A recent report submitted to the Kerala government by an expert committee recommended that till Xth standard Malayalam must be taught as first language and in XI and XII th, there must be a facility to study Malayalam. There were a many discussion about this in many online groups and forums and I observed a few patterns in all of them.
There are a lot of language fanatics among us also, we criticize the Tamilians and the Maharashtrians for their extreme local policies, but when a similar situation comes we are also not very different.
We fail to see language as it is. Language is a tool we use to communicate, nothing more nothing less. Its the communication that is important and not the language. Thats why you find it difficult in Tamil Nadu to travel in buses cos they have place names written only in Tamil.
Some people are really emotional about these discussions and they think of it as a fight between English and Malayalam. Some even attribute it as the second freedom struggle to liberate us from the English language.
Personally I enjoyed studying Malayalam until the syllabus turned from being a language class to a literature class. The poems, the complicated passages etc became a headache and they started eating into the progress card. I am not the kind of person who wants to have anything to do with poetry, that too centuries old and has got no resemblance what so ever to the Malayalam that we use now.
A friend of mine joined for BSc physics and quit the course after 6 months saying that they teach more Malayalam and English there than physics. I wonder when the government will setup a committee to to free college education from compulsory language training.
I think YOU are an idiot. I am amazed your limited critical thinking abilities with statements like:
“Language is a tool we use to communicate, nothing more nothing less”
Fine, why not do away with all the languages of the world and switch to English? We’d all understand each other much better!
Comment by Bruce Varughese — January 27, 2011 @ 10:13 am
@Bruce
Please enlighten me with some critical thinking.
BTW I said nothing about switching to English. Its one language that does not even have an alphabet of its own.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — January 27, 2011 @ 10:22 am
I have never studied Malayalam in my life. It simply wasn’t a subject in my school. I find it challenging to read amazing Malayalam prose like Bhasheer’s Paaththummaayude Aadu which my mom and sis keep raving about. I must admit I do miss some real good literature thanks to my English Medium Education. But do I regret it, not really. Because English was one subject I loved in school and probably the one class I looked forward to in school. If I was given an opportunity to choose between English and Malayalam, I would still go for English.
I believe teaching any subject compulsorily after the age of 10 is a waste of time. You can force a kid to sit in a math class but you can’t make him learn math. On the contrary he’ll actually end up hating math.
I am probably not the best person to comment on Malayalam education but if it was upto me, I think its a great idea to have Malayalam as an optional subject after standard 5. So if you can manage to make Malayalam classes more interesting to its students, they will end up taking Malayalam. But please do not force it on our students. They have enough and more other useless crap to study anyway
Comment by Jithin — January 28, 2011 @ 8:27 am
“cos those idiots have place names written only in Tamil”.
Please- Please, be polite in your writings. Even during heated arguments never use such words of contempt. Each of your sentence carry tons of emotions, hence the facts get buried unnoticed.
so sad.
Comment by Nabeel — January 30, 2011 @ 12:14 am
For many people language is part of their identity.So it is understandable,if they are getting emotional about it.
And why English is getting more importance?Learning English will increase the earning potential,while learning Malayalam will not help much in that direction.
This is a handicap for Malayalam.Now it has come to a point where,it cannot survive with out a little help from the State Govt.(A State,which was formed based on the language and the language happens to be Malayalam).
So if you ask what is the use of learning Malayalam,then the Answer is,there is no use(in terms of rupee/dollar/euro).It is about the identity of a society.
So is it right to do so?
I don’t know!
Comment by Dhanesh — January 30, 2011 @ 1:29 pm
Well, i do agree with kenny in free to learn kind of education. i have studied malayalam, hindi and english till my 10 even though i didn’t write any exam for hindi. but looking back i do think why i wrote malayalam or english papers in exam? did it acutally benifit me?. well i did some way but then i realise it was my interest to learn languages what actualy made me learn these subjects. i did my graduation at CBE and i learned tamil even though it was not a subject to learn.
Well, my point is, making a language compulsary for studies doesnt benifit anybody other than language teachers (who may atleast get a perm. job). First we keralities should change our attitude towards foeign languges. learn english but speak malayalam atleast when ypu have a chance to do so. Chanfe our attitude that any thing english or made in US is a status.
Comment by Jain — February 1, 2011 @ 4:50 pm
Your entire article and indeed your given insight hinges on this argument:
“ Language is a tool we use to communicate, nothing more nothing less.”
Fine, if that is the case we and indeed the world should choose the best tool: English. Malayalam is an inferior “tool” to English. Yes, lets do away with the old relics of the past that “cut into the progress card.” Let’s wipe away the india of the past that we once knew, and let rise the total and complete westernization of a once gloriously oriental land.
You have no idea what you stand to lose with thoughts like these under the farce of “progress” and “modernity”
Comment by Bruce Varughese — February 6, 2011 @ 7:13 pm
Why don’t you learn to read tamil you baboon? Or is that beneath such a progressive like yourself? I wonder what kind of Progressive Utopia you have planned for India, where literature is regarded as just another “headache,” and wanted to preserve a regional identity is classified as “extreme local politics.” SHAME ON YOU!
