Chapter 37: Languages

Introduction

Language has been defined as a verbal communication system, with variation to that system representing different languages. Language may be oral, written, symbolic or communicated by gesture and expression. Normal people automatically acquire in childhood the language of their family or those they live with. This is the “mother tongue” the first language children learn and is often the only language they will ever know. Those who learn a second language are “bilingual”, while those who can communicate in more that two languages are “multilingual” or “polygot”.

There are living and dead languages as well as written and unwritten languages. Within a language there are variant forms known as “dialects”. Among the various dialects of a language, one usually stands out as the most acceptable form and is called the “standard dialect”. Scholars have estimated that there are about 3,000 languages, living or dead although only about 1,000 can be counted with any accuracy that are spoken in the world today. This number, however, excludes dialects.

Nearly half of the population of the world speak one of the large Indo-European group of languages which comprises most of the historically known languages of Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, most parts of India and Sri Lanka, and parts of the erstwhile Soviet Union. The only other language group, the Sino-Tibetan which includes Mandarin Chinese, is spoken by over 600 million. There are more than hundred languages with a million or more speakers. Of these, 19 have over 50 million speakers each: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay Indonesian, Marathi, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russia, Spanish Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. An increasing number of people speak one of the six major international languages of historic colonial powers, Viz., Arabic, English French, Portuguese, and Russian. Of these, the most widely spoken language is English. Some 350 million speak English as their first language (mother tongue) between 250-350 million do or can use it as a second language making English a global language.

Although much is not known about languages used before written records, linguists can study the writings of languages now dead, and the living languages of today, to draw conclusions about their origins and groupings. Linguistics, the science of language, is an important area of study and research. The richness and variety of languages, their history and typology are all studied by linguists to give a clearer idea of the nature of the language itself. This has been discussed in a subsequent section.

However, there are people who are not happy with the natural languages because of their serious limitations in pronunciation, grammar, syntax, and semantics. They have long been interested in having one language that could be spoken throughout the world. They think that such a universal language would help promote understanding and better feelings among nations. It also would increase cultural and economic ties among vrious countries. In the search for such an artificial language.

Dr L Lzomenhof (1859-1917), a Polish physician and linguist, developed in 1887, Esperanto intended for international use. Based on word roots common to the major European languages, it has only 16 language rules and a vocabulary which increased from 2,000 to 16,000 during the past 113 years. It is estimated that more than 10 million people have learned the language. There is a small number of ardent practitioners of Esperanto in India under the banner of “federacio Esperanto bharato”.

Education and language

It is hardly needs any emphasis that education and language go together. The multiplicity of languages and the historical predominance of English, albeit the small number of people (178,598 in 1991 census) who have returned it as their mother tongue, have had a great impact on the role of language in India’s educational system. The problems relate to the languages to be taught and also used as media of instruction. The third all India educational survey conducted by the national council of educational research and training (NCERT) (1978) used the term “educational languages” for all those languages which are studied in schools and also used as media of instruction. It divided them into two groups – “medium languages” and “subject languages”, the latter being the languages studied in schools but not necessarily used as media of instruction (Chaturvedi M G, Satvit Singh: languages and media of instruction in Indian schools (New Delhi, NCERT, 1981.p27). India perhaps is the only country which provides a wide range of opportunities to study the largest number languages, both Indian and foreign, at different educational levels.

A brief preview of what has been discussed in this chapter would give an idea about the complexity of language studies in India. First, there are the official languages of the Union (Hindi and English) and states carved out on linguistic basis. They include scheduled languages i.e, languages recognised as such in the Constitution. Some of these languages have variant form (dialects) which are spoken in several regions of the concerned linguistic states. Also among the scheduled languages are those which do not have home states of their own, but peoples speaking these languages are dispersed in various parts of the country. Then there is the concentration of people speaking one or the other scheduled language who reside outside their home states. Besides, there are a large number of non-scheduled languages which are spoken in specific regions or pockets in several states, five classical languages, viz., Arabic, Pali, Persian, Prakrit and Sanskrit also have legitimate demand for being included in the list of educational languages. And finally, the study of foreign languages is necessitated by increasing contacts of India with many non-English speaking countries.

