International Mother language, Auroville, Constitution and NEP 2020

 

 International Mother language, Auroville, Constitution and NEP 2020

 21st February is celebrated as  International mother language day  across the world. There is a  history behind this date. The  historical significance is that Bangladesh was created on the basis of the religion but the people of the Bangladesh opposed imposition of Urdu as the language.They demanded Bengali language and finally gained victory for making Bengali as the second national language of that country. During the struggle Bengalis lost dozen  of people. United Nations declared 21st February  as the international mother language day to commemorate the sacrifice of the Bangladeshi  for their  mother language. It was approved at the 1999 UNESCO General Conference and has been observed throughout the world since 2000.

21 February also reminds the birthday of The Mother , the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo.Her  dream  project known as the Auroville- city of dawn. Auroville has received endorsement of  General Conference of UNESCO in 1966, 1968, 1970, 1983, 2007.Auroville is also known as International City  where more than 30 nationalities live together.The residents at Auroville practice supramental Yoga.Supramental yoga deals with physical transformation. According to Sri Aurobindo human  beings belong to  transitional stage in the evolutionary process. Man is not the final creation after Man there shall be decent of supramental force.Following words of Sri Maa helps in  better understanding  the aim and  object of Auroville - We do not fight against any creed, any religion. We do not fight against any form of government. We do not fight against any social class. We do not fight against any nation or civilisation. We are fighting division, unconsciousness, ignorance, inertia and falsehood. We are endeavouring to establish upon earth union, knowledge, consciousness, Truth, and we fight whatever opposes the advent of this new creation of Light, Peace, Truth and Love.

Auroville is also known for one of its unique feature that there is no money transaction here  among the people.On February 28th, 1968, the bare, concise and yet far-reaching words of the Charter of Auroville were read out in French. Thereafter, the Charter was read in 16 languages, in the following order: Tamil, Sanskrit, English, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Tibetan.

Part seven of the constitution of India deals with official language which is sub divided into chapter one   dealing with language of the union. Chapter two deals with regional languages. Chapter three deals with language of the supreme court, High Court etc,. Chapter four deals with special directives related to the language. Schedule eight of the constitution of India contains the list of 22 languages which demonstrates multilingualism.It is interesting to note that seventh Amendment Act 1956 accounts for amendment in the form of 350 A which provides facilities for instructions  in the mother tongue at primary stage.

It is important to mention that there is a special directive under article 351 for development of the Hindi language to the effect that wherever necessary or desirable for the vocabulary ,it must be drawn from the Sanskrit.

World wide scientific studies have revealed that the  mother tongue plays  very important role in the growth of the child. Therefore, this particular aspect has been appreciated by the constituent assembly later on the same is reflected in the constitution of India, even the current National education policy 2020 (NEP 2020)supports the same .

NEP 2020 expresses concern that Indian languages have not received their due attention and care, with the country losing over 220 languages in the last 50 years alone. UNESCO has declared 197 Indian languages as ‘endangered ’. Various unscripted languages are particularly in danger of becoming extinct. When senior member(s) of a tribe or community that speak such languages pass away, these languages often perish with them.  No concerted actions or measures are taken to preserve or record these rich languages/expressions of culture.

NEP 2020 further adds that  even those languages of India that are not officially on such endangered lists, such as the 22 languages of Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, are facing serious difficulties on many fronts. Teaching and learning of Indian languages need to be integrated with school and higher education at every level. For languages to remain relevant and vibrant, there must be a steady stream of high-quality learning and print materials in these languages including textbooks, workbooks, videos, plays, poems, novels, magazines, etc. Languages must also have consistent official updates to their vocabularies and dictionaries, widely disseminated, so that the most current issues and concepts can be effectively discussed in these languages .Enabling such learning materials, print materials, and  translations of important materials from world languages, and constantly updating vocabularies, are carried out by countries around the world for languages such as English, French, German, Hebrew, Korean, and Japanese. However, India has remained quite slow in producing such learning and print materials and dictionaries to help keep its languages optimally vibrant and current with integrity.

National education Policy 2020 sets forth early implementation of the three-language formula to promote multilingualism, teaching in the home/local language wherever possible, conducting more experiential language learning.