By Emidao Shylla
Introducing Khasi and Garo languages as compulsory subjects in school is a great initiative. Humans convey meaning, knowledge, social identity and culture through language which is the primary medium — (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2018). For decades, it has been recorded that most students from the Khasi and Garo communities do not take Khasi and Garo as a subject in schools and would rather opt for Additional English. This is due to many reasons. Firstly they find their language very descriptive and tough and secondly these subjects are introduced rather late in schools. Literature is the expression of human thought, feelings, and experiences through the medium of written and spoken words, often distinguished by their artistic value and capacity to reflect the culture, history, and identity of a people. — (Abrams & Harpham, 2015). Literatures have always been vast, descriptive and tough but consistency in learning and a strong foundation make the subject attractive.
From a personal perspective, I attended a school that didn’t have Khasi as a subject in the elementary or Lower Primary Section and there are many such schools in Meghalaya. Reflecting on my school days, I had Hindi as a compulsory subject till Class VIII, and never learnt Khasi. We were introduced to the Khasi subject much later in Class VII and were then taught the basics of the language; the letters of the Khasi Alphabet. On the other hand, I was an inquisitive young lad who read the Khasi newspapers at a very young age and hence I do know bits and pieces of the language. Credit for this goes to U Nongsain Hima, U Mawphor and Kynjatshai. Part of the problem is that students are often not exposed to their mother language at the elementary or Lower Primary sections.
Ideally making Khasi and Garo languages compulsory in school is necessary considering that children need to learn their mother language before they learn other languages. In Punjab for instance, Punjabi is taught as a compulsory subject from Class I to Class X, some schools that I know and personally witnessed taught the language right from Upper KG. The subject is made compulsory for both Punjabi speaking students and others. The Punjab Learning of Punjabi and Other Languages Act 2008 was enacted to make Punjabi a compulsory subject in all schools across the state whether government, private or those affiliated with other boards. The Act states that Punjabi is a mandatory subject that all schools must follow regardless of the medium of instructions or board affiliation.
Remarkably, it also mentions that schools which do not comply with the law would be penalised with fines ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2,000,00 based on the number of offences committed. Fundamentally, the act aims to promote Punjabi language and culture. On the other hand, the Punjabi Learning of Punjabi and Other Languages, (Amendment) Bill 2021 recommends that Hindi must be taught as a compulsory subject from Classes III to VIII, while Punjabi as a compulsory subject from Classes I to X.
Children at a very tender age can learn as many languages as possible, depending on the environment and society they are raised in (Bialystok, E. 2001). Narratives of the past have shown that teaching students’ more than one language creates confusion, however research studies have different interpretations altogether. In a study published in 2010, psychologist Esther Adi-Japha and her colleagues at Bar-ilan University in Israel found that four- to five-year-old bilingual children showed more creativity than did their monolingual peers when asked to draw a fantastical house or flower. The monolingual children tended to draw flowers with missing petals or leaves, whereas the bilingual children drew imaginary hybrids, such as a “kite-flower” and a “robot-house,” indicating a superior ability to grasp abstract concepts. Hence learning another language does not confuse children, rather it enhances their cognitive abilities, improves communication skills and fosters a deeper appreciation for diverse cultures.
While implementing the Khasi and Garo languages as compulsory subjects for students of other communities may not be viable, it will benefit society at large in one way or the other. Meghalaya has no common local language with which to communicate with people belonging to the Khasi and Garo community. It saddens me that speakers from Khasi and Garo languages would communicate with each other in English or Hindi, in a non-Hindi speaking state. The introduction of these languages as compulsory subjects up to Class X would enrich the future of linguistics in the state in the coming years.
Practical examples can be seen in government schools in remote villages of Mawkyrwat, where teachers from the city are appointed to teach students, most of whom belong to the Garo community. These teachers often struggle to do justice to their work because students only understand Garo, while the teachers can communicate only in English, Khasi, and Hindi. In some cases, teachers posted in these areas are from Shillong or the other district headquarters and they do not even know Hindi. The teachers do not know the ABC of Garo language and the students know nothing about Hindi or English. There are wide language barriers between students and teachers. Hence introduction of these languages will bring about a significant change in the education system. Learning a new language opens doors to cultural exchange, fostering empathy, appreciation, and better relationships between different communities — Kramsch, C. (1998). This will not be solely beneficial to the educational sector but a cross-cultural exchange of language and culture among the students.
As citizens of this State we ought to have questioned many things but how many of us pause to ponder and take a moment to think of an alternative picture. Questions like why are the youth of Meghalaya good in English while they have English fillers when they speak their own mother tongues? Do they speak English or do they actually speak in English? Do the youth speak in Khasi or do they speak Khasi? How many of them speak their mother tongue without adding a word or two in English in their conversations? What may be the root cause of this? Who coined the terms ‘Khalish’, ‘Galish’ or ‘Jalish’? Why was there a need for these words to be coined at all? Who influences the youth or the speakers? Why is it that Khasi youth, despite being in the company of their own community and fully able to speak their native language, often revert to English rather than in Khasi? Why is English given priority over the Khasi and Garo language among the youth population? Decades have passed and today, it is time to admit and acknowledge the problem and its root cause.
Perhaps the implementation of these two languages as compulsory subjects will right the decades of wrong inflicted on students. Additionally, it will also be an added advantage if the Government of India recognises the two languages under the Eighth Schedule. Possibly at that time we might witness dozens of students clearing the UPSC Examinations. One should remember that bright students are not only confined to cities and towns but in the remotest hamlets of the state and the country. There are bright students inhabiting the remote village of Meghalaya and they are adept at speaking and expressing themselves well in their mother tongues, while English is their secondary language. Could the language gap be the obstacle that hinders Meghalaya from producing IAS, IPS, and IFS officers? Now it’s time to bridge that gap. The enactment of the Khasi and Garo languages as compulsory subjects will help Meghalaya in the long run.
The youth residing in cities and towns have an unfair advantage in that they can express themselves fluently in English, since they are exposed to the language at a tender age or at the start of their lives. Similarly, youth dwelling in villages can express well in their mother tongue simply because their mother tongue takes precedence over other languages.
To sum up, it will be interesting to know the number of students from among the ST candidates from the city and smaller towns of Meghalaya who have cleared the SSLC examination 2025, opting for MIL (Khasi/Garo) over Additional English. Without taking the pain of doing research, I can hypothetically mention that the percentage of students opting for Additional English will be more than those who opted for MIL (Khasi/Garo). (This hypothesis is based on the observations highlighted in the content above).
These observations have disturbed me for a very long time and it’s about time that it is shared with readers here for their consideration.