Qn. Bengal/Maharashtra Govt. policy

[Mahendra Jain]

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----- Original Message -----
From: Prasad Velusamy <prasad_velusamy at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: 28 February 2000 23:10
Subject: Qn. Bengal/Maharashtra Govt. policy


>   While browsing on the web, I came across the following article.
>   Is another vernacular language spreading in India as in the EC?
>   Have Maharashtra and Bengal reversed their earlier positions,
>   and make English compulsory?
>
>   Thanks for the info,
>   Prasad
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>   English rises again as India's power language
>   By Robert Marquand, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
>    Thursday, February 10, 2000
>   http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/02/09/text/p1s4.html
>
>   After a decade-long "Indianization" to teach regional languages in
>   the schools - and remove British-era names of streets and places
>   (Bombay is now Mumbai, Calcutta is Kolkata) - a middle-class
>   consensus to spread the learning of English is emerging. For 50
>   years, English has been a language of privilege, but today it must
>   become a more common vernacular, say intellectuals, business
>   executives, and parents alike.
>
> [snipped]
>
>   "If we wish to be a global cyberpower, if we want a larger share of
>    the world markets, if we want greater political relevance ... we
>   could start out with a crash program to promote English, not Hindi,"
>   argues Shekar Gupta, editor of India's largest newspaper, The Indian
>   Express. He points out that among the more prosperous populations of
>   East Asia, English is becoming a compulsory second language.
>
> [snipped]
>
>   Acknowledging these realities, in December the government of
>   Maharashtra, whose capital is Bombay, announced compulsory English
>   lessons for all students from grade 6 onward. The move, like a
>   similar one in West Bengal two years ago, reverses a policy of the
>   early 1990s to teach only the local Marathi and Bengali languages
>   in schools. Parents in Bombay were a major part of the lobbying
>   effort to change the system.
>
>
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