Gandhi on English vs Mother Tongue: A Battle for India’s Soul

Mahatma Gandhi’s views on language were far from casual opinions. He considered the question of language central to India’s identity, freedom, and psychological liberation from colonial rule. For Gandhi, the choice between English and mother tongues was not merely practical-it touched the very soul of the nation. His writings and speeches reveal a deeply held conviction that a nation cannot truly be free while communicating in a foreign tongue, and that mother tongues carry irreplaceable nourishment for the mind and spirit.

The “sign of weakness”: Gandhi’s rejection of English as national language 🔗

Gandhi was unsparing in his criticism of making English India’s national language. He considered such a proposal a sign of weakness that betrays ignorance. His reasoning was straightforward: English was spoken natively by perhaps a hundred thousand people at most, while hundreds of millions communicated in Indian languages. How could a language spoken by so few become the tongue of an entire nation?

In Hind Swaraj (1909), Gandhi argued that giving millions a knowledge of English would only enslave them further. He noted that the foundation that Macaulay laid of education has enslaved us. While Macaulay may not have intended this outcome, Gandhi believed the result was undeniable. The fact that Indians had to discuss Home Rule-their own freedom-in a foreign tongue struck him as a painful irony.

Gandhi saw the English-knowing Indians themselves as having enslaved India. He predicted that if the trend continued, posterity would condemn and curse the educated classes for abandoning their heritage. Congress proceedings conducted in English, newspapers printed in English, even correspondence between Indians written in faulty English-all of this represented a kind of mental surrender.

The absurdity of courts and professions 🔗

Gandhi found it particularly absurd that he, as a barrister, could not speak his mother tongue in an Indian court of justice. Someone else had to translate his own language for him. This situation represented nothing less than a sign of slavery. The blame, he insisted, lay not with the English rulers but with Indians themselves who had accepted this unnatural arrangement.

Mother tongue as life-giving milk 🔗

Gandhi’s most powerful articulation of the importance of mother tongue came through a profound analogy. Writing in Harijan in 1946, he declared that one must cling to one’s mother tongue as to a mother’s breast, for it alone can give the life-giving milk. This imagery captured Gandhi’s belief that vernacular languages provide essential intellectual and spiritual nourishment that no foreign tongue can replicate.

He compared the mother tongue to a mother herself, lamenting that Indians do not feel the same way about their languages as they do about their mothers. This disconnect troubled him deeply. A child learns to think, feel, and express themselves through their first language. Forcing children to learn through an unfamiliar medium depleted their nervous energy and reduced them to mere imitators rather than original thinkers.

Gandhi’s personal example 🔗

Gandhi practiced what he preached. He adhered to his mother tongue, Gujarati, in all his major writings. Hind Swaraj, his Autobiography, and Sarvodaya (his translation of John Ruskin’s Unto This Last) were all composed in Gujarati first. This was a deliberate choice to demonstrate that profound philosophical and political ideas could be expressed effectively in Indian vernaculars.

The national tragedy of language neglect 🔗

Gandhi viewed the impoverishment of Indian languages as a unique national tragedy wreaking irreparable harm-both moral and intellectual-on the nation. He found it absurd that millions of people had to learn English for the convenience of a few bureaucrats. The language’s failure to resonate with the masses demonstrated that it was favored only by a small elite.

At the Belgaum Congress in 1924, Gandhi expressed anguish at the ongoing neglect of vernaculars. He observed that the tendency in many national institutions still is to neglect the vernaculars and Hindustani. Many teachers had not realized the necessity of imparting instruction through Indian languages.

The shame of linguistic alienation 🔗

Gandhi was deeply troubled when English-educated Indians could not find equivalents for English words in their mother tongues or the national language. This linguistic poverty represented a failure of education and a disconnection from cultural roots. He lamented that even Gujaratis used English as the medium of conversation among themselves, calling it a degradation of the mother tongue.

The process of displacing the vernacular, Gandhi wrote in Young India, had been one of the saddest chapters in the British connection. Great reformers like Rammohan Roy and Lokamanya Tilak would have achieved even greater influence among the masses had they not been handicapped by having to think and transmit their thoughts chiefly in English.

