Pankaj Chaturvedi,
senior journalist
This is from the seventies. Javra was a small town in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh – population was barely 20 thousand, but there was a huge complex of government school which was turning hundred years old. Gyan Singh, Principal of Mahatma Gandhi Higher Secondary Government School, had a dream that children should learn more than one Indian language, although at that time the recommendations of the DS Kothari Committee on the three language formula had failed – firstly due to lack of resources and secondly, the Hindi speaking states had cleverly completed the formality of three languages by taking Hindi, English and Sanskrit.
In that school, it was mandatory from class nine onwards that every child would study at least one language – Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali or Urdu. Urdu was taught by Jafri Saheb and his style was completely opposite to the softness of Urdu. Joshi sir from Hindi used to teach Gujarati for one period, while SR Mishra sir from English used to teach Bengali. One language would have to be studied and its examination would also have to be given, yes, its result had no bearing on the annual results.
I got the opportunity to study Gujarati for one year and Bengali for the second year there. There was neither demand for resources nor cry for time. Hundreds of students like me still take advantage of my working knowledge of those languages while traveling across the country, especially while working with children. Where the entire system of the government failed, a principal, due to his will power, made the ‘Three Language Formula’, which had become the dream of the country, come true. This is an example that if the areas where Hindi is the most spoken language in the country work honestly on trilingualism, then the politics being done on this issue can be reduced to zero.
The linguistic diversity in India is as rich as it is complex. To solve this complexity and to integrate it into the thread of national unity, the ‘Tribhasha Sutra’ was conceived. In a multilingual nation like India, the three language formula is not just an educational policy but an ambitious effort to build cultural bridges. Its history dates back to the early decades after the country’s independence, when India was trying to strengthen its linguistic identity.
Officially, its roots lie in the proposals of the Central Advisory Board of Education of 1956, which were later shaped into a streamlined framework by the Kothari Commission of 1964–66. The first National Education Policy of 1968 gave it the statutory basis which paved the way for making the study of three languages compulsory in Indian schools. The basic philosophy of this policy was very clear—people from Hindi-speaking areas should bridge the linguistic gap by learning South or other Indian languages and people from non-Hindi speaking states could connect with other parts of the country through Hindi, while English remained the window to global knowledge and science.
Talking about the benefits of the three language formula, it can be the most powerful means of national integration. When a North Indian student understands the literature and values of that region through Tamil or Kannada, the narrow confines of regionalism automatically start breaking down. It is not only helpful in cognitive development of students but also opens new doors of employment for them. Being multilingual increases the brain’s flexibility and problem-solving ability.
A student who knows his mother tongue as well as another Indian language and an international language is more confident and inclusive in today’s globalized era. Institutions like National Book Trust have worked in this direction by preparing bilingual colorful books for children, but today there is a need for every Hindi speaking state to adopt the language of a non-Hindi speaking state as the third language.
In 1968, Haryana separated from Punjab and made Telugu its second language, although it was a political decision, but in those days, experiments were conducted in Haryana by appointing Telugu teachers and making the teachers here learn Telugu. This experiment was again unsuccessful and in 2010, the state notified Punjabi as the second language. Even in Delhi, when it comes to three languages, it comes either Urdu or Punjabi.
Sadly, despite this noble objective, the history of the last five-six decades is replete with stories of partial or complete failure of trilingualism. It is imperative in today’s times to investigate the reasons for its failure. The biggest reason has been lack of political will and conflict of linguistic identity. The states of North India adopted this formula only on paper. In Hindi speaking states, Sanskrit was given preference instead of choosing South Indian languages as the ‘third language’.
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