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Tamil From Class One
'We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated
by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign
language. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary
to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages
of the west. ........ Whoever knows that language has ready
access to all the vast intellectual wealth, which all th wisest
nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of
ninety generations. It may be safely said, that the literature
now extant in that language is of far greater value than all the
literature which three hundred years ago was extant in all the
languages of the world together. ............. we shall see the
strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the
English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our
native subjects.' This is what Lord Macaulay wrote in his Minute
on Education in 1835. Of course, much water has flown under the
bridge since then.
It cannot be disputed that his foresight has
brought a lot of good to India and especially the youth of
India, who are today reaping the benefits in dollars and euros.
But for the Queen's Language, Indians would not not have been as
welcome to the U S and Europe as they are now.
However, the importance of one's mother
tongue, especially in the formative age cannot be
overemphasized. The Supreme Court's nod for the compulsory
introduction of Tamil from Class One will have to be seen from
this angle. There is even now a proud folk of Tamil Youth who
cannot read or write Tamil. No doubt, this is a pathetic
situation. Tamil Nadu Government's order in this regard is most
welcome. The quality of education is bound to increase if taught
in the mother tongue. However, as the PMK founder Dr. Ramadoss
put it, children should also be taught to converse freely in
English, so that they will not suffer from any inferiority
complex when called upon to compete with foreign students.
H Ramakrishnan
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