New Delhi, Jan 4 (IANS): Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said that the New Education Policy (NEP) follows the 'Nai Talim' (new education) of Mahatma Gandhi by giving importance to the mother tongue as the medium of instruction at school level.
Addressing the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha, the Vice President recalled that the 'Nai Talim' proposed by Mahatma Gandhi in Wardha in 1937 laid emphasis on making mother tongue as the medium of instruction in addition to free compulsory education and skill training to the students.
"Our Constituent Assembly, after a long debate, accepted Hindi as the official language and also accorded constitutional status to other Indian languages in the eighth schedule. Noting that every Indian language has a glorious history and rich literature. We are fortunate to have linguistic diversity in our country. Our linguistic diversity is our strength as our languages symbolise our cultural unity," Naidu said.
Referring to Mahatma Gandhi's views on language, he said that for Mahatma Gandhi, the question of language was a question of national unity.
"Even after insisting on Hindi, Mahatma Gandhi understood the sensitivity of every citizen to his mother tongue. Gandhiji associated mother tongue with Swaraj and called for according due importance to it," he said.
He also said that Indian languages have played an important role in keeping the overseas Indian community connected with the motherland India,he observed.
The Vice President said that it is expected of a civilised society that its language should be gentle, cultured and creative. "Let us exercise our freedom of expression with the decency of language and the discipline of words," he said.
Describing our linguistic diversity as the strength of the country, the Vice President urged to strengthen this thread of unity in diversity and stressed the need for enhanced dialogue between Indian languages.
He suggested the language departments of universities play an important role in this regard. "There should be constant contact and intellectual dialogue between the language departments of the universities," he said.
The Vice President also unveiled the statue of the architect of the Constitution, Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. The Vice President also inaugurated Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bhawan and Chandrashekhar Azad Hostel in the university as part of its Silver Jubilee celebrations.