The problem of studying subject languages in schools have been sought to be resolved by the adoption of what has come to be known as the “three-language formula”. It was mooted by the central advisory board of education in 1956 and later on modified and adopted by the conference of chief ministers held in 1961. In effect the formula established quality with reaged to the study of languages between the Hindi and non-Hindi areas. The education commission (1964-1966), in its report, had observed that the “impelling considerations were more political and social than educational”.

The commission recommended a “modified or graduated” three-language formula (see Annexure 1). An account of Educational Languages” at present available in schools is provided in the report of the third all India education survey referred to above. Annexure 2 provides this information. At the first degree level, study of subject languages particularly in liberal arts stream is also an important component of the curriculum. Annexure 3 gives the contents of BA/BA (major) course of the Gauhati University (Guwahati 781014), which offers a wide range of options to choose from as “subject languages”. This is a unique example of accommodating most of the requirements of language studies described above.

Indian Languages

Introduction: the linguistic composition of India is typical not only in its present form but also in the form it has developed during the last several thousand of years of its history. It has been recorded in monumental 11-volume work of George Abraham Grierson (1851-1945) titled Linguistic Survey of India (1903-1928). The linguists have described India as a “sociolinguistic giant”. It represents languages and cultures of diverse linguistic and ethnic groups on the one hand, and a “linguistic area” on the other, where languages of different families have fused with each other to make it an integrated linguistic whole. This has led to the reorganisation of the states on the basis of linguistic and cultural homogeneity. All the scheduled languages and a number of Non-Scheduled languages (see below) are used as “educational languages” and have found place in the three-language formula mentioned above.

The Census of India (1991) records as many as 114 languages(having a total of 317 variant forms). However, the list includes only those mother tongues which have a strength of 10,000 and above at the all-India level. The “census languages” belong to five family’s viz., Indo-Eduropean comprising Indo-Aryan (75.28%) and Germanic (0.02), Dravidian (22.53). Austro-Asiatic (1.13),,. Tibeto/Burmese (0.97), and Semito-Burmese (0.01). Of these 114 languages, 18 are recognised by the Indian Constitution as scheduled languages and the remaining 96 are treated as Non-scheduled languages.

Language policy: The language policy of India is basically embodied in part XVII of the Indian Constitution along with the eighth schedule in reference to articles 344 and 351 (which specify the languages of India for purposes mentioned in these two articles), and the articles concerning fundamental rights regarding language, education, and culture etc., the language policy gives full freedom to the states to choose any language or languages spoken in regions as their regional languages and to have one or more of them as official languages by different states. However, for the Union, the Constitution prescribes Hindi in Devanagari script for official purposes along with English as an associate official language.

Scheduled languages: The eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 18 scheduled languages. Of these, 13 fall in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family, viz., Assamese, Bengali, Gujarat, Hindi, Kashmir, Konkani, Marathi, Nepal, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhu and Urdu. Four languages, viz., Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu belong to the Dravidian family. The only scheduled language belonging to the Tibeto-Burmese family is Manipuri. Unlike other scheduled languages, five languages, viz., Konkani, Nepali, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Urdu do not have any home state. Except Sanskrit these languages are spoken by people concentrated in certain areas in several states.

The Census of India. (1991) document, Language-India and States (Table C-7) (paper 1 of 1997), provides data on the number of speakers for each of scheduled languages along with their variant forms numbering 123. For example, for Hindi, the table gives data on as many as 49 variant forms, Bhojpuri leading the list with 23.1 crore speakers. Other major forms are Magadhi (or Maghai) (10.56) crore), Chhatisgarhi (10.59 crore), Rajasthani (13.3crore), and Maithili (77.6lakh).

Non-scheduled languages: The census document on languages also lists 96 non-scheduled languages (194 variant forms) including English spoken in various pockets of the country. A large majority of them are tribal languages. Some of the more well-known Non-scheduled languages include bodo, kodagu (corgi), Dogri, gondi, karbi, khasi, lushai (mizo), oraon, santhali, Tibetan, and tripuri.

