It is very sad to see a native language (Mother tongue) so mercilessly and mindlessly bartered away. I am talking about the push for English medium instruction in place of Telugu in a south Indian province in India.

Language is the vehicle of the culture and it carries the cultural collective unconscious, the trials and tribulations of the generations which went by and is also about the nuanced instructions of how life has to be conducted. It carries the collective inheritance, and throwing the language away is throwing the life away. No doubt, we as a population group may flourish materially, but it will be soulless .

Wales as a nation is restoring its native language Welsh as the medium of instruction after centuries because it finds itself inadequate.

Ireland was a colony of Britain and its Gaelic language was obliterated over centuries by the colonisers. They are bringing it back.

Language is the expert area of linguists, psychologists and anthropologists. If you ask them, should a foreign language be made a medium of instruction, it is always a resounding NO, NO and NO.

English speaking People have to learn German to understand their philosophy. Rilke’s poetry can not be understood in English translation, because it grew in German soil. Indologists learnt Sankrit to understand India. Historians learn Aramaic to understand biblical times. This is the power of the native language.

Please see the gist of the following song. Watch the video. Listen to the song. Look at how they are bringing it back!

Note the mesmeric glint and teary longing in the eyes and the twinkle in the voice of these youngsters. It says it all. Though it is in Gaelic, you can feel the essence because it is sung in the native idiom. This song resonated all across the world. In Japan, China, Scandinavia and the rest.

My gallant lad ( Mo Ghile Mear )

The song is in Gaelic. It is the longing of a nation called Ireland.

It says that she (Ireland)was a gentle maiden and now a weak widow,

since its lad went away, alluding to the mass migration after the famine.

it has found neither sleep nor happiness since her gallant lad went far away. No news from him.

It also tells about the stories of the valiant sons who have died heroically in wars.

Finally, she says that we should sing tunefully, filling the tables with spirits for the health of her lion the gallant lad who left.