A PLEA FOR INSTRUCTION THROUGH VERNACULARS

A PLEA FOR INSTRUCTION THROUGH VERNACULARS
by Prof. Ramanugraha Narayan Sinha, MA BL BT
(Modern Review : Jan-Dec 1912 issue)

THE two denominational Universities for which vigorous efforts are yet in progress start with the idea that the Universities under Government control are not sufficient for the needs of India. Can it be said that the Hindu and the Muhammadan Universities will remove our desideratum? To a certain extent they may. But the fact that the medium of instruction in the two Universities is still to be primarily English, makes only a little difference between them and the existing Universities. The proposed Dacca University is going to be a residential one. It may have as its model the Oxford University minus “its dead weight of the vote of the Convocation. The Hindu University may, in pursuance of the ancient Hindu ideals and following the example of the modern German Universities, aspire after the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake. The Mahomedan University may, in its turn, have a policy of its own and look to the peculiar need of the Mahomedans—a wide diffusion of knowledge among the followers of Islam. All these no doubt are moves in the right direction. But they do not obviate the disadvantages of instruction through a language foreign to us.

The Hindu and the Mahomedan Universities have the ambition of granting degrees and so they must be the prototypes, more or less, of the existing Universities. In order that they should have charters from the Government it is necessary that they should not deviate from the beaten track of the Indian Universities. Instruction through the medium of English has come to be recognised as a settled policy of the Government; and it is perhaps indispensable and unalterable at the present stage. It behoves us therefore, to supplement what we get at the Indian Universities by means of indigenous attempts in the required direction.




It goes without saying that instruction through a foreign language is very tedious. The noted men in the domains of art and science, whom India has had the good fortune of calling its own, have been produced in spite of the difficulties in their way. Given a vernacular language as the medium of instruction, there would have been ten times their number, or even more, and there would have been evidence of marked improvement in the calibre of those we already have. Instruction through a language which is not our mother tongue necessitates two proceeds: First, the learning of the language itself, and second, the learning of the subject. In the case even of the best men the first process takes almost double the time which is ordinarily devoted to the second. All this results in the meagreness of the number of original thinkers and inventors in India. Our energy is wasted in the mastery of a language and even then the language we are so enthusiastic in learning hardly becomes our own. It is an admitted fact that thought presupposes language, it follows that we cannot produce thinking men of a high standard, unless we give prominence to the language in which we usually think and in which only we can think in the best possible way. We may try to think in English and most of us even do that, but we can hardly proceed very far in this direction, and the results of our thought will at most be imperfect and second rate. I his applies equally to what we may do in the domains of History, Political Economy or Philosophy on the one hand and Chemistry, Botany or Anatomy on the other.

Thus we see that comparing an-average student in India with one in England, America or Japan, the former is at a great disadvantage; and it redounds much to the credit of the former that he aspires after competition with the latter in the face of his difficulties. Can we not do something to remove this sad state of things? I do not propose to make this discourse only theoretical, but I want to give it, so far as possible, a practical turn. And viewing what I have to propose in this light, I am sure we have not much reason to lose heart.

None can gainsay the fact that noble work is being done by the Universities under the control of Government. We should of course, profit by that and do something more. If the existing Universities are passports to Government services or the bar, let us have institutions which should be passports to real and solid qualification for industrial and scientific work. Let the students of such institutions eschew current politics, for, though I may be contradicted, it is my firm belief that participation in political affairs is foreign to the avocation of a student. Institutions like these will multiply in- course of time and will be of substantial good to the country; and in order that the best possible results should be achieved in the shortest time, the medium of instruction should be a vernacular.

There are no doubt institutions in India receiving support from the Government, where scientific and industrial education is provided. For. But their number is too small. However, their necessity, at the present time, cannot be ignored. The higher branches' of training in industry and science cannot but be imparted in English for a long time to come. But the crying want of present-day India is the popularisation of. Common handicrafts. For these, instruction in a vernacular will be quite sufficient, and this process of instruction will further call forth, in an amazing manner, the national intelligence, which has so long- been in an inert and dormant condition.

I shall now discuss the difficulties so often pointed out in connection with making a vernacular the medium of instruction, and shall show that these difficulties are not such as to dishearten us. It is said that there is a lack of suitable books in even the best vernacular in India. But this assertion ignores the trite fact that books will never be forthcoming unless there is a demand for them. The writers of, books must first know that they will have readers, and assuming the demand, the supply is a foregone conclusion. Vernacular books that are written now-a-days have merely the growing desire of educated people for the encouragement of vernaculars to depend upon. The recent regulations of the universities making vernacular composition a compulsory subject, as also the unavoidable necessity of having a vernacular for primary education, have also done a great deal in. the direction. But if there are institutions in which systematic training is given through vernacular books to an ever growing number of students, the perfunctory and half-hearted manner in which books on scientific subjects are written now-a-days will give place to an earnest exertion in this behalf.

It is beyond my scope to refer here at length to the advantages which a common language for the whole of India will have in its train. Though the recent territorial changes have been welcomed by the people both of Bengal and Behar, they are apt to throw some obstacles, in the way of having a national language. However, so long as we are divided in our languages, institutions of the type forecasted above may spring up in several places and give instruction through Hindi, Bengali, or Marathi, to begin with. They will still do untold good.

Then there is the lack of suitable men for the sake of imparting instruction. America seems to be the best training ground for teachers of handicrafts and scientific subjects. There are Indians available who having already returned from America and Japan are quite capable of taking the work in hand; and if the scheme is forwarded and funds are forthcoming we may have many men of such type.' Such men training students in India will considerably curtail the expenses incurred in sending Indians to other countries for learning handicrafts. The whole thing depends upon a requisite fund for the purpose, such as that got together for the Hindu- University. Institutions having appliances for training in handicrafts, such as the Carnegie Technical Schools in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, U. S. A.) will remove a crying want of India.

I have especially referred to scientific and industrial subjects, because of their superior importance in consideration of the present needs of India. Instruction in other subjects can also be given in vernaculars, and though the students who come out after their vernacular training may not have the hall-mark of the present universities, they will surely be of far more service to themselves as well as to their country than under the present circumstances. American or Japanese diplomas do not carry much weight elsewhere, yet there are those in India who having returned with distinction from America and Japan are doing much to support themselves as also to forward their country’s welfare. It is high time that we should realize the comparative hollowness of mere diplomas and degrees, unless some substantial work is done for the country.