We know that English is one of the world’s widespread languages. The global total number of English speakers around the world is estimated to be about 1.5 billion approximately, and the only language with official status in over 60 nations of the world. English is also the dominant language in scientific communication with 70-80% academic publications in the language. The language is also the de-facto official and the working language in most of the international organizations. It is also the most taught second foreign language across the world. These observations corroborate the reported place of English in international politics, relations, education, intercultural communication, and consequently, endorsing its dominance and global influence. And India is one nation that recognizes English as one of the official languages encouraging greater communication. Therefore, technically being a part of India, Naga people are also obliged to use this prominent language along with the existence of different Naga languages. Even though the English was officially recognized as the official language and the medium of education in the year 1967 by the Nagaland Assembly, we still cannot proclaim this language as the language of the masses but it does reveal mass attitudinal support and seen as an important factor on gaining prestige thus has become a professional necessity. The language has become a standing ovation in our society and people who are competent in this language get places to go and platforms to shine.
It is very true that our society cannot live without the existence of this language because of numerous reasons. The existence of English language in our society has connected us to the global world impacting the society in many ways. Despite the claim that it is not the language of the public, the hegemony of English language over Naga languages is speedily becoming more visible. And as its dominance becomes more apparent, one must consciously ponder how the dominance of this language is affecting our society in all ways. As far as the observations are concerned, this dominance of English language within our society seems to be uncritically acceptable for many researchers, governments and institutions owing to the fact that it impacts the society more on the positive side. However, in a multilingual state like ours in prevalence of many indigenous languages, one should always cross check the balance between the existing languages to avoid linguistic discriminations.
If we are to argue the increasing dominance of English language over Naga languages, we will see that its supremacy is somewhat contributing inferior and superior distinctions within the society by empowering the already powerful and learned people but leaving the disadvantaged further behind which is an issue that needs attention. In a way the dominance seems to be forcing an unfamiliar pedagogical and social culture to its learners. Socio-psychologically and linguistically, it also puts our society in danger of losing our first language, cultures, literatures, identities, contributing to the devaluation of local knowledge and cultures. We are known to have rich oral traditions, oral histories and stories passed down from one generation to another generation, but there is an alarming probability that the coming generations might lose the culture lore because the present generation is more engrossed in writing singing, reading and speaking only through the medium of English. It is a linguistically proven fact that even though we use the Roman alphabet to write our language, we cannot employ the exact writing system, sound system and rules of English language in Naga languages; however, without knowing the fact, we force ourselves to document all our literatures and traditions in English language risking originalities. For global understanding we do need to write in English but our language should be utilized as well because it is important. It is true about the critique that documentation of anything about Naga people is always manipulated because we embrace the foreign language and believes that it is superior to our local languages. It seems we give too much importance to the foreign language at the expense of our own languages. The blind glorification of the English language by the Naga people and the defective state policy on Language has conspired to sabotage the importance of local languages and rob them of their importance in State development drive. In the recent times, the multilingual nature of Naga Society has become one of the greatest challenges where we will witness no adequate language policy; successive government’s inability to pick any of the local languages as State language; non-codification of many local dialects making them vulnerable to extinction; no avenues for local writers and local language researchers which are all serious issues the society needs to be looked upon yet neglects incredibly. In Naga Society, English is sometimes overwhelmingly given too much importance than needed where we will come across people carrying around inferior complexities just because they are unable to speak or write English competently like the others despite having profound knowledge within them. Likewise, we will also witness some people bragging unnecessarily everywhere without any substance on their speech just because they can speak English better than the others. And basing on a difference in the use of English, we automatically form judgements, about the person’s education, social status, character or other traits which may then lead to the unjustifiable treatment of the individual. Since English is a prestigious language in Naga society, we will also see people tagged as primitive for speaking English with strong local accents or with grammatical errors but nobody cares whether the persons speaks with correct accent or grammar in their own native language. The points will go and on but it’s time for us ponder on the positive changes which will help the society in a more efficient way.
As it has been already stated that we cannot live without the use of English, we will continue to embrace this language and be benefited in all ways. However, we must be mindful that alongside the prestigious English, we have mother tongues and many indigenous languages which need to be safeguarded and valued by taking up urgent remedial steps not just by the government but also by the local people. The blind love towards English should be rectified to avoid stigmatization towards the local languages and also for the people who are not competent in English. We must rectify the false notion that if a person masters in English while neglecting his mother tongue, it would usher the person into paradise and upgrade him to civilisation. We should rather give equal importance to both English and Naga languages in order to upgrade ourselves to civilisation. Government must also remember that failing to re-ignite the love of Mother tongues in the hearts of the people while giving too much importance to the foreign language will defeat the purpose of fighting for the political freedom. Everyone in the state must asks, “Which local language is in a position to be our national language? Or are we still going to imply on this colonised language?”
State Governments and Naga society in general should give due attention to local language teachers, researchers and scholars in order to safeguard the local languages which are slowly dying. Subjects concerning Local languages and Linguistics should be introduced at all levels of schoolings, higher academic institutions and universities. Funds and projects should be allotted to Local language researches, local writers and local translators in order to come up with extensive researches, proper documentations, good books written in local languages or translation of different literatures, academic text books like Maths, science and grammars etc to promote local languages and better learning capability which will ultimately benefit the society.
Government must dig out the old defective Language Policy and formulate a new egalitarian Language Policy to promote local language in education policy better than the existing policy; to avoid linguistic discrimination and to safeguard the local languages from various dangers.
And summing up, we cannot let our dear languages to die with our eyes open while we love the foreign language blindly. If our languages die then our libraries of rich original oral traditions, cultures, stories and history will die with them. We will be left only with manipulated researches and facts owing a huge burden for the next generations. We must also remember that there are certain people who learn better in mother tongues than in English. We must also remember that somebody holds back his wisdom because he does not know English. It’s time for us to speak, sing, write and share in our own language because if not us, then who will speak, write and share in our languages? Let us swallow the English but let us not let English to swallow our languages. Give love and respect to all languages but give extra love and respect to your mother tongues.
[This article is written according to the writer’s opinion and observations with clear intention of safeguarding Naga languages and to cater attention for equal treatment to all languages prevalent in Nagaland. It is not written in any manner to discriminate the English language or the users, the learners or the researchers of the English language.]
Nikay Besa Konyak
nikaybesa18@yahoo.com
