*Medium of Confusion* by Radharao F.Gracias
The struggle to delink grants from medium of instruction, appears to be gaining momentum. The movement may turn, into a typhoon and blow the detractors, into the dustbins of history or may not even gain gale force and simply, dissipate away. The critical factor is the Church, which has taken twenty years to grant annulment of its earlier policy, to oppose instruction in English. I do feel cynical. I am aware that the Church is essentially for Christ, all the year round. However, when elections come, it is for the Congress! And this, is an election year! The argument against releasing grants for English medium, seem to hinge on the imputation, that English is an import and that, our native culture would be adversely affected, if children study in the foreign language. However, it is difficult to comprehend, what exactly constitutes Indian culture, considering that our country has been conquered dominated and subjugated for thousands of years, by invaders. We were witnesses in recent weeks, to euphoria generated by the Indian victory, in the Cricket World Cup. We are still wallowing, in our glory and feel on top of the world. And with valid reasons too. After all we are, the world champions. But then, is cricket any less foreign than the English language? If we pride in our achievement of dominance in world cricket why don’t we have a right to achieve world dominance, in the English language? We have watched with glee, the performance of Sachin Tendulkar on the cricket field. Anyone who has followed his cricket will know that he took to playing cricket, when he was just a toddler and represented the Country at the age of sixteen. Now imagine that Sachin Tendulkar was a Goan and was bound to follow the advice, of our “patriotic” experts who insist, that a child must finish primary education in the mother tongue. Extend the same logic, to sports and it follows that Sachin, would have to play gilly-danda (gonzo-bar) for the first four years, being a native game and take up cricket, only thereafter. Sachin would have ended up saying “Holay” instead of “How’s that”. He would be doing “abling” “doubling” “tibling” and never would have a chance, to reach a century of centuries in cricket. The same patriotic experts, seem to be citing an UNESCO report of the year 1953, which recommends that primary education must “as far as practicable” be in the mother tongue. There are many other things, that the United Nations has recommended. Are these “patriots” also suggesting, that we should accept the Security Council resolution, to hold a plebiscite on the issue, of whether Jammu & Kashmir should be part of India, Pakistan or be independent? All of us, would like to know. The Saraswats, who are at the forefront of opposition to English medium claim to be the most patriotic of the people of the State, (read Chandrakant Keni for details) who vehemently fought the Portuguese and preserved and protected, the pre Portuguese culture. History shows, that the Saraswats were the earliest of Goan Hindus, to study in Portuguese from the Primary level, and become part of the colonial Portuguese administration. Did they lose their culture? Have you ever attended the Annual Saraswat Food Festival? If you have, you should be wondering what the Saraswats ate, before the Portuguese arrived, in Goa and introduced their food habits and their flora? The food which the Saraswats serve, at the Food Fesitval is more Portuguese than Goan. It is nearly impossible to find any food item, not “polluted” by the Portuguese. I have not found any item at the Festival, which does not have at least a chilly, potato, tomato, onion, pineapple, chickoo, cashew, papaya, asofoetida or some foreign introduced vegetable/fruit as one of the ingredients. If the saraswats, can continue to claim to be patriots and flaunt their culture, after eating food so much “contaminated” by the foreign introduced vegetables and fruits, how does one become less cultured and less patriotic by merely studying a foreign language, which language, binds the Country together? If saraswats have not lost their culture by imbibing foreign foods, why should we fear, that others would, by learning a foreign language? And I still wonder, what the saraswats ate, before the Portuguese conquered Goa. And I wonder even more, why the “patriotic” saraswats gave up their traditional food for that introduced by the Portuguese. And of course, we have Democracy, the very basis of our Nation today. Democracy is a completely foreign concept alien to the culture that evolved in our country before European colonisation. Democracy is founded on the concept that all men are equal. Our entire way of life has evolved over thousands of years on the opposite concept that all men are not equal. That man, is born high and low and that each one, is to discharge duties enjoined on one, by the caste, in which one is born. Today, everybody claims to be a democrat, only because we have accepted European style democracy. Should we discard Democracy, because, it is a foreign import and certainly contrary to our culture, the fundamentals of which are based on discrimination? The question for us, is how do we decide, how much of foreign inputs are acceptable? And who decides? If the saraswats have a right to adopt food, tampered by Portuguese food habits and call it saraswat food, why can’t the rest of us similarly adopt English, as our own? By objecting, to English because, it is foreign are we also not objecting to Democracy which is also foreign? If we have a right to reject United Nations resolution on Kashmir don’t we have the right to reject the UNESCO report?