The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Undue love for English is not good: Jois

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Undue love for English is not good: Jois

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Emphasising the importance of imparting education in mother tongue from first standard to fourth standard, the former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, N. Rama Jois, has said that undue passion for English is detrimental to the educational interests of the country.

He was speaking at a function organised by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike to felicitate L.S. Seshagiri Rao, who has been selected by the Kannada Sahitya Parishat to chair the 74th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelan in Udupi in October, here on Thursday.

Mr. Jois said some of the leaders had become experts in disintegrating society in the name of language and caste and some others were after English in the name of promoting caste interests. It was unfortunate that the country had been reeling under the influence of English at the cost of its own cultural richness. English had its own place in the country as a colonial and international language, but not at the cost of regional needs of the independent and developing country, he said.

Mr. Jois said it was wrong to think that introduction of English right from first standard would provide a strong basis for education. Mr. Jois said that after a Bench of the Karnataka High Court, headed by him, upheld some petitions in favour of primary education in one’s mother tongue, a BBC correspondent, in an interview, asked him whether he was against English.

He “silenced” him by countering whether England could introduce Kannada or any other regional language of India in its primary schools, Mr. Jois said.

Chairman of the Karnataka Media Academy V.N. Subba Rao and writer Nallor Prasad spoke.

Replying to the felicitation, Prof. Rao explained the circumstances in which he was selected to chair the Udupi sammelan.

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