A realistic look at the language policy

November 15, 2011, 6:26 pm, The Island


By Ariyawansa Ranaweera
ariyawansa.ranaweera@gmail.com

I must salute Mr. Rohana R. Wasala for his timely and balanced article on ‘Language, Culture and Development’ when appeared in your journal on Friday the 28th of October. At a time where a section of our literati attribute in very strident tones, almost all the social and economic ills that affect our country, to the language policy adopted in the late 1950’s R.W’s sober analysis gives the lie to this misguided view.

As he very correctly states in his article "a language of a community is not something that you can take possession of or discard as easily as you can put on or take off a garment." Language of a race is not only a means of communication among its members. It is a cultural construction that nurses a race into maturity. It is a repository of their way of thinking, their perceptions, their beliefs and aspirations, and an embodiment of their way of living. Any living language has these attributes. As it evolves through time, language also grows, and changes with the community. It creates its own words, idioms, proverbs, which are the true reflections of the soul of its people. Look at the whole array of pithy, meaningful, and ironic idioms and proverbs created by the common people. If one forces down the throats of a people an utterly alien language, would this linguistic ebullience prevail? Sinhala is enriched both by sevi-vahara (Language learnt) and jana-vahara (Folk language). These two in turn enrich each other. Prof. K.N.O. Dharmadasa once stated in one of his articles that out of all South Asian Languages, Sinhala alone developed from its very inception as a vibrant language, as it was nurtured by its association with literary creations starting from Seehalattakatha of 3rd century A.C. Any language imbibes from other languages new words and through them the knowledge created by those languages. T.S. Eliot speaking of poetry said in one of his famous essays – Social Function of Poetry – that a true poem can be composed by a poet only through the medium of his own native language. He goes on to say: to force down and alien language, to a community you have to wipe out all the members of that community root and branch. Because originality is inextricably tied up with once own language. Original thinking, Original discoveries, be it in the areas of humanistic or scientific, emanates only through once own indigenous language. This is the very reason why almost all educationist in one voice say, that a child has to be introduced into the world of knowledge through his own native language. Rabindranath Tagore, a strong proponent of Bengali language said this very forcefully, when he said that "a child imbibes his native language with his mother’s milk."

So our lawmakers who introduced both Sinhala and Tamil to be the media of instruction in the late 1950’s did not blunder. On the other hand it was a well thought out policy measure, which brought immense benefits to the majority of the people, as very correctly pointed out RW. He goes on to state very aptly "Ignorance or deliberate repudiation of their own history and culture leads some people to underrate the local language, Sinhala and Tamil for the overwhelming majority of us these languages are vital."

Unfortunately, some of our scholars have the misconceptions that the introduction of the local languages into the main stream of our educational system, was a hastily done exercise in 1956 to pander to the political exigencies of the day. This is far from true. It was in 1944 the Mr. J. R. Jayewardene moved a resolution in the State Council, to declare "Sinhalese as the official language of Ceylon within a reasonable number of years." An amendment was proposed by V. Nalliah, a Tamil State Councilor, for providing both Sinhala and Tamil the status of official languages, and it was seconded by Mr. R. S. S. Gunawardane. The resolution was ratified by 27 to 2 by the legislature. Prof Sasanka Perera, in his piece which appear in The Island (Oct 26, 2011) says "Demand for Swabasha was a protest against the privileges enjoyed by the English educated elite, privileges not open to the masses educated in local languages."

This was the beginning of the move to enshrine local languages, both as official languages and as the media of instruction. As a result in the educational reforms proposed by Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara in 1943; gradual introduction of the local languages, as media of instruction commenced. Its started in 1945 from Grade 1. Year by year this measure was introduced to higher classes. Coincidentally, it reached Grade 11 in 1956, which was the preparatory grade for university entrance, and the 1st batch of undergraduate, who sat the entrance examination in the local languages entered University of Ceylon in 1960. All these facts prove that the language policy adopted by our law makers was not a hasty measure to aimed at political expedience.

