BY PROF. K. NAGABHUSHANAM

To recall the exposition of the subject as given in the lecture-hall or class-room, to follow up the proper sequence of facts in order, and to inquire into their implications are the essential aspects of study. The ability to reconstruct with considerable ease the ideas in the very words of the teacher is of immense and lasting value; and to this end the natural appeal of the mother-tongue to a student at any stage of education is most effective.

The doubt is often expressed whether scientific subjects can be taught in the Indian languages. In any such practical attempt, a three-fold difficulty will be felt. Firstly, there is the lack of technical expressions in these languages; secondly, adequate text-books have yet to be written; and thirdly, suitable teachers and Professors may not be readily available. Besides these difficulties, possible disadvantages such as a tendency on the part of the student to restrict the range of study outside one’s text-books are envisaged by some; but a proper atmosphere and proper direction may be expected to remedy such defects.

The absence in Indian languages of the equivalents to many technical terms is not such a disadvantage as it may first appear to be, and can be definitely used to our own advantage. Terms such as ‘ensemble’ and ‘eigenwert’ are freely used in English at the present time notwithstanding the existence of suitable English equivalents, viz., ‘aggregate’ and ‘characteristic value.’ Such terms of international character may be retained and transliterated rather than translated into the Indian languages even. This brings the Indian languages at once into a line with the modern European languages in respect of scientific terminology. Surely such a process does not detract from the efficacy of the natural appeal of the Indian mother-tongue, even as the use of artificially introduced and altogether obscure expressions from the Indian languages cannot in any manner add to the efficacy.

The non-existence of suitable text-books is not also an insurmountable obstacle. To produce books without the necessary amount of accumulated experience in teaching the subject in the Indian languages will involve a waste of energy, time and money.

When responsible teachers and Professors are called upon to teach in an Indian language, their records of lectures carefully designed, improved and amended in the course of a period of about half a dozen years, can well serve as reliable chronicles on the basis of which the right type of books can be subsequently brought out.

The third difficulty is by far the most formidable one. Every teacher may not straightaway be expected to become an adept at teaching in an Indian language. A deliberate and constant attempt on the part of the teacher becomes necessary in the initial stages.

If such a scheme comes to be, the place of English in Indian Universities will still be the foremost among foreign languages. But to persons not conversant with the foreign languages, knowledge will not continue to be of the restricted nature it has all along been. The easy access to scientific treatment of facts helps them to cultivate a rational outlook.

To say that ‘vernacularisation’ at all stages is certainly feasible is not to say that it is advisable at the present time. The latter aspect is intimately connected with the question of linguistic provinces. Graduates in the new scheme can no doubt reach a higher standard in the subjects than at present, because of the greater facility in understanding and retaining knowledge when obtained through the proper medium. But without the declared and determined policy of the Government to prefer these men to the graduates of the earlier type considerable harm may be done by the introduction of the scheme of ‘vernacularisation’ forthwith. For this might expose students to the danger of the glib joke of ‘vernacular graduates’! The logic of linguistic provinces is accepted today; and it must be said that the logic of teaching the Sciences in the Indian languages cannot long be resisted; but the logic of giving at least the same if not a better status to the graduates under the new scheme needs to be recognised before the scheme is put on its feet.

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