Promotion of Indian Languages

While each of the linguistic states take measures for the promotion of its own language, the central government is also involved in this task. It has established several institutions for the promotion of modern Indian languages (including Sindhi, and Urdu) as well as, Hindi and Sanskrit. The central institute of Indian languages (Manasagangotri, Mysore 570006), sponsored by the department of secondary education and Higher education, is involved in conducting research in the areas of language analysis, language pedagogy, language technology, and language use.

The institute runs three schemes viz., (i) the development of Indian languages including tribal languages, (ii) implementation of three-language formula, and (iii) providing financial assistance for publication in Indian languages (other than English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Sindhi and Urdu) inclusive of tribal languages. It runs seven regional language centres to help meet the demand for trained teachers to implement the three-language formula (see Annexure 4). It also offers certificate courses in Bengali, Tamil and Telugu for non-native speakers through distance learning mode. The course is of one year duration and open to candidates who have passed the class 10 examination. The institute also awards scholarships of master’s degree holders in linguistic and allied subjects for pursing doctoral research.

Sahitya Akademi, established in 1954, is meant to promote the cause of Indian languages, among other, through publications, translations, and literary awards. It recognises 18 scheduled languages and also four non-scheduled languages viz., Dogri, English, Maithili, and Rajasthani. Besides, the government has also constituted the national council for promotion of Urdu language (New Delhi 110066), and the national council for the promotion of Sindhi language (Vadodara 390007).

The government has also established the Maulana Azad National Urdu university (Hyderabad 500008) as a central university. Measures have also been taken for the promotion of Hindi and Sanskrit. These issues have been discussed in subsequent sections. Several state governments have also established language universities (see Annexure 5).

Modern Indian Languages

Most of the modern Indian languages have their own home states. All the traditional universities have provisions for teaching these languages at the first degree, postgraduate degree and pre-doctoral and doctoral levels. Although, in universities located in states created on linguistic basis, the focus is on their own languages, many of them also offer courses in other languages of other states to cater to the requirements of major linguistic groups residing in the states.

For example, Telugu language is available in Bangalore university, Berhampur university (Orissa), and university of Madras. University of Mumbai offers courses in Sindhi, Gujarati, Urdu and Kannada languages, Gauhati university caters to the requirement of residents speaking Bengali, Manipuri, Nepali, Punjabi and Urdu languages. Karnatak university offers Marathi, while Punjab university teaches Bengali and Tamil several central universities, such as, Aligarh Muslim university, Banaras Hindu university, university of Hyderabad, Visva-Bharati have departments of modern Indian languages which offer facilities for studying several Indian languages, as well as classical languages, such as, Arabic, Persian, Pali and Prakrit. Further, many universities in different states also offer diploma courses in languages targeted at the people of different linguistic groups staying in these states. Yet, some universities offer diploma courses in the languages of the state exclusively for persons speaking other languages.

As stated earlier, many of the schedule languages have variant forms (dialects) spoken by a large number of people. Similarly a large number of people concentrated in specific areas speak one or the other of the non-scheduled languages. Universities as such states have introduced educational facilities for people speaking such languages (see Annexure 6)

Hindi

While the department of official language in the ministry of home affairs is responsible for promoting Hindi for official work, the central government has introduced several centrally-sponsored schemes for popularising Hindi in non-Hindi speaking areas. In order to implement the three-languages formula, it provides financial assistance of appointment of Hindi teachers in schools and for establishing Hindi teacher training schools. Through the Kendriya Hindi Sanstahn (Agra 282005) and its regional centre at Delhi, Hyderabad, Guahati and Shillong, the government of India promotes development of improved methodology of teaching Hindi to non-Hindi speaking students. It awards post-Matric scholarships for studying Hindi from 10+2 to doctoral levels.

