Tuesday, July 04, 2006
"Oh! To be a Foreigner in Your Own Country!"
By Brij Khandelwal
Mysore: If you want to experience what it feels to be a foreigner in your own country, visit interior Karnataka where people have been painting English signboards black for past one year or more and they are not familiar with Hindi either, which makes communication difficult.
Buses have Kannada signboards, the road names are also in Kannada and if you look around for a friendly interaction with a local, your efforts will be in vain because of the linguistic gap.
A section of literary society and some political groups are keen to ensure that it will be only Kannada, explains a media person to Www.mediabharti.com in Mysore. "So whoever wants to stay here will have to learn the local language or get out," he adds.
But now the dalit organizations in the state have demanded introduction of English from first standard, as they do not want their kids to be left behind in rat race in today's globalized world.
A newly elected MLC Marthibbegowda has urged the state government to take steps to begin teaching English from first standard in all government schools.
In Bangalore, several dalit organizations have demonstrated before Chief Minister's residence to press the claim for introduction of English in government primary schools.
Federation of Dalit Organizations Struggle for Social Justice has said there was a case for introduction of English in the primary schools, as per the advise of educational experts who want Kannada to remain as the medium of instruction.
Several dalit leaders including Harihar Anandswami, Lakshman Hoskote, Mavali Shankar have been agitating for introducing English language at the primary level for the past almost 2 years. Some leaders have even accused the Kumaraswamy government of deliberately postponing decision on this vital issue, using the case in High Court as a pretext.
A dalit leader saw "upper caste conspiracy" in this deliberate method to deprive the lower rungs of society from benefiting from knowledge of English. "Students with Kannada background were losing ground everywhere and all the good jobs were going to students with English background, particularly in Information Technology sector and companies run by multinationals," the dalit leaders have said.
Dalit Federation is keen that the state government should immediately order introduction of English from first standard in all government run institutions from this academic session itself. But the president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishad, Chandra Shekhar Patil wants the government not to take any decision on introduction of English language, until a stay is vacated in High Court.
Karnataka, well on the super highway to rapid progress, is facing a unique dilemma. If the students do not learn English language, they would fail to get the jobs which many say are going to the north Indians whose presence in large numbers is a cause of deep resentment in many sections of society.
Language has divided the Karnataka society. Those who know English are enjoying the benefits of development while the vast majority is deeply frustrated and finds no solace in painting English signboards black. "If our politicians had not kept the Karnataka youth away from English, all good jobs in Bangalore would have gone to the locals and not to the outsiders," says a frustrated college student Ritesh of Mysore.
So while the whole of south India has taken to the northern Salwar Kameez and Bollywood film music in a big way, acceptance of Hindi language has not been that smooth. On the other hand the locals have lost their superiority over knowledge of English language, which they once enjoyed.
Mysore: If you want to experience what it feels to be a foreigner in your own country, visit interior Karnataka where people have been painting English signboards black for past one year or more and they are not familiar with Hindi either, which makes communication difficult.
Buses have Kannada signboards, the road names are also in Kannada and if you look around for a friendly interaction with a local, your efforts will be in vain because of the linguistic gap.
A section of literary society and some political groups are keen to ensure that it will be only Kannada, explains a media person to Www.mediabharti.com in Mysore. "So whoever wants to stay here will have to learn the local language or get out," he adds.
But now the dalit organizations in the state have demanded introduction of English from first standard, as they do not want their kids to be left behind in rat race in today's globalized world.
A newly elected MLC Marthibbegowda has urged the state government to take steps to begin teaching English from first standard in all government schools.
In Bangalore, several dalit organizations have demonstrated before Chief Minister's residence to press the claim for introduction of English in government primary schools.
Federation of Dalit Organizations Struggle for Social Justice has said there was a case for introduction of English in the primary schools, as per the advise of educational experts who want Kannada to remain as the medium of instruction.
Several dalit leaders including Harihar Anandswami, Lakshman Hoskote, Mavali Shankar have been agitating for introducing English language at the primary level for the past almost 2 years. Some leaders have even accused the Kumaraswamy government of deliberately postponing decision on this vital issue, using the case in High Court as a pretext.
A dalit leader saw "upper caste conspiracy" in this deliberate method to deprive the lower rungs of society from benefiting from knowledge of English. "Students with Kannada background were losing ground everywhere and all the good jobs were going to students with English background, particularly in Information Technology sector and companies run by multinationals," the dalit leaders have said.
Dalit Federation is keen that the state government should immediately order introduction of English from first standard in all government run institutions from this academic session itself. But the president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishad, Chandra Shekhar Patil wants the government not to take any decision on introduction of English language, until a stay is vacated in High Court.
Karnataka, well on the super highway to rapid progress, is facing a unique dilemma. If the students do not learn English language, they would fail to get the jobs which many say are going to the north Indians whose presence in large numbers is a cause of deep resentment in many sections of society.
Language has divided the Karnataka society. Those who know English are enjoying the benefits of development while the vast majority is deeply frustrated and finds no solace in painting English signboards black. "If our politicians had not kept the Karnataka youth away from English, all good jobs in Bangalore would have gone to the locals and not to the outsiders," says a frustrated college student Ritesh of Mysore.
So while the whole of south India has taken to the northern Salwar Kameez and Bollywood film music in a big way, acceptance of Hindi language has not been that smooth. On the other hand the locals have lost their superiority over knowledge of English language, which they once enjoyed.
# posted by mediabhartiwebsolutions @ 7:05 AM 
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