Writing in 1908 from South Africa, Gandhiji remarked, “To respect our own language, speak it well and use as few foreign words as possible—this is also a part of patriotism.” (25. SOME ENGLISH TERMS, From Gujarati; Indian Opinion, 28-12-1907, p.32). Gandhiji was not a fanatic, insisting that one should avoid mixing languages entirely. He himself acknowledged, “We have been using some English terms just as they are since we cannot find exact Gujarati equivalents for them.” However, he encouraged his readers to provide proper Gujarati terms for several English words.
The current trend in India, especially among the educated and the media, is concerning. I am not a fanatic against English or any other language, nor am I an advocate for speaking only in one’s pure mother tongue. It is understandable to use one or two English or other language words (like Hindi, Sanskrit, etc.) to communicate a thought. However, the way the younger generation and many educated people speak a mixture of languages—what is often called manipravalam—and even some magazines use this style in writing (evident in Thuglak, a Tamil Weekly), is troubling.
Not speaking one’s mother tongue, even at home, has become a modern identity in Indian society, particularly in South India, and more specifically among Tamilians. But this does not merely do a disservice to their mother tongue; it harms their children by severing their connection to their cultural roots. Learning another language can benefit everyone, but when children have the natural opportunity to learn their mother tongue at home from their parents and are denied this, it is a great shame on present Indian society.
To me, the mother tongue is the first means of verbal communication that provides a cultural foundation. While we need English as an international language, using it exclusively at every level is like constructing a building without a foundation for those whose mother tongue is not English.
Dayanand Bharati. January 27, 2012
Note: There is a joke about this: If two Indians speak in Bengali, they are from Bengal; if two speak in Punjabi, they are from Punjab; if two speak in Malayalam, they are from Kerala. But if two Indians speak in English, they are from Tamil Nadu. I have witnessed this many times, and it continues. Once, in Nagercoil, I saw a Tamil Christian preaching to a Tamil audience in English, with another person translating it into Tamil. Such a situation could only happen in Tamil Nadu.
Of course now this trend is slowly changing and many young people now become very versatile in Tamil. This is much encouraging.
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