The central Hindi training institute (New Delhi 110011) in the department of official language offer three training programmes, viz., Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya courses through distance learning mode. Only non-Hindi speaking employees of central government establishments including public sector undertakings and teachers of kendtrya vidyalayas are eligible. The central Hindi directorate (department of correspondence course, New Delhi 110066) conducts two distance learning programees (certificate and diploma) for the foreigners and overseas Indians, uses English, Tamil,. Malayalam and Bengali as media of instruction. The two courses are equivalent to Praveen (certificate) and Pragya (diploma) courses offered by the central Hindi Training Institute (department of Official language) in the ministry of home affairs.

Hindi as a subject of study is available at class 10 and class 10+2 in accordance with the three language formula), first degree (as one of the combinations), postgraduate, pre-doctoral and doctoral levels. At the first degree and postgraduate levels, it is offered by more than 100 universities. Most of the universities which offer the language at the postgraduate level also have provisions for doctoral studies.

There are now two Hindi universities, viz., Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (Chennai 600017), and Mahatma Gandhi Antar-rashtriaya Hindi Vishwavadyalaya (Wardha). Established in 1918 by Mahatma Gandhi, Dakshin Bharat HindiPrachar Sabha did pioneering work in pre-independence days to promote Hindi in south India. In 1964, it was accorded the status of institute of National importance. It has postgraduate complexes in Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad 500004), Karnataka (Dhrawad 580001), Kerala (Ernakulam, Kochi 682016), and Tamil Nadu (Chennai 600017), the Sabha offers MA (Hindi), BEd, MEd (Hindi), Siksha Snatak courses. It has also introduced PG Diploma in translation which is open to graduates with Hindi. There are 19 BEd colleges affiliated to it in the four southern states. Besides, 13 Siksha Snatak colleges are also affiliated to it.

Besides offering courses in Hindi at different levels, several universities have introduced other courses, such as, functional Hindi, Hindi translation creative writing.

Scheduled Languages Without Home States

As stated earlier, Konkani, Nepali, Urdu and Sindhi do not have a home states of their own. It has also been mentioned that the government of India have taken several measures for the promotion of Urdu and Sindhi. As is well known, both Hindi and Urdu have their origins in the Khari Boli speech of Delhi and its environs. They are, however, written in two different scripts-Urdu in Perso-Arabic and Hindi in Devanagari. The two languages also differ, albeit in minor ways, in respect of sound system, morphology and syntax. Urdu is taught at different levels in more that 75 universities. Sindhi is the language of Sindh province, now in Pakistan. Bulk of the Sindhi speaking population in India are migrants from Pakistan. Annexure 7 gives an illustrative list of universities which offer these four languages at different levels.

Sanskrit

Now dubbed as “dead” language, Sanskrit had been returned as the mother tongue by 49,736 persons in the 1991 census. In the popular perception, it is best known as the language of religion and philosophy. But the scriptural dimension has largely relegated other aspects of this rich language into the shadows. Apart from its intrinsic values, Sanskrit has a salutary effect on the study and development of most of the modern Indian languages. As the great feeder language, Sanskrit words predominate in the high style of most of them. Like any other great classical language of the world literature, Sanskrit has its full share of fine poetry, drama, and prose of high literary value. Modern Sanskrit studies commences at the end of the 18^th century. Western colonial scholarship sought to learn about India’s pass through Sanskrit, which gave rise to a discipline now called indology.

Indian scholars well versed in western learning also contributed to the growth of indology. After independence, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, then Education Minster appointed the Sanskrit commission under the chairmanship of the distinguished linguist Dr Sunit Kumar Chatterjee. The report (1957), analysing the causes for the gradual decline of status of Sanskrit in the educational system, observed that Sanskrit had fallen “between two mill-stones- the rising regional languages on the one hand, and scientific and other modern subject on the other. The result has been that there has developed a tendency towards making Sanskrit just an optional subject. More recently, another great rival of Sanskrit has appeared in the form of Hindi”. (p.63). the commission recommended many measures for the promotion of Sanskrit through study and research. One of the major recommendations was the establishment of Sanskrit universities.

