3-Language Policy - Part I

3-Language System:

The three language system was introduced by the central government in the 1960s to pacify the revolting southerners. The National Policy on Education, 1968 talks about the Three Language Policy.

The main idea was:

Non-hindi state should learn:

Regional language

English

Hindi

Hindi speaking states should learn:

Hindi

English

A southern Language.

The idea of three language policy is to have:

Even workload:

The north Indians will have 3-languages to learn which is same as that of the south. Earlier, the Hindi speaking states can get away with only Hindi and English but now, they had to teach a southern language as the third language.

This was not followed by the Hindi speaking states and hence, TN which had a strong party in the state refused to entertain any Hindi in TN.

Why then are people from Kerala, Andhra, Karnataka comparatively better off in Hindi ?

Andhra:

The Nawabs who ruled the Hyderabad region had made Urdu compulsory during their reign and hence the people there were exposed to Urdu (Hindi like) since early times. Even now, Urdu is one of the Official Languages of the state.

Karnataka:

In the case of Karnataka, Hindi is still not compulsory but is indirectly imposed by the Congress and Janata Dal who rule the state. Karnataka lacks a strong party from the state.

Kerala:

Kerala was the only state that implemented the 3-language policy even though the Hindi speaking states ignored a southern language.

http://www.languageinindia.com/dec2002/karnatakaeducationpolicy.html

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~jason2/papers/natlang.htm

http://ncert.nic.in/sites/publication/schoolcurriculum/Position_Papers/Indian%20Languages%20.pdf