Indian row over English teaching

Promoters of the local Kannada language fear they will suffer from proposals to make English compulsory in government schools in the state of Karnataka.

The state government says the change is necessary to enable rural students to compete for jobs in the new economy.

But local writers have called for a campaign of civil disobedience to promote Kannada in its place.

The Kannada language is spoken by about 50m people in the state, and a 1994 law made it illegal for schools to teach children up to age 11 in any other language.

But the law was widely flouted until recently, when the government announced it would close 1,400 schools that were violating the regulation in the middle of the academic year.

That decision has now been overturned, and last week Karnataka's government announced it would also make English a compulsory subject for children from the age of six.

The state Chief Minister, HD Kumaraswamy, said while Kannada should be encouraged at all levels, rural children should not be deprived of better employment opportunities because they had not learnt English.

Bangalore is a major base for India's booming call-centre industry and employs 150,000 English-speaking people.

The move has divided opinions among the state's literary