Education Page of the Ceylon Daily News of 12th March 1953
It is not difficult to understand the very large place which the language problem is occupying in the minds of the people of Ceylon today. It has been the subject of long and sustained controversy, unfortunately marred at times by rancour and acrimony.
To the Muslims, this problem is invested with a special importance and significance, which it is not easy to exaggerate or even to overemphasise. On the wise handling of this question depends not only the future progress of the Muslim Community, but its harmonius integration into the general life of the Country.
By the School Grants (Revised Conditions) Regulations 1945, Sinhalese or Tamil was made the compulsory medium of instruction in the primary classes for all pupils whose parents were both either Sinhalese or Tamil; but the Muslims were given the option of using either Sinhalese or Tamil or English as the medium of instruction for their children. Practically every Muslim parent opted for English wherever such facilities were available and the wisdom of this decision very few questioned.
About that time the Muslims were still trying "to catch up" the other communities who had stolen a march over them, primarily as a result of the Sinhalese and the Tamil leaders having devoted themselves heart and soul to the cause of English education during the preceding four or five decades. The Muslims were therefore becoming more enthusiastic in the cause of English education which they naturally felt would bring them "to a position of intellectual elevation, social efficiency and political power". The neglect of English had indeed imposed a grevious handicap on the Muslims, and if the conditions that obtained at the time the option of English was first extended to them remained unchanged today, it would not be urgently necessary to review the option.
But conditions have changed, and the change in many respects has been a radical one. It is in the context of this change that the Muslim Community has to view the language question today. But there are not a few, not only in the ranks of the Muslims but of the other Communities as well, who tend to forget that with the attainment of Independence there has been a fundamental break with the past and that the Donoughmore era has receded into history. A decision which may have been thoroughly admirable a decade or two ago or may have had some justification is not necessarily admirable or justifiable today; it may even be wholly incompatible with present-day realities.
The gospel of English, more English and better English is a case in point. However fervently we may believe in the importance of English for one's intellectual and cultural development, it would be completely unrealistic to adhere blindly to that gospel today and altogether ignore the new factors that have now come into existence.
The country is now unequivocally and irrevocably committed to the policy of Swabasha in primary education and to a large extent in post-primary education as well as in a wide field of administration. Whatever change may occur in the composition or in the complexion of the Government, there is not the remotest likelihood of English replacing Swabasha in these spheres. This is one fact which every one of us in Ceylon has to accept, however much it may go against one's grain to do so. It is plain then that the Muslims, unless they wish to become insignificant pockets of isolationism cannot continue to pay allegiance to old maxims and refuse to conform to the new pattern of things. It will be merely presumptuous for the Muslims to believe that they can evade the inescapable law of survival "adapt or die."
It should be remembered that even before the attainment of Independence the ground was being sedulously explored for the transition from English to Sinhalese and Tamil with the object of making these two languages the official languages of the Country. A Select Committee of the State Council made certain recommendations in a Report published in 1946. The tempo of the proposed transition received, as was to be expected, a tremendous impetus with the attainment of Independence. Not much time was allowed to pass before an Official Languages Commission, started to function. In its very first Interim Report issued in September 1951, this Commission, commenting on the inadequacy of the recommendation of the Select Committee of 1941, made the significant remarks that the Select Committee Report had been issued at a time when the Government of Ceylon was still a Colonial Administration and that the background against which it had been prepared had undergone a definite change since Ceylon's attainment of Independence. The conclusions to be drawn from these remarks are self-evident.
The subsequent Interim Reports of the Official Languages Commission, the many pronouncements made by members of the Government and of the Opposition and most important of all, the temper of the Country leave no room for any doubt whatsoever as to the real earnestness and seriousness with which the transition is being regarded. It seems only a question of time and not a long time as that when a good deal of the business of the Administration, that is now being transacted in English, will be done in Swabasha. It is only to be expected that the general life of the whole Country will be profoundly affected by this transition.