So far, seven Sanskrit universities (five state universities and two deemed universities) have been established (see Annexure 5). Most of the Sanskrit universities offer courses at the intermediate (upashastri or Prakashastri), graduate (shastri), postgraduate(Acharya), Vidyavaridhi (PhD) and Vachaspati (DLitt) levels. At the Acharya level, students take up one area of specialisation, such as, veda, dharmashstra, sahitya, vyakaran, purana, navaya nyaya, prachin nyaya, Phalit Jyotisha, Ganit Jyotisha, Music, fine arts, and drama. In some states all the Sanskrit colleges and traditional Sanskrit schools (Tols) are affiliated to the Sanskrit universities. Besides courses in Sanskrit, some universities also offer Sanskrit oriented programmes in other disciplines, such as, teacher education, library science, Ayurveda. Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (Kerala) offers MSW, master of Traditional Architecture (MTArch), Master of Pharmaceutical Science (ayurvedic) A (Indology), and even MA (Arabic) and MA (Urdu).

Sanskrit as a subject is offered at Class 10, and class 10+2 in accordance with the tree-language formula. At the first degree level, the subject is offered as one of the combinations in more that 100 universities. About 95 universities offer Master’s degree programmes and many of them also provide facilities for doctoral work. Many universities have established faculty of Sanskrit studies. A number universities also offer one-year diploma programmes in Sanskrit, Barkatullah University (Bhopal 462026) has introduced as one-year diploma programme in spoken Sanskrit, Bundelkhand university (Jhansi 284128) offers a certificate course in functional Sanskrit. Among the universities, which are well-known for Sanskrit studies are: Banaras Hindu University (Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya dharma Vigyan), Kurukshetra University (institute of Sanskrit and Indological studies), Punjab university (Visheshvaranand Vishwabandhu institute of Sanskrit and Indological studies), M S university of Baroda (Baroda Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya), and the university of Calcutta (Sanskrit college).

Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (New Delhi 110058), an autonomous organisation under the ministry of human resources development, exercises academic and administrative control over eight kendriya Sanskrit vidyapeethas at Allahabad,. Garli (HP), Guruvayoor, Jaipur, Jammu, Lucknow, Puri and Sringeri where Sanskrit education in traditional sashtras is offered and research in various fields is undertaken. It conducts examinations for prathama to vidyavaridhi (PhD) and Vachaspati (DLitt) levels. Over 50 institutions all over the country are affiliated to the sanshtan. It also awards scholarships for prosecuting studies in Sanskrit (including Pali and Prakrit) as one of the main subject from 10+2 to Ph.D levels. It has also several other programmes for the promotions of Sanskrit. The Akashvani broadcasts news bulletins in Sanskrit twice a day. The government of India had declared 1999-2000 as the year of Sanskrit to popularize the study of the language.

Other classical Languages

As stated earlier, the three-language formula includes, beside Sanskrit four other classical languages viz., Arabic, Persian, Pali and Prakrit. Arabic is a Semetic language. As is well known it is the language of the Koran, the sacred book of Islam and is the religious language of Muslims world over. Literary Arabic, known as classical Arabic, is essentially the form of the language found in the Koran. Some modifications became necessary for its use in modern times (Modern Arabic). It is the major language in the Arab world and is widely used throughout the Muslim world as a second language and as learned and liturgical language. Arabic is studied as subject language at the school, first degree, diploma, postgraduate, and doctoral level.

The number of universities which offer it exceeds 50. The language is also taught in traditional religious schools called Madarsas. In the wake of the oil boom in the gulf countries, proficiency in functional and spoken Arabic became an essential requirement of seeking career opportunities in Arab countries. Many universities, therefore introduced one year diploma courses to cater to such needs. For example, Calicut university (Kozhikode 673635) offers, diploma course in commercial Arabic and modern Arabic. Among the universities which are well known for high level of Arabic studies are the Aligarh Muslim university, the central institute of English and foreign languages, the University of Delhi, and the Jawaharlal Nehru university.

