Not opposed to English, but children in India should learn mother tongue as well as Hindi: Amit Shah

Ahmedabad, August 13

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said he was not against English, but children in India should learn both their respective mother tongues as well as Hindi, and called for the need to preserve the country’s native languages.

He was addressing the graduating students of the Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE) here during its convocation ceremony.

Shah also urged the graduating students to make use of the wealth of knowledge that is available in Sanskrit language, Upanishads and Vedas.

The Union minister said he was not against English as India is a country that cannot oppose any form of knowledge.

“It is your responsibility to preserve and enhance all Indian languages because they contain our culture, history, literature and grammar. We have to make our language strong. An important aspect of the National Education Policy 2020 is to teach children in their mother tongue,” he said.

“I believe that children should learn French, German along with English, but a child from Gujarat should learn both Gujarati and Hindi, an Assamese should learn both Assamese and Hindi, and a Tamil should learn both Tamil and Hindi. If this happens, then nobody can stop our country from progressing,” Shah said.

“Sanskrit is one of the four papers that are taught to you…I would request you to improve upon whatever basic knowledge of Sanskrit you have received here. If there is one place in the whole world where a wealth of knowledge is collected, then it is our Upanishads, Vedas and Sanskrit. Once you study them, no problem of life will remain a problem for you,” he further said.

The Union minister said it is important to connect our ancient Indian educational philosophy with modern dimension.

He said there have been many changes in the fields of knowledge and science, and we should understand the changes and unify the two to create a complete education system.

A total of 2,927 students graduated from the institute.