One has therefore only to envisage the conditions in the Country fifteen or twenty years hence to realise the unwisdom on the part of a comparatively small Community such as the Muslims to continue to exercise their option in favour of English when the English medium has been abandoned by both the Sinhalese and the Tamils who form more than 92% of the population. The Muslims once made the blunder of ignoring English, when the other communities were insistently clamouring for and obtaining more and better English. Now when English is losing its pride of place by the impact of events, the Muslims will blunder again, if they look upon the English medium as their panacea. The Muslims constitute a minority in the Island and for them to get out of step with the other Communities in the all-important matter of language will only lead to their being unceremoniously side-tracked in all the worthwhile affairs of the Country. The counsel of wisdom as well as safety is for the Muslims to have complete identity of interests with the other communities in the matter of language. The Muslims must therefore adapt themselves to this transition; the alternative involves a swift and sure penalty- isolation and consequent denial of their rightful place in the Country.
For the Muslims to look upon English as their mother-tongue, merely because they have been given the option of having their children taught in English, is just a fiction, if not a myth. This myth is effectively exploded when we study the linguistic background of the Muslims of Ceylon. As far as I am aware, there is not a single Muslim family in Ceylon, where the home language is English. Several Muslim homes are of course bilingual but even among them, the language of ordinary intercourse in not English. Thus there is neither logic nor realism in the attitude of the Muslims, if they are determined to continue to exercise their option in favour of English.
It is now long past the stage of experimentation and has assumed the character of an axiom that the education of a child should be in its home language. Language is not a mere means of expression. Language is an instrument of thinking. It is more than that : it is an instrument of feeling." A man's native speech is almost like his shadow, inseparable from his personality." These are the observations of recognised and experienced educational psychologists. The Muslims cannot ignore these truths, especially in the present context of things, without seriously jeopardising their whole future progress.
A dispassionate view of the existing facts makes it apparent that the Muslims, in their own interests, will have to wean themselves from English as their medium of instruction. They are then left with the choice of Sinhalese or Tamil as their medium. This immediately presents them with a dilemma, which is certainly not easy of solution. If their choice falls on Tamil, which is the home language of the preponderant majority among them, will it not impose a grave handicap on those very many Muslims who belong to the western and southern portions of Ceylon ? Sinhalese is not the home language of most of them, but it is quite certain that they will be prevented from playing an effective role in those parts of the Country, unless they acquire a very good knowledge of the Sinhalese language. I shall venture to suggest a solution to the dilemma in another article.
Below is an extract from the letter written by Mr. A.M.A. Azeez to the Honorary Secretary, the Central Ceylon Muslim Educational Society Ltd., Gampola dated 11th April. 1953.
The Muslim Community of Ceylon is very small in numbers with its political power centred more or less on the purely Tamil speaking areas of the Eastern Province, Mannar and Puttalam districts; and the abandonment of Tamil by the Muslims of South and Central Ceylon would almost certainly cut them off from the Muslims of East and North Ceylon.
There is moreover no Muslim literature in Sinhalese and it should be remembered that literature cannot be produced to order even if the money were to be found. South India has been and is producing a wealth of Muslim Tamil literature and by the abandonment of Tamil, the Muslims of Ceylon concerned will deny themselves the benefits of this literature.
I cannot envisage Muslim Theological institutions functioning efficiently in Sinhalese because such institutions will naturally become isolated, confined as they will be to only a portion of Ceylon and deprived thereby of satisfactory contacts with South India.
Today Tamil is used in our Friday sermons throughout the Island. That would not be the position if Tamil were to be abandoned by some of the Muslims in Ceylon. Linguistic divisions in those circumstances would naturally be detrimental to our interests because of our small numbers.
And yet Sinhalese cannot be neglected in the present context of affairs in Ceylon. This problem has received my attention in reference to Zahira College, Colombo, and the solution arrived at is to make Sinhalese compulsory from Standard 6 upwards, so that a boy who leaves Zahira College, Colombo, will have a knowledge of English and Tamil as well as Sinhalese. This seems to be the best solution of our problems. It is fairly easy for a boy to learn Sinhalese from Standard 6 onwards because of the similarity of characters and of grammar between the Sinhalese and the Tamil languages and because of the amount of spoken Sinhalese that a boy of Central or South Ceylon has acquired by the time he reaches Standard 6.
Therefore I would urge strongly that Tamil be not abandoned and that Sinhalese be started from Standard 6. In this letter it is not possible to elaborate or supplement the arguments. It is my sincere conviction that the abandonment of Tamil would definitely destroy the solidarity of the Community, considerably weaken its political power and greatly undermine the influence of Muslim culture in its midst.