English is from Mars and Hindi is from Venus: UPSC ROW

English is from Mars and Hindi is from Venus: UPSC ROW

The above metaphorical statement won’t probably make sense to one’s mind, unless you know John Gray who wrote the famous book “Men are from mars, Women are from Venus”. Neither English is from the red planet Mars nor Hindi is from planet Venus. But, these are the two inevitable and indispensable communication satellites of UPSC, the organization which conducts the Indian Administrative Services Exam or IAS for short.

Myriad students; lots of shouting, students raising anti-english slogans, placards demanding removal of CSAT test and more students joined them. Indeed, they captured the sharp attention of nearby people who pervaded the air with a little dysphoria.

The protest was regarding the removal of English from the CSAT pattern because of which, according to Hindi medium students, it favoured Science, Engineering, Medical and MBA graduates. Personally I found it annoying, but here are some points that I found true and some of them logically valid.

1. One student said that the translation from English to Hindi is of abysmal quality.

Well, I searched and find it to be true. This is an excerpt from article of economic times.

“Steel plant got translated as lohe ka paudha; land reforms became arthvayvastha (economy) sudhar; multi-brand retail was bahumakra khudra vyapaar; and panacea is sarvopachar.”.

The work on translation improvement can be done.

2 The comprehension part is tough for the students from other background.

Quite illogical it was to put such a statement, I thought. The same could be said for the students from science background that they lack at the general studies part including history, geography etcetera. In my opinion, it cancels each other out.

3. There is a decline in number of students after the introduction of new pattern in 2011. This is due to the favourism that CSAT aptitude test offers to engineering students.

Well, I don’t have the data whether there were more selections from other background or not. But, still this can’t be a reason for the outcry of students over the scrapping of CSAT format. Some even calling English an alien language.

What I believe of this issue may not go with the thinking of everyone. The questions from English were of tenth standard level which should be answerable by a graduate. If one is preparing himself/herself for an examination of the highest cadre, then why such language barriers be looked upon into.

Quite disdainful are the acts of political leaders who tried to venture into this issue. Language unites people but here it is the opposite. English serves as a link language not among us , not among north and south but amongst the whole world. There are many alternatives that could be taken.

1. Why can’t UPSC provide training of English after selection if it is willing to exclude the marks of English section from mains paper marks?

2. What if instead of translation, proper comprehension passages in Hindi language can be used with difficulty level at par with English passages?

Now, students are protesting for postponement of exam. Some are demanding scrapping of CSAT pattern. Those demands seem to be somewhat politically motivated. It’s like you got one piece of cake after the assurance that marks won’t be counted in mains paper and now, you want the whole cake to palliate your hunger.

Mr. Amitabh Bachchan once said in a film ( Namak Halal, 1982) “ I can talk in English, I can walk in English because English is a very funny language sir”.

He couldn’t have been more wrong because it’s been more than thirty years now and still our country can’t find English so funny.