LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 25:4 April 2025
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Language Education in India-2025
(A Call for ‘Mother Tongues First’ in Education)

Prof. B. Mallikarjun

‘We have impoverished our mother tongue because of our love for English. We demean ourselves by insulting our language’ -- Mahatma Gandhi

Mother Tongues in India Today

I. Introduction

Latest-2011 (since 2021 census is not held) count of Indian mother tongues/languages informs that Census had a raw return of 19,569 mother tongues. After due processing of this data, it has arrived at a list of 121 languages. Among them, 22 are part of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and the rest of the 99 are non-scheduled languages. These 22 Scheduled languages embed 122+ mother tongues, the 99 Non-scheduled languages embed 149+ mother tongues. Thus, India is an abode of more than 271+ countable and nameable mother tongues and more than a thousand un-named mother tongues. Provincial Education Ministers in 1949 had said that ‘The mother-tongue will be the language declared by the parent or guardian to be the mother-tongue.’ The Census- 2011 recognizes mother tongue as ‘The language spoken in childhood by the person’s mother to the person. If the mother died in infancy, the language mainly spoken in the person’s home in childhood will be the mother tongue. In case of infants and deaf mutes the language usually spoken by the mother…in case of doubt, the language mainly spoken in the household…’ In the context of the linguistic minorities the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India on May 6, 2014 said that ‘Mother tongue…means the language of the linguistic minority in a State and it is the parent or the guardian of the child who will decide what the mother tongue of child is.’

Introduction: Again in 2025, the question of language education has come to the forefront in India. Blistering debate is going on in the Parliament, state legislatures, active mass media and among the public at large. The danger of another language replacing the mother tongue of the student in education looms large-first as a school language and next as the medium of instruction. The present debate is one sided-Hindi vs some official languages of the states. Discussants have ignored the role of hundreds of mother tongues in education. In India, the status as recognized by the Census-all languages are mother tongues, but all mother tongues are not languages. The issue needs an un biased academic analysis away from the political band wagon. In this context, first it is necessary to briefly look into the roles that makers of the Constitution assigned for different languages, mother tongues in post-independence India.

Administration: The Constitution of India provides for the use of one or two or more languages in the administration of the Union and States. Article 343 states that (1) the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. For official purposes of the Union the international form of Indian numerals shall be used. (2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (i), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement. At the level of the Union, English is serving as a neutral language for multiple language speakers of the country since her independence and may do so for many decades or centuries to come.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Prof. B. Mallikarjun
Reader cum Research Officer (Retired)
Central Institute of Indian Languages
Mysuru-570006

and
Former Director, Centre for Classical Kannada
Central University of Karnataka
Kadaganchi, Kalburgi District – 585311, Karnataka
mallikarjun56@gmail.com
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