And all of us know this in our heart of hearts. Pandit Nehru’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren attended English medium schools, as do those of most leaders. Vociferous adherents of Hindutva and Marxutva are great patrons of the much maligned missionary schools and foreign institutions when it comes to their own children. Where is the elementary justice, let alone the logic of arguing that English is good for ‘our’ children but not good enough for the children of ‘others’ — for the children of our servants and our ever-present poor. Everyone gets it; the poor get it, their children get it and yet we carry on with this charade that what is obvious to all is not the basis of public policy.

A friend of mine runs an NGO in Bombay (sorry Mumbai!) in the field of education. She recounts the story of how she went up to some street children and asked them if they would come and live with her. They would have shelter, comforts and education. The literally street-smart children told her that they were happy as they were. In an inspired moment, she offered to teach them English. The children’s eyes lit up. Their enthusiasm was tremendous. If it was English that she was going to teach them, they were willing to join up in droves. The basic common sense that these lost children of urban India could summon, is denied to our honourable ministers, secretaries, joint secretaries, commissioners and commissars!

Irrespective of how we got it, we cannot be so foolish as to oppose something so patently desirable, even necessary. With due respect, the idea that all the research journals in the fields of molecular biology or chip design can be translated in a timely manner into Oriya or Assamese or Konkani each year is not a practical proposition. To use examples of Japan or France or even China is an exercise in pointlessness. All these countries vigorously promote English as a second language (even the French despite their posturing). They all have one language, not sixteen! At most, they have to translate once. Our friendly comrades of China of the Marxutvic persuasion have forced (that’s right forced!) Mandarin as the one language of their empire. We neither can nor should do this. Why not simply give people a choice? If parents wish their children to study in English medium schools, then should not the state make this available to its poorer citizens? Or in a new version of our very ancient caste system are we reserving this only for the chosen twice-born?

... contd.