There is merit in Chandra Bhan's argument.... if love for language is inculcated in our students that will take care of the language issue - I repeat, it's a love for language/s they need - so if they say I will only learn English and French  I don't hinder them because if through these classes they develop an impartial view of language they will soon  pick up their  mother tongue and Hindi  when it becomes imperative for them to do so - the teacher plays a very important role here - any language taught unimpressively turns the kids off not only from that language but language in general - if teachers are not paid much you can't expect them to bring much flair to their language teaching - they are wrestling with issues that are of much graver concern to them - issues like how to stay out of debt etc. -  it is a complex issue - regarding how English teaches a student to rise above caste, that is an established fact - English literature doesn't bring in the caste issue but brings in other issues like racism and class  - that is why learning in English has helped the Dalits - while learning in English hasn't helped the blacks - inscribed in the langauge is racism even when the author is against it - I do not understand why Indians do not see how casteism plagues us to such an extent that it has almost destroyed us - I still find this blindness at all levels of society in India - even among teachers and the result of it - in the refusal to recognise it as an evil more deadly for us than things like poverty -  is that we have pulled the nation back from what it could have attained.... all these many years

I dont know if what I write is relevant here, but when I read this post of English vs Indian languages, I was reminded of something I had read on the website mkgandhi.org a while ago, about Lord Macaulay's historic speech which laid out the grand plan of British domination by replacing our old and ancient education system.

"It was February 1835, a time when the British were striving to take control of the whole of India. Lord Macaulay, a historian and a politician, made a historical speech in the British parliament, commonly referred to as The Minutes, which struck a blow at the centuries-old system of Indian education. His words were to this effect.” I have traveled across the length and breath of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country such as ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture; for , if the Indians think that is foreign and English is good and greater under their Crown, they will lose self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.” It was not just plan for colonial domination, it was to destroy the identity to disconnect its psyche from its perennial source of vitality and to transplant the genes of servitude to serve the longer imperial purpose.

Acharya jagdish Chandra Bose in his lecture at the Royal institute (London) in January 1897, spoke: “The land from which I come did at one time strive to extract human knowledge, but that was centuries ago. It is now the privilege of the West to lead in this work. I would feign Hope, and I am sure I am echoing your sentiments, that a time may come when the East too will take her part in this glorious undertaking and that at no distant time it shall neither be the West nor the East, but both the East and the West that will work together, each taking her share in extending the boundaries of knowledge and bringing out the manifold blessings that follow in its train.”

It is true that he Gandhian movement has physically liberated us from the imperial rule. But the transplanted genes (sown by Macaulay) for the fragmentation of our psyche and to deflect its vitality into the Cartesian mould of separatism of the material and spiritual has created and continues to create distortions in the reactions of the beneficiaries of the Indian elite."

Indian languages needn't wither away but the caste system must be brought to an abrupt end and no amount of quoting Macaulay etc.as sops to our conscience to justify these internal ills as being of little value in the face of external attacks will take away facts recorded in history about what happened in India in the name of caste supremacy. The distortions - so called - in the reactions of the beneficiaries of the Indian elite may not be distortions after all, if looked at from this point of view - the point of view of those oppressed. The India that supports caste hierarchies and stands against things like religious conversion will never be a nation that will rise to the 'top' of the world in the true sense of the word, 'top.' Education that stresses unity rather than choice will likewise not produce the best kind of students.

There is no denying the fact that the caste system is a social ill that will hamper the progress of this nation and your argument that it should be done away with is very valid. In fact in the context of education, it has manifested itself in this Reservation issue that is a huge debate in itself.

The issue here however is about the fate of Indian languages, and I used Chandra Bhan's point of view only to open up a debate about the status that Indian languages have in the minds of today's young generation. There have been discussions here about the sad fate of Hindi and other languages that are part of the second and third language curriculum. Your earlier remark about love for language did make a lot of sense. Urban children today don't like to learn or speak Indian languages which in their minds are in some way "inferior" to English. There is of course an issue with the way they are taught, as has been discussed in this forum, but I do think that language teachers are facing a lot of disinterest and apathy towards the languages among the children.

How should love for a language be inculcated?

Came across this article about a woman passionate about keeping Hindi alive and using the Internet to achieve this - Seeking a global role for Hindi through cyberspace. Her website is http://www.hindinest.com.