

The reason appears to me quite simple. The leaders and media from developing countries are concentrating on trivial issues rather than focusing on innovation. People talk about innovation but they hardly have knowledge, courage and wisdom to understand and accept innovation.

Just take the example of Indian Prime Minister. He is supposed to be one of the most educated PM of recent past. He knows economy, he is aware about growth requirements; he is concerned about India’s poor, but see the scarcity of wisdom in his speeches. Recently, he is again using the very old game of east to blame west for poor shows.


Manmohan uses the act of blaming and begging simultaneously when he says, “West’s green drive can’t be at poor world’s cost”. He further says, “The new environmentally-friendly technologies being developed must be shared and made available to all of us so that the planet is saved”. India should take some steps to achieve development. As a Prime Minister, he must try to formulate the plan of the nation to achieve these objectives rather than blaming West.

Manmohan Singh said that developed industrial economies must realise that they should alter their consumption patterns so that so few do not draw upon so much of the Earth’s resources. There has been a set pattern of the leaders of developing world in blaming the developed people to counsel the citizens. The statement given by the rime Minister could be same what Jawaharlal Nehru would have talked in 50s or Indira Gandhi talked in 70s or 80s and then Rajiv talked in 80s. The country should look inward to find the reasons. Even in India, there is so much difference between states. Can Jalandhar be ready to reduce Heart hospitals to redistribute resources to other not so developed part of the country? The answer can be big no. Anybody who has developed after lot of struggles and efforts would not like to simply give away resources. Even if rich people give resource, what is the guarantee that it will reach to poor. Even Oprah Winfrey could not get that assurance, how will others get?

Why Prime Minister wastes time in talking like this. In whole of his speech, he has hardly touched the reasons of India’s dismal growth in science R&D in last decade. When there has been 100% increase in science R&D in China, there has been only 3% in India. Science in India is in shambles. Prime Minister should have intimated the country about the proposals submitted by SA Mashelkar before retiring from the post. There is absolutely no need to keep the country in dark on our failure. Why should we blame others?

The other minister while addressing the fifth Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas said, “We need investments in areas like infrastructure, agriculture, education, drinking water and health.” What a statement by a cabinet minister? What Indian government is doing? The government is unable to take care of any area. In education, they can do only reservations. He further says, “It is essential that the states lagging behind carry out needed reforms so that they can attract investments which are important for growth and poverty alleviation.” My point is that when reforms are needed for poverty alleviation, why central government is working on Rural Employment Scheme? Why not reforms? Why we are not concentrating on sorting out the problems of land acquisition for SEZ which is so necessary for growth?

There are many heads and leaders who need to clarify their speeches to make it more relevant to well informed society. The leaders appear ignorant. They show their lack of vision. They are unable to appreciate the future need of the nation. They are unable to see the changed world order. They are unable to comprehend the future world order. 

Follow Western Cultures

“More and more couples are indulging in anything from full-bodied hugs to full-on kisses in the public eye. And no one scandalizes any more. The masses seem to have embraced public display of affection whole-heartedly.” wrote Times Life.

I wrote a book in 2005. National fame editor did editing of the book. She has also edited the recent book on "Governance" authored by Mr. Jagmohan, Former Cabinet Minister of Government of India. She said that the western life style I am predicting is not going to happen in India at least for few decades. I fought with her to maintain my conclusions that there is no way and the people have to follow western life style. It has started happening and will catch up soon. I am happy that within a year I see, read and hear about these things. It is happening. It is happening within a year.

PDA is becoming famous in India. It is not an electronic device but it is public display of affection (PDA). Even rickshaw drivers in the cities like Mumbai, Delhi , Pune and Bangalore are accepting the changes. If Hrithik and Aishwarya can kiss why not normal person on road?


Indians are following western life style. However Indian elders, thinkers, media people, politicians, Bollywood experts and religious gurus are trying to tell that following western life style is disastrous for the people of developing world. But I think all these people are either wrong or too selfish in their predictions. There is nothing wrong in following western life style. What is wrong in this? I am convinced and have been telling since beginning. Is there any other life style for growing human beings to follow?

Why India, all the people of developing world have to follow the same - Western life style. There is no other life style in this world which need any attention forget about following. Russia and China have already followed the toe of US. They are not losing any opportunity to come closer to American counterparts. I have invariably explained in all my previous blogs regarding these dilemmas.

Can any literate or conscious person try to think of following Muslim life style with Quran, Mosque or Burqua? Absolutely not, is there anything worth to be talked about Iran, Iraq or Bangladesh? There is nothing to be even looked at. There is no question of following these medieval cultures and traditions. People can only follow such crippled culture in duress.

West has struggled to grow. They have grown to present level after sincerely working for last more than 200 years after fighting two world wars. They have taken long time to understand and certify the present life style. The people who are growing today have advantages of these western experiences.

The time is short to learn and unlearn. But, it is not difficult. When we are getting used to throw one old model of mobile for new one every year, there should not be any hardship in forgetting the old cultures and traditions to give way to the new one. This will be the advantageous for all. People sitting on network from west will be doubly happy to give helping hand and juicy lips. People all across the world will be able to enjoy the fruit of growth of 21st century. Enjoy!! 

Unlearn: Age Old Game - Blame Game

Unlearn: Age Old Game - Blame Game