Practical measures to promote mother tongue 🔗

Gandhi did not merely philosophize about language; he proposed concrete steps to restore Indian vernaculars to their rightful place. His suggestions formed a comprehensive program for linguistic revival.

Medium of instruction: Gandhi thoroughly favored making the mother tongue the medium of instruction at all levels. He believed educational institutions should prepare their own textbooks in regional languages rather than relying on English materials.

Courts and legislatures: He advocated that courts and legislative assemblies should transact in vernaculars. The use of English in legal proceedings created barriers between the common people and the justice system.

Employment reform: Gandhi believed that employment should be available to anyone without regard for English proficiency. Only through instruction in vernaculars could a nation advance with far-reaching beneficial effects on its future.

Translation of valuable works: Rather than forcing Indians to learn English to access knowledge, Gandhi proposed that valuable English books should be translated into the various Indian languages. This would make global knowledge accessible without linguistic colonization.

Role of the educated class: Gandhi placed special responsibility on educated Indians. He urged them to use and promote vernaculars in their professional and personal lives, setting an example for others to follow.

English in its rightful place 🔗

Gandhi was not an enemy of the English language. His position was nuanced: English had legitimate uses, but its domestic dominance had to be curtailed. He acknowledged that English would remain the language of diplomacy between different states and would be required for international affairs.

In his famous response to Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhi clarified his position with characteristic eloquence. He did not want his house to be walled in on all sides, nor his windows to be stuffed. He wanted the cultures of all lands to be blown about his house as freely as possible. But he refused to be blown off his feet by any.

Gandhi encouraged young men and women with literary tastes to learn as much English and other world languages as they liked, expecting them to give the benefits of their learning to India and the world. However, he would not have a single Indian forget, neglect, or be ashamed of their mother tongue, or feel they could not think or express their best thoughts in their own vernacular.

The distinction between utility and dominance 🔗

Gandhi’s concern was not with English itself but with its disproportionate power over Indian minds and institutions. He called it mental slavery that makes us believe we cannot survive without English. Overcoming this psychological dependence was, for him, one of the essentials of achieving true Swaraj.

He pointed to Russia as an example of a country that had advanced scientifically without knowledge of English, having resolved to produce all their textbooks in Russian. This, Gandhi believed, had prepared the way for substantial national development. If Indians invested half the effort spent on learning English into learning Indian languages, a new atmosphere would develop in the country and significant progress would be made.

Language as the foundation of Swaraj 🔗

For Gandhi, language was not peripheral to the freedom struggle-it was central. A nation that expressed its highest aspirations in a borrowed tongue could never be truly free. The common language had the power to bridge the gap between communities and bring people together in ways that English never could.

He insisted on language not as a fetish, but because it was a powerful means of achieving national unity. The more firmly Indian languages were established, the broader based would be India’s unity. Real inspiration and elevation, Gandhi maintained, could come only through the mother tongue.

Gandhi’s vision remains strikingly relevant today, as debates continue about the medium of instruction in schools, the role of English in professional life, and the preservation of linguistic diversity. His fundamental insight-that a language is not merely a tool of communication but a carrier of culture, identity, and the capacity for original thought-challenges us to reconsider the balance between global connectivity and cultural rootedness.

What do you think? Has India found the right balance between English proficiency and mother tongue preservation that Gandhi envisioned? In an increasingly globalized world, can Gandhi’s ideas about linguistic self-respect coexist with the practical demands of international communication?

References

1. https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/33722/1/Unit-15.pdf
2. https://www.mkgandhi.org/towrds_edu/chap02.php
3. https://era.ong/en/gandhi-hind-swaraj-ch-18-education/
4. https://www.etvbharat.com/english/state/telangana/international-mother-language-day-2023-multilingual-education-a-necessity-to-transform-education/na20230221102021541541369
5. https://www.studocu.com/in/document/aligarh-muslim-university/philosophy-of-gandhi/gandhis-views-on-language/22433113
6. https://gandhiking.ning.com/profiles/blogs/thaughats-of-mahatma-gandhi-on-national-language-1
7. https://www.epw.in/engage/article/hindi-imposition-examining-gandhis-views-on-common-language