Even though I was born and raised in the US, i regret that I don’t speak malayalam, even if it’s of no practical use to me here. It means that I am part of a community, connected to a history, and a continuation of it’s legacy. If I abandon it for cars, polyester clothes, and skyscrapers, then i will have nothing, I’ll just be another culture-less, classless baboon.
Comment by Bruce Varughese — February 6, 2011 @ 7:28 pm
@Bruce
You are assuming a lot of things here.. I never said anything about a language being inferior. All that I asked was for the freedom to choose.
Comment by Kenney — February 6, 2011 @ 8:29 pm
Here I disagree with Kenney. I really support the recommendation to teach Malayalam as a compulsory subject. anyway I don’t want them to force students to learn the complicated malayalam grammar ( I still remember the bad days), instead they can teach Malayalam in the way how Malayalam II is taught. It should the place where teachers introduce nice poems (not the one like Ezhuthachan or other heavy boring poems and mug-ups) like that of Changampuzha etc and books of Basheer etc.
Comment by Siju George — February 8, 2011 @ 12:29 pm
if you really believed in freedom of choice, then we wouldn’t even have public education
Comment by Bruce Varughese — February 9, 2011 @ 1:39 pm
All those who have started referring to keeping our heritage and our culture … we should not learn English … Malayalam is inferior/superior … well sorry guys – you sound like “we should not move to cell phones cause it will kill the pager”
As Kenney put it – language is just a tool meant for communication … all these work’s of literature have little to do with the language … and more to do with the writers – thoughts, experiences, fantasies … and fortunately or unfortunately the writer choose that language to communicate it in.
As rightly pointed out by Dhanesh – it is more to do with Identity than anything else. I am a malayalee – therefore I am superior/inferior to others…
And for those who want to bring culture and heritage into this discussion – please do not refer to others as cultureless … other people have culture … it is just that it is different from others.
And as rightly pointed out by Bruce – it is all about the ego @ “classless Bbaboon” (I have no Idea what class has to do with language)
Comment by JMJ — February 10, 2011 @ 8:44 pm
We are Kannadigas from Kasaragod. In Kasaragod number of Malayalees is less where as number of Kannadigas and Thuluvas is more.We are linguistic minorities in Kerala and we have constitutional rights to learn our mothertongue and in Kannada medium. Enforcement of Malayalam will kill the multi culture of this area which considered as LINGUISTIC MINORITY AREA by the Kerala Government and Honourable Highcourt it self. Many of our students continue their higher education in Karnataka where compulsary Malayalam will create a lot of problems.There are more than 1600 Kannada teachers .Kannada medium schools definately will close due to this order.Our students will get burden to study an extra language.Students who chose Sanskrit, Arabic or Urdu as first language they cant study Kannada as second language due to this order.Their right to study in mothertongue medium is thus not allowed.English medium schools will develoup due to impact of this order. I beg the Kerala govt and intelectuals of Kerala to respect rights of education of children and multi special culture of Kasaragod. Please
Comment by naresh — May 29, 2011 @ 1:42 pm
The views in the article are actually moderate. Actually Malayalam is a language that should be banned. See: http://www.vvv03.org/march.pdf and
http://www.vvv03.org/reality.pdf
Comment by Ved from Victoria Institutions — July 26, 2011 @ 9:34 pm
WP (C): 23166/2011 of Hon’ble High Court of Kerala
Victoria Institutions, Deverkovil, Calicut district has filed a Writ petition in the Hon’ble High Court of Kerala challenging the order compelling all students in Kerala to study Malayalam compulsorily. The Hon’ble Chief Justice admitted the petition and notice was sent to: The Chief Secretary, Kerala Govt and The Principal Secretary, Education Department, on 25-8-11. The next hearing date has been fixed as 20 -9 -2011
The Writ is based on two Articles of the Constitution of India:
1. Article 14: Right to equality: Right to equality is not inherent in Malayalam
2. Article19: Right to study or not to study. Anyone has the right to learn or not to learn anything. If anything is being imposed on the populace, the authorities concerned should make it clear that there is nothing negative or dangerous in that item.
Writ petition in the Honourable High Court of Kerala requests a Writ of Mandamus ordering the Kerala State Government to stop going ahead with the Compulsory education of Malayalam in all schools of Kerala. He has further requested the Honourable High Court to order the government to form a panel of learned persons to go into the feudal features of Malayalam language, and to study its effects on the people, individuals, public officials, police behaviour, and society as a whole. Beyond that, it is also prayed that the Honourable High Court issue an order to the government to arrange for good quality English education for the children from the poorer classes.
Malayalam language has codes that can split the social system into two or three different strata of levels. It can create two or more levels of citizenship in terms of stature, right to equality before law, right against discrimination and right to non-partisan attitude from the authorities.
Comment by Ved from Victoria Institutions — August 27, 2011 @ 8:31 pm