Solved Exercise for Precis writing “Regionalisation of University Education” for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The danger to the university is all the greater in a country like ours.  For here the university is apt to be increasingly subjected not merely to the pressures of a confused nationalism but also to those of caste and linguistic chauvinism. These pressures are manifested in a variety of including the demand for state intervention in order to make varsity bend to the strident cry of the mass man. Most of his demands are understandable as an outburst of urges that have for as been denied a legitimate outlet by an iniquitous social order. However, explanation is no justification. Each demand may by itself perfectly reasonable in the abstract. And yet the extent to which it on claim satisfaction, and the manner in which it should be satisfied, will have to be determined by relating it to commonly accepted national objectives and the priorities dictated by the scarcity of human and material resources. It may happen that on such an examination many of the demands put forward by the new inheritors of power turn out to be against their own long term interests. The demand for the regionalization of the universities is of this kind.

The core of this demand consists in the insistence that English be replaced by the regional language as the medium of instruction at all stages of university education. The argument advanced in its support is not only plausible, but to a considerable extent valid-provided it were considered in isolation from the multi dimensional context in which the university has to function in this country. For it is true that for the majority of men instruction and understanding are both easier in the mother tongue than in any other language. Also, if all higher education is imparted through the mother-tongue, diffusion of knowledge and culture can be both rapid and widespread. And this is conducive to the growth of democracy, to which we are committed.

To my knowledge these are the only two sound reasons in favour of the regional language as the medium of instruction in Indian universities. And if India were Europe, there should have been no political justification for denying the regional language its natural’ place in the higher culture of the community. But India is not a group of sovereign, unilingual nation states, each having its own political and economic Order, its own army and foreign trade, and each free to go its own way, irrespective of the fate of the others unless it affects its own interests in an adverse manner. India is a multilingual federation of more than a dozen linguistic units, none strong enough to develop or even survive as a free community, except as part of a single modern polity. At the same time, each group is morbidly jealous of its own language, so much so that even all-India parties have not been able to take up an unequivocal position on issues involving linguistic passions.

In a situation like this, the regionalization of the university would mean a permanent set-back to the process of national integration; it would result in the splintering of the country’s elite into so many linguistic groups, rendered immobile beyond their own region for lack of sufficiently developed medium of communication that is equally accessible to all. No society can develop as a cultural unit unless it’s elite shares in the same tradition and draws sustenance from the same pool of experience. In pre-British days Sanskrit provided for centuries such a common bond to it all over the country. With the founding of the universities, English took its place and led to the emergence of new elite which still guides the destiny of the nation at least at the national level. Once English is replaced by the regional languages in the universities, it will merely be a matter of time before this elite disintegrates, leaving a vacuum in the country’s life that no amount of rhetoric can fill. Standards of efficiency will inevitably go down in administration, industry, the profession and even in the universities themselves. Regionalization would make it impossible for us even to catch up with the rest of the world in the fields of knowledge and technology. It would thus condemn India permanently to the position of a third-rate nation in both the economic and cultural fields.

The usual reassurance on this score lies in the hope that if Hindi is developed as a national language in the course of time it will take the place of English without any deterioration of standards or a disintegration of the intellectual leadership of the country. This, however, is an extremely fallacious argument. For one thing, Hindi is not acceptable to nearly forty-five per cent of the Indian people-and whether one likes it or not, one must take this fact into account. Secondly, except for the statistical fact that Hindi is understood by about forty two per cent of the population, there is nothing to recommend it on grounds of intellectual viability. This otherwise, might have partly justified its imposition. Nor would translations serve to compensate for the deficient development of Hindi as of any other Indian language.

(861 words)

Precis

Title:- Regionalisation of University Education

The survival of Indian universities faces a relatively greater danger by counter claims of superiority based on caste and language, and the repeated demands of intervention caused by abrupt resurgence of national and individual ego, which was kept suppressed for a long time. Theoretically, the demands of regionalisation of universities may be justified, but when it is viewed in the context of national objectives and priorities, it loses its appeal, as it tends to defeat the cause of even those who are sponsoring it.

This demand has sprung from the basic demand for the introduction of regional language as the medium of instruction in universities. This demand appears just when considered from the standpoint of case in understanding and teaching as well as speedy educational expansion. However, when it is viewed in the context of countless factors on which our university education is based, the demand is hardly valid.

We cannot claim the same independence of decision and action in the case of Indian linguistic regions as in Europe, where these units are politically sovereign nations, but in our country these units are parts and parcels of a single political unit. So this interdependence of our different regional units necessitates national integration rather than regionalism, which will harm the nation and divide its intelligentsia in many watertight compartments. The growth of our country into a cultural unit will be seriously checked by regionalism. In pre-British days our lingua franca was Sanskrit, which was subsequently replaced by English. However replacement of English by any regional language will result in chaos and divide the intelligentsia of the country causing irreparable damage to efficiency in all walks of life and perpetual degradation of the country.

The arguments favouring replacement of English by Hindi are not valid in view of the majority opposition. Hindi lacks the necessary intellectual stamina.

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