Pali, a middle Indo-Aryan language, is the sacred language of the Thereavad Buddhist canon. Its use as Buddhist canonical language came about because Lord Buddha’s preference, instead of Sanskrit to use it as a vehicle of his teaching. The language and Theravad canon known as tripitaka were brought to several Asian countries, such as, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. While Pali died out as literary language in India, its country of origin in the 14^th century,. It survived elsewhere till the 18^th. Pali is studied at school, first degree, diploma and postgraduate levels. Thirteen universities in the eastern, northern and western regions offer it as the postgraduate levels.

Persian (also called farsi) is a member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family. It is the official language of Iran and is widely used in Afghanistan (called Dari) and Tajikistan. It is written in Arabic characters. Modern Persian has many Arabic loanwords and an extensive literature. It was the court language during the Mughal rule and as such was widely learnt by the elites. Like Arabic, it is also taught at all the levels. About 30 universities have introduced the subject at the postgraduate level.

Like Pali, Prakrit also belongs to the middle Indo-Aryan language family. It began as vernacular dialect and in course of time developed its distinct literary styles. Some scholars restrict Prakrits to the languages used by Hindu and Jain writers. Yet others include the Buddhist languages, such as Pali and Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit and the inscriptional Prakrits. Other Prakrits include the Jain canon in Ardhamangadhi. Infact, all middle Indo-Aryan varieties can be subsumed under the label Prakrit. The language is offered mainly at first degree and postgraduate degree levels in about 16 universities. Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, (Ladnun 341306) in Rajasthan, a deemed university, is a well known centre for teaching and research in Jainism and Prakrit language. These languages are also offered by several universities as “subject languages” at different levels.

Annexure 8 gives an illustrative list of universities which offer these four languages at different levels.

English

Though Chinese is spoken by a greater number of people in a specific region, English is spoken around the globe and has wider dispersion than any other single language. However, much more important factor is not its use as a first or a second language in ordinary intercourse. A language of great utilitarian value, English is now established as the de facto lingua franca of much of the scholarly communication. Most of the scientific, technological and academic information is communicated in English. Scientific and technical journals in English far outstrip those in other languages.

Over 80% of all the information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in English. English is also the language of international air traffic control, and is currently developing its role in international maritime, policing, and emergency services. It is the chief language of international business and academic conferences and the leading language of international tourism. The birth of the computer and its American operating systems gave English an edge ahead. And now internet has given it a huge push.

Nearly 80% of the material available in the web is in English. Further, throughout the world there are universities in which the medium of both textbooks and classroom discussion is in English, though the use of the local or national language in classroom is common. Last but not the least, along with Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish, English is an official language of the United Nations. It is now being realised all over the world, including Japan and China, that the knowledge of English is as important as proficiency in mother tongues.

It is fashionable, even now, to deride Macaulay, who in his infamous minute on education (February 2, 1835) envisaged the creation of “a class of persons-Indian in blood and colour but English in opinions in morals and in intellect”. Nevertheless, it set out the courts of English education in India. English has now permeated throughout the educational system at all levels as a subject of study and the medium of education, and has been observed by many educationalists, often at the cost of the mother tongues. Despite the widespread criticism about the poor quality of teaching, and proliferation of outfits of doubtful credibility for teaching “spoken English”.

English has come to stay not only as a channel of communication with the world at large but also within the country. English is no longer considered a foreign language. In 1958, the ministry of education established the Central Institute of English as a autonomous body to raise the standards of teaching of English. In 1972, it was renamed the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages to include the study of major foreign languages in its programmes. In 1973, it was accorded the deemed university status. Annexure 9 gives a brief account of its wide, ranging programmes. The institute has two regional centres at Lucknow and Shillong.

Besides the study of English as subject several universities have introduced other types of programmes. For example, Gandhigram Rural University (Gandhigram 624302) has introduced a programme, MA (English and communicative studies). Sardar Patel university (Vallabh Vidyanagar 388129) has a PG certificate courts in English teaching two universities, Indira Gandhi National Open University (New Delhi 1100068) and UP Rajarshi Tondon Open University (Allahabad 211001) offer diploma in creative writing. The governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu had jointly established the regional institute of English, south India (Bangalore 560056).

