Monday, January 21, 2013

Language and the Ultranationalist Jingoistic Hindu Fundamentalist Indian

K.M. Munshi was many things in his career, including a drafter of the Indian Constitution, and along with Sardar Patel, rebuilt the temple at Somnath that had been destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni.   Munshi was present at the founding of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is considered nowadays to be a vehicle of Hindu fundamentalism.   Here, we just want to mention K.M. Munshi's stance on language.

Munshi's mother tongue was Gujarati; he wrote extensively in it, and is called the father of modern Gujarati drama.  (Munshi, incidentally, was a great fan of Shakespeare.)  In the Constituent Assembly, Munshi promoted Hindi as India's national language.  As chancellor of Gujarat University, he made English required, declaring English to be necessary in order for India to be linked to the world.  Munshi promoted Sanskrit, the classical language of India, founding a Sanskrit college.  Munshi also promoted other regional languages of India.

This is the nature of the "Hindu fundamentalist".  It is only secularists that say, don't teach Sanskrit,  or this language or that and who by nature are mono-lingual.  

It is only morons who require a Macaulay.




Comments (4)

Loading... Logging you in...
  • Logged in as
Of course Munshi was educated at an English language college (Baroda).

It's quite possible that the upper classes, at least, would have developed their own English language colleges without Macaulay's influence, but Macaulay's fans credit his influence in establishing the English language schools that allowed even "morons" as you style them to advance.
1 reply · active 636 weeks ago
You need to do a bit of reading. When the British disestablished the traditional village school and replaced it with their schools, for some reason all but mostly Brahmins stopped sending their kids to school. Muslims also, we are told, largely shunned English education. It is the post-Independence schools that have made English, and education to Dalits available. Praising Macaulay is like praising the slave ships for bringing Africans to America. OK, that is a bit over the top, but it is in the right direction.
AG - You need to do a bit of reading.

Actually, everything I say comes from my readings, and I think I'm pretty consistent in giving my sources. Your argument here seems to be with Zareer Masani. You might try reading the first couple of pages of the free preview I link to at Amazon - I guarantee that you won't agree with him, but you might critique him from a more informed perspective.
1 reply · active 636 weeks ago

Post a new comment

Comments by