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Rhyme and reason
POLITICS AT PLAY? Must children be made to discriminate between Indian and foreign rhymes? PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTHY
They've struck again — our home-grown culture police. And this time, they've made sure that the stars won't twinkle over Madhya Pradesh. The BJP-led government in the State has passed a decision to remove popular English rhymes such as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep" from the school syllabus because they are "foreign to our culture". These rhymes will instead be replaced by songs that "infuse a sense of patriotism".
This will possibly be the first time since English education was introduced in India that these rhymes will not be taught to students.
Is this a case of saffronisation taken too far or is inculcating a national spirit in young minds as important as the Madhya Pradesh government claims?
RAKESH MEHAR finds out.
How many good jobs depend on our knowledge of our culture? Everything today depends on English. We should add on local languages and culture, but should not try to replace English poems with Indian ones.
Amit Sharma
Software engineer
These rhymes help teach children English. In that sense, they are not bad, and should be taken positively. These rhymes are not about Indian culture or foreign culture, only about learning the language.
Sowmya
Airhostess trainee
These poems don't have a harmful influence on Indian culture. As long as they do not have a negative effect, why ban them? Children should learn Indian rhymes too, but such discrimination should not be made.
Kavitha
Software engineer
"Twinkle Twinkle" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep" should not be banned. These rhymes are good tools to sustain the children's interest. And children don't discriminate between Indian and foreign. It is not important.
Sujith
Mediaperson
English rhymes are good for children, and need not be removed. However, Indian English rhymes can also be good for our children. This move is all right if they can find some suitable poems to replace them.
Geeta
Airhostess trainee
PHOTOS: SAMPATH KUMAR G.P.
As long as they don't harm anyone, it doesn't matter if the rhymes taught are English ones. It is good to have them because they are already popular, and they are already part of our culture.
Basavaraju
Software engineer
Indian poems are good because children will realise in their childhood itself what our country is like. Besides, we will only know whether the Indian songs are good or bad when we try them out.
Rajashekar
Mediaperson
One of the biggest problems is that many children do not get to learn good English. From childhood itself there is an urgent need to master the language. This is a wrong decision on the part of the government.
Thahir
Student
The authorities should not remove English rhymes from the school syllabus. They have been taught for years and are very basic to our learning. Their replacements might never be as good as the others.
Vinuta
Software engineer
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