Unfortunately, the proponents of enthroning English at the expense of the local languages turn a blind eye either deliberately or otherwise to the immense benefits that accrued to Sri Lankans during the five decades after the introduction of local languages.

In spite of all efforts by our colonial masters and their followers, only a minuscule number of people in the country can handle their affairs in English. R.W. says the percentage is 10%, but I doubt even that figure.

Just think what a catastrophe it would have been, if we had continued to ram English down the throats of a reluctant majority, depriving the masses of their rightful place in the larger society. The rural intelligentsia would have remained marginalized. It was the sagacious language policy which enabled them to come out of the cold, and assert their rightful places in the community. To use a cliché, it really and truly empowered them! If not for the recognition of the local languages, would we have been a true representative democracy? It would have turned out to be an elitist oligarchy, confined to the privileged few, as in the Colbrooke-Cameron days. My guess is that only 10% of our parliamentary representatives are able to converse in English. Such is the case in all other local government institutions. So what? They are the true sons of the representative democracy we cherish.

We pride ourselves on being a nation that has the highest literacy rate in the South Asian region. ‘The Island’ issue of November 1st says, it stands at 92% at present. The news item further says, "The highest literacy rate means that people in that country will be more productive." It is this literacy rate that has enabled us to be almost on par with the developed countries in the Human Development Index. Is this not a direct result of the language policy adopted by us in the late 1950’s? It was the school system which used local languages as the media of instruction, that was instrumental in bringing this mass education to our people, which even a country like India has not been able to achieve so far.

A considerable amount of new knowledge has been created by the university community through local languages. (I am not competent to comment on the scientific field). I have a fleeting acquaintance with the university system as a visiting lecturer. The university dons and the undergraduates conduct some important research into languages, folklore, semantics, journalism, history, archeology, economics and geography etc..., and their research papers and thesis are available in the universities, and some are published. Most of them show much erudition and depth, and intellectual discipline. But the trouble with those who venerate English is that they either scoff at them or they do not possess the language proficiency to read and understand them. The university system by and large performed efficiently the three P’s expected of them through local languages, they being the Protection, Production and Propagation of knowledge.

Then we must turn to the resurgence in the cultural field. Approximately 7,500 books were written in both local languages in the year 2010 according to the National Library Services Board. This number indicates easily a considerable achievement for a small country like ours. And the subjects covered are diverse and varied such as science, philosophy, medicine, psychology, religious works, management, economics, planning and fiction. Thus the local languages play a considerable role as conduits of knowledge to the populace.

Take the area of fiction. We have produced talented writers whose talents and skills easily compare with writers of any other nationality; specially in the fields of poetry and short story.

Drama is another area which has benefitted from the language policy under discussion. The new crop of dramatists, who play a vital role on the local stage, are all products of education gained through local languages. That does not deter them from producing dramas, ranging from Greek and Sanskrit classics from Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, Dario Fo, besides their own original works.

Preservation of the fundamentals of our traditional dancing, folktales and folk poems by committing them to writing is another area that should be mentioned. All this amply proves the vast benefits of the language policy, which gave pride of place to the local languages.

This does not in any way belittle the importance of teaching English as a link language. No one in his proper senses would contest that. English is a window to the world of wisdom and knowledge. It is the international language which will connect us to the wide world of commerce, industry etc.

What really has gone wrong, in imparting the knowledge of English to our student population is something that has to be discussed separately. Suffice it to say that in our ignorance and negligence, we threw to the winds, all the infrastructural arrangements of English teaching we developed over the years, in the name of restoring the local languages to their rightful position.

Yes. We have to infuse English into our education stream. But in doing so we have to be careful not to destroy all what we have gained over the past decades thanks to our language policy are bound to end up in disaster.

The short sighted hasty measures like starting classes in schools all of a sudden to teach all subjects in English thrusting English as a medium of instruction on university students who used Sinhala and Tamil as their mediums in their entire student career.

I hope the ten year tri-lingual program, Mr. Wasala speaks of in his article has recognized these aspects.