India should leverage linguistic diversity to its advantage, say scholars

Highlighting the need to reconsider the approach towards the language question, a group of scholars from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, and other reputed institutions from India and abroad have demanded the Union Government formulate a translation policy that not only facilitates translation between Indian languages and English but also promotes translation among Indian languages themselves.

“English still happens to be a language of privilege and opportunity, despite the stress in the New Education Policy (NEP) on Indian languages. In practice, the ground reality is that the Indian languages, including Hindi, do not take you very far if you are aiming for a good career. Our creativity and originality are lost when we try to express ourselves in English, so the need is to address the language question,” said Sanjay Kumar, who heads the Malaviya Centre for Ethics and Human Values at BHU.

The group, which is still to be named, will organise its first brainstorming session on August 17 to create a blueprint of short-term objectives and long-term goals. “We are going to propose an Indian Translation Service on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). We are against the unnatural dominance of English, if Japan can do their science education in their own language, why not us? Linguistic discrimination is a major issue in India, which we want to address,” said Arvind Sharma, Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University, Canada, who is part of the group and is pushing for legislation to promote Indian languages, including Hindi.

Manindra Nath Thakur, a noted social scientist who teaches at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said India must transform linguistic diversity into an advantage by protecting and promoting Indian languages as knowledge creation and dissemination mediums. “India must transform linguistic diversity from a disadvantage into an advantage. This requires protecting and promoting these languages as knowledge creation and dissemination mediums. Over the last two decades, a diverse group of people from various castes, classes, and communities has entered the fields of knowledge creation and dissemination. Many of them face discrimination based on language, which hampers their ability to contribute effectively. For India to fully leverage its democratic dividend, it must address this language issue. The state should formulate a translation policy that not only facilitates translation between Indian languages and English but also promotes translation among Indian languages themselves,” said Mr. Thakur. 

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