It offers a postgraduate diploma course in English language teaching through distance learning mode for working teachers which is recognised by the National Council of Teacher Education. Kannur University (Kannur 670002) has a PG diploma course in English communication. Osmania university (Hyderabad 500007) offers a certificate course, in English language for medical transcription, spoken English, vocabulary expansion in English, English grammar and writing in English.

English language tests: proficiency in reading writing and speaking in English is an essential requirement for studying in English-speaking countries, such as, the USA, Great Britain, Australia and Canada. The universities in these countries use the scores of English language tests conducted by several testing services to assess the English language proficiency of non-natives who seek admission into them. There are two types of proficiency tests 1) those used by universities for admission of students, and 2) those that testify to the adequate ability to communicate properly in English.

In the first category are two tests conducted by the educational testing service (ETS) of the USA, viz., the test of English as foreign language (TOEFL), and the test of spoken English (TSE). TOEFL scores are required for purposes of admission by more than 2,400 colleges and universities in the USA and Canada and also by institutions in other countries where English is the medium of instruction. In addition, many government agencies, scholarship programmes, and licensing and certificate agencies in the USA OEFL scores to evaluate proficiency in English. The TSE test is designed to evaluate the general oral language proficiency of non-native speakers of English.

Another test in this category, the international English language testing system (IELTS) is conducted by the university of Cambridge local examination syndicate (UCLES) jointly with the British Council and IDP education Australia (through IELTS, Australia). IELTS test is widely recognised as a language requirement for all courses in further rand higher education in UK, new Zealand and Australia. IELTS provides an assessment of whether candidates are ready to study or train in the medium of English. In the second category there are three tests !)advanced placement international English language (APIEL) examination conducted by the college board in collaboration with the educational testing service in the USA, 2) the business English certificate (BEC) test administered by the UCLES, and 3) the newly launched national English language test service (NELTS) by the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL).

A brief account of each of these tests is given in Annexure 10.

Foreign Languages

Study of foreign languages began with the interaction of Indians mainly with France and Germany. Many scientists of yesteryears had their higher education in these two countries, research in science needed access to scientific literature in French and German. It is after independence that learning of other foreign languages got an impetus. The government of India, with the technical assistance of the UNESCO, established in 1952, the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC) (New Delhi-110067) under the umbrella of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). One of the major programmes of INSDOC was to undertake translation, on demand, of scientific and technical papers from several foreign languages into English to cater to the growing needs of scientists requiring access to scientific literature in non-English foreign languages.

The translation service is still offered by it. It may be recalled that the scientific community around the world, notably in the USA, evinced great interest in the scientific and technical literature in Russia in the aftermath of launching in 1957, the first rocket Sputnik outside the earth’s orbit. The led to the growth of a sort of a “translation industry” in respect of scientific and technical literature in Russian language. The Pergamon press in Britain undertook the translation of perhaps the larges number of scientific and technical books from Russian into English. In the USA a new type of journal “cover-to cover translation journals ” appeared. As the name suggest, they are translated version of entire issues of Russian scientific and technical journals. People’s interest in studying foreign languages has resulted in the publication of a large number of bilingual (and offer multilingual) dictionaries.

As the Annexure 11 shows, as many as 31, foreign languages (excluding Arabic) are taught in Indian universities. However, majority of the courses are in three languages, viz., French, German and Russian, such languages as Armenian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Hausa (spoken Nigeria and Niger), Hungarian, are offered only by single university. Language courses are offered at certificate, first degree, postgraduate diploma, and postgraduate degree levels. However, a large majority of the courses is at the diploma level of one-year duration. Limited scope is also available for pre-doctoral and doctoral studies. It may be mentioned that language studies at the higher levels is not limited only to imparting language skills, but also involves study of literature of concerned languages. Some universities have set up departments of foreign language studies and have introduced comprehensive programmes in language studies. At least four universities deserve mention:

1.  Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (see Annexure 9)

2.  Jawaharlal Nehru university (school of language, literature and culture studies),

3.  University of Delhi

4.  Visva Bharati.

Annexure 13 provides a brief account of the courses offered by Jawaharlal Nehru university and the university of Delhi.

