Officials who are aware of the development have stated that the government has chosen to establish language centres to create study materials and programmes for each of the 22 languages listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.
They stated that the centres, known as bhasha kendras, will be constructed as part of the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) programme of the Union Ministry of Education.The action is being taken as the opposition charges “Hindi imperialism” on the part of the BJP-led administration.
These language centres will be in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which places an emphasis on strengthening regional languages, claims one senior official with knowledge of the situation. The official, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that “these bhasha kendras will encourage national integration.”
“We want students in Rajasthan to be aware of the knowledge found in Tamil literature, or those in Assam to be aware of significant Telugu literary works. We can accomplish it with the help of these bhasha kendras, the official said.
Ganti S Murthy, the national coordinator for IKS, stated that the centres will be given three main roles.They will first compile short booklets of 100 to 200 pages from the IKS-related books and manuscripts that are available in their chosen languages. Let’s say a booklet on Siddha Tradition or even one on Bharatnatyam, in Tamil, he suggested.
Additionally, the centres will translate these works into English and Sanskrit. “We need to translate it into some link languages if we want people from all over the nation to read and be familiar with literature in all Indian languages. Sanskrit and English will continue to serve as the two connecting languages. They can even convert it afterwards into other languages, according to Murthy.
According to Murthy, the second goal of these centres will be to incorporate contemporary scientific and social models into their chosen Indian languages. He stated that they will be required to translate 1,000 pages of content from various languages into their chosen language.
To prevent a child from being forced to learn English in order to advance their education, there should be enough study materials available in Indian languages. In regional languages, they ought to be able to comprehend and discuss the most contemporary issues, according to Murthy.
The creation of undergraduate-level courses will be the third objective. He went on to say that “each centre would design at least one undergraduate course in their respective language that will be taught in higher education institutions.”
