The need to ‘nationalise’ English

Taken in proper perspective as a useful language and not a kind of a superior halo, English education could open doors to the world – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara 

By Surya Vishwa

Lest some eyebrows be raised to an unbearable point at this headline, let us understand what is meant in a rational context. 

The term ‘nationalise’ can be sanely understood as being relevant to a nation. One of the definitions of the word nationalise as given in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is ‘to give a national character to.’ To elaborate further, this means we make something suited to, useful to and relevant to a particular country, its people, its culture, its natural resources and the body of knowledge that has been inherited to a particular country. 

Sri Lanka is an ancient civilisation that has carried from generation to generation diverse forms of knowledge ranging from hydro expertise, medical science, engineering and architecture to name just a few. Because the knowledge sharing tradition we had as a civilisation was based upon the concepts of – Dehka Purudda, Kala Purudda and Pala Purudda (knowledge carried out after seeing, after practicing it and with the expertise achieved after perfecting it through practice), the knowledge sharing was largely oral although of course written records were also amply used. 

When the knowledge system was changed after colonisation our language emphasis shifted to English; especially during the occupation of the country by the British, we absorbed more of the British culture and particularly a superiority attitude that was inanely glued to the English language.

Just for the record it was Latin and the old Anglo Norman French that was used in medieval and 12th to 15th century England. 

Today English is a universal language that at least 1.5 billion people – 20% of the world population speak and the language itself is made up of a host of other languages including those such as Greek, Italian, Arabian and Spanish. All of these languages contributed to the formation of the English language. Hence we can free our minds from the falsity of thinking that English is owned by just one entity.

With this freedom we should be able to think anew; 74 years after our so-called independence on the link between English, knowledge and national relevance. This means we should think on lines of ‘nationalising’ English; making it relevant to Sri Lanka’s vast traditional knowledge and ensuring that we do not continue to teach our children English at the cost of our national identity as we have done for over seven decades.

What is our national identity, someone may query, oftentimes miserably, standing in some queue that is winding around the country these days. What indeed is a national identity; a national identity is that which a nation identifies with and is primarily knowledge traditions inherited from ancestors. 

Today our pattern of knowledge is inferior to the past. Today’s knowledge tradition of the world consists of an obsession with theoretics. In a recent conversation Ambassador Laksiri Mendis who has many experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean region in conversing about the current and ancient knowledge traditions, laughingly said that our modern knowledge transfer today is similar to delivering a long lecture on the medicinal properties of the Nidhikumba plant by standing on the plant and without realising that one is doing so! 

He also queried as to why we need to continue to teach the English alphabet using examples such as A for Apple – a fruit not native to this country while we have other fruits which also double off as medicine that is native to the country such as Anoda. So why not A for Anoda? 

This is akin to how the English language is currently being used by rote by ancient civilisations such as ours; to continue to create blindness to what is in the nation and to appreciate what is not.

Since international schools started mushrooming around Sri Lanka some 30 years ago the trend today is to somehow scrounge around some money and send children to these schools for the primary reason of getting a ‘sound knowledge in English.’ However what is imparted is not a sound knowledge in the English language but an obsession for ‘Westernisation.’ For example it is very common to find offspring and relatives of families who had practiced indigenous medicine not to know even the basic herbs that could be used to dispel a cold. 

A 25-year-old niece of an Ayurveda physician who was sent to perfect the English language and who perfected a cultural amnesia instead when asked if she knew even the basics of ‘ath beheth’ (the home based first aid system of traditional medicine) replied in perfect English that she did not but that she had ample packets of a set of tablets taken commonly for headaches or flu in her handbag! The derision with which she said that she does not have any knowledge pertaining to the traditional medicine of her ancestors may tell us that something is very wrong in how we continue to think of or impart the English language. 

English is a very useful language and in Sri Lanka it serves as a link language between the Sinhalese and Tamil community. Taken in proper perspective as a useful language and not a kind of a superior halo, English education could open doors to the world. The Sri Lankan civilisation (referred to in ancient times as Siw Hela, Sinhale or the Hela Deepaya) was not by any means shrouded by a frog in the well attitude. Ancient Sinhala kings of Lanka were constantly curious about new knowledge and according to the book by historian Rohitha Dassanayake ancient Sinhala monarchs kept in touch with the social changes occurring in different parts of the world and had even sent diplomatic missions to Arabia to find out about Islam emerging as the new religion of the Middle East which they found out from traders.

We can hypothesise hence that we may have had a natural introduction to the English language through our vibrant ancient international relations irrespective of colonisation.

To mould English into being a nationally relevant language we must first throw into the garbage can the falsity that English equals knowledge. Knowledge of English is a knowledge of a useful language and can be a route to diverse forms of global knowledge but it cannot be blanket worshiped as a measurement of all knowledge. 

For traditional knowledge of Sri Lanka which is largely the knowledge of the Sinhalese community and which also includes aspects of knowledge of the Tamil and Muslim community of Sri Lanka, the languages which are of primary importance are Sinhala and Tamil. 

There should be a revival of nationally relevant knowledge transfer in these two languages. Concurrently there must also be a national discourse on the English language being seen in Sri Lanka as a language which stops diffusing cultural alienation but starts infusing a national consciousness.

One way to go about this is to re-think how we teach the English language nationally in government schools. If the English syllabus is systematically changed to incorporate the traditional knowledge and heritage of this land in a way that could lead to practical knowledge it could be a start towards a national consciousness. 

Today we cannot say we have a national consciousness. We would not have fuel and diverse queues in this country if we did. We would have created young people with vibrant minds full of innovation akin to how we were in the past and we would have older people encouraging this and developing curricula to further such thinking. 

Today we have the craze for studying in foreign universities but for 74 years we have not had a national plan of creating a university to share the expertise of our vast heritage endowed knowledge, the range of which is limitless which can range from psychology, engineering, surgery, architecture, farming, food production and fashion, to name a few. 

The new knowledge that is invented should not merely ape the knowledge of others but be inspired and shaped around local expertise that has been the foundation of the nation. 

To do so, English could be a tool where we learn this language which is not part of our culture, to be able to impart what is ours to some of our own people who are today in far flung lands.

(This article is part of an initiative by mass media practitioner and promoter of Lankan knowledge, Frances Bulathsinghala to teach English through Deshiya Danuma (Knowledge of the Land).)