There are many other institutions outside the university system which offer language training programmes. The school of foreign languages in the ministry of defence offer certificate and advanced diploma courses in as many as 10 foreign languages. The school primarily cater to the requirements of ministries of defence and external affairs (see Annexure 13), Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (New Delhi 110001) offers short-term courses in French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. Indian institute of travel and tourism management (Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021) offers certificate courses in French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish useful for working as tourist guides. The cultural wings of many foreign embassies also offer courses in their respective languages. However, such facilities are available mostly in New Delhi. Three popular language learning centres in New Delhi are Alliance Francaise (New Delhi 110049), Max Mueller Bhavan (New Delhi 110001), and Japan cultural information centre (New Delhi 110001).

Among the benefits of learning foreign languages are increasing the range of communication and adding to the general stock of information. More importantly, knowledge of one or more foreign languages open up varieties of career opportunities. Learning a foreign language involves four different skills 1) speaking 2) understanding, 3) reading and 4) writing. There are three major areas in which language skills are profitably used 1) translation of documents 2)interpretation, and 3)simultaneous interpretation. High levels of proficiency in two languages are essential requirements for these tasks.

Apart from translation of scientific and technical documents, classics and books of many authors in non-English languages are also being translated into English in a big way. In both diplomatic and business relationships between countries using different languages, interpretation play a very important role. Interpreters, conversant with both the languages of conversation between two persons, help communicating with each other. Simultaneous interpretation is used during international meetings and conferences in which people speaking different languages participate. The interpreters, sitting in sound proof rooms listen to the source speech through headphones and almost simultaneously translate it into the target, languages, which get transmitted to the earphones of the listeners.

Central Institute of English has introduced diploma course in translation and interpretation (see Annexure 11). University of Hyderabad has postgraduate diploma programme in translation studies in English (PGDTSE) of one-year duration through distance learning mode.

Translation Studies

Though, in multilingual country like India, communication for ordinary discourse between two linguistic groups can be conducted through widely spoken languages such as Hindi and English, access to the rich literary resources of different Indian languages is facilitated only through translation. While translation from foreign languages into English is widely practiced, the need for translation from one Indian language to several other target languages including English is hardly appreciated. Only translation of literary works of various languages into other languages can break the language barrier and physical boundaries.

Since its establishment 1954. Sahitya Akademi promised much but delivered very little in this regard. Several well-known publishers have no undertaken the publication of English translations of Indian languages books, both of classical and modern vintage. It is in this context that the efforts of “Katha”, a non-profit organisation deserves mention. A brief account of the activities of Katha is given in the Annexure 14, a number of universities, have introduced programmes in translation studies mostly at the diploma level (see Annexure 15).

Linguistics

Linguistics, earlier known as comparative philology, a term still in use is the science of language. It is made up of number of closely linked sub-disciplines including “syntax” and “semantics” which are concerned with the principles of concatenating words into phrases and for assigning them appropriate meanings, “morphology” which deals with formation and inflection of words, and “phonology” which is concerned with the sounds of speech. Linguistic study such phenomena and many other issues with special attention to those aspects that are common to all human language. Though linguistic has a history that goes back to 2500 years to the Sanskrit grammarians, it was recognised only recently that linguistics is a proper sub-field of cognitive psychology. The distinguished American linguist Noam Chomsky (1928-) claims that every human being knows the general principles of language at birth, an innate language faculty of the human brain, and these principles exist in every language and make up a “universal grammar”. He disagreed with the view that children learn to speak merely by imitating others.

Many linguists study aspects of language that involve other fields also. For example, anthropological linguists study the influences that language and other elements of culture exert on one another. Sociolinguists try to find out how language varies with difference in age, sex and economic and social status. Psycholinguists look into the ways people acquire and use language. Mathematical linguists are interested in the relation between human languages and the artificial languages used in computer programming. Applied linguistics attempt to use linguistic principles to improve the teaching and reading of foreign languages.

Linguistics is offered at the first degree level as one of the combinations in a number of universities. At the postgraduate (MA) level, it is available in more that 30 universities. However three institutions deserve mention