Importance of the mother tongue: a message especially for the Indians

Our mother tongue, is the language that our mother and our other family members teach us. It is the only language that we can learn without any professional training, but just listening and speaking to our family members. This makes our mother tongue very easy, as we can easily read, write and speak it because of years of training and listening.

A language is a method of communication with a fixed number and style of letters, words and sentences. A dialect however is a branch of a language but it is different from a language based on grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary, and is spoken by a specific group of people.

For example, English, is a language and it has several dialects: such as Scottish, Geordie, Scouse, Yorkshire, Welsh, Brummie, West Country, R.P., Essex and Cockney.

Similarly, Hindi is a language and it has several dialects which are Braj Bhasha, Khadi Boli, Haryanvi, Bundeli, Awadhi, Bagheli, Kannauji and Chhatisgarhi.

Another important thing to note is that a mother tongue is not necessarily a language, it can be a dialect too. For example, my mother tongue is Maithili, which is a native language of Bihar, India. Some other people in my area have their mother tongue as the dialect of Maithili which is Thethi dialect. There are other dialects of Maithili too, such as Thethi, Jolahi, Dehati, Sotipura and Khortha. 

Now that we have seen what a language and what a dialect is, and both a language and a dialect can be a mother tongue of a person or a group of people, let's come to the main part of today's discussion. Our country India has the second most languages and diversity in the world, after Africa as a complete continent. So, there are over 19,500 languages including their dialects that are used to communicate in India. 

But, we tend to feel shy to talk in our mother tongue with someone else. In India, if someone speaks in Hindi or in his/her mother tongue, then people think that that person is illiterate. Why this thought process? The mother tongue is termed "mother tongue" because it is the equivalent of the mother. If someone can't respect his/her mother tongue, then it is equivalent of not respecting his mother. 

In India, people think that if a person is speaking in English, or some other European language, then that person is very intelligent and very knowledgeable. But those people who speak native languages, are usually though of as illiterate, or unknowledgeable.

Let me explain why. In the time of the British Raj in India, only the people who were literate, could speak in English. But because the majority of the population under the British Raj in India was illiterate, the majority spoke their native languages and their mother tongues. So the literate people started to distinguish between other literate people from the illiterate people on the basis of if they knew how to speak in English, and if they spoke in their mother tongue, then they are illiterate and unknowledgeable.

This thought process was kind-of fair because at that time the literacy rate was very low in India, as low as 12%. But today, the education percentage of India's population is over 75%. At that time, only the illiterate people spoke in their native language, but in the present, most of the people around are educated. So this discrimination of the literate and the illiterate just because someone speaks in his/her mother tongue is not a show of modernity of us Indians today.

To those people who think that those people who are speaking in their mother tongue are illiterate and those people who speak in English and other European languages are literate, I have a question for them. There are people in the United States that can speak in our Indian languages, aren't they? But have they stopped speaking their mother tongue, English, just because they want to show to the other people that they are literate? The answer is no, they still speak in their mother tongue, but they also speak the Indian language.

And that's exactly what I recommend when learning some other foreign language, take it as an optional thing, not a compulsory thing that can distinguish the literate and the illiterate.

If you go to Russia, then people there study entirely in Russian, be it a Kindergarten Student, or a PhD professor. They also learn other languages if they wish. Similarly, the French, the Spanish, the Italian, the British all speak in their respective native languages, French, Spanish, Italian and English. They take studying in other languages as an optional activity but learning their own language is a must for them.

But in India, it is the exact opposite. We Indians still have the same kind of mindset as there was in the people of the British Raj, and all students after their 12th, study in English unless they choose any other topic other than literature of Hindi and other Indian languages. If someone goes to graduation and picks physics as example to do his bachelor's degree (B.Sc {Bachelor of Science} in physics), then he will be studying that entirely in English, especially in North India. 

In South India however, in Hyderabad , Telangana you can study your entire course, from Kindergarten to PhD in whichever language you like, and is encouraged by the Osmania University, Hyderabad.

As you can see, the Europeans do not leave their mother tongue to learn other languages and so they are developed. If we continue to think that English-speaking is literate and Hindi-speaking is illiterate, then we are not going to develop no matter how hard we try.

Schools in India, especially the convent schools have absurd rules in them. In some schools, students are punished if they speak in their native language. Learning English for eligible for jobs not only in India but also outside India is a fine thing, but why to leave the native language to serve that purpose? 

So if your school teaches you to speak only in English, do not stop speaking your mother tongue. If they don't allow you to speak it in the school campus, you can speak it outside of the school campus, that's the easiest solution. 

Our mother is a very special and honorable person to us. She is so special for us because it is she who has enabled us to come in this world and also she has taken care of us all of her life. Similarly, our motherland is that place, which we believe is as sacred as heaven, because it is this soil of our motherland that has resources for us that can turn us from mere nutrients to a human being, and we will eventually become a part of this soil of our motherland after we die. We should also respect our motherland just like we respect our mother. Our mother tongue is the language that has become the first step to get connected with the world. Whenever we hear the word "first" then our "mother" always comes in our mind because she is who has first enabled us to come to existence, our motherland is the first who has enabled us to develop, and our mother tongue is the first who has enabled us to get connected with this world.

If you can't respect the first, then you can never get to the last. This is the most important thing. If you don't respect your mother, then you will never be happy because she has done countless efforts for you that can never be paid by any means. If you disrespect your motherland, then your country and your people will never respect you because your motherland has let you join this society of people. And, if you don't respect your mother tongue, then you can never be a good citizen of the society because any decision you will make will be biased and full of problems.

So, if you want to become a good person, then respect your mother, your motherland and your mother tongue. Even if you have trillions in your pocket, millions working under you, if you don't respect even one of them, then you can't become a good person from within. If you want to become a good person who can make good decisions, then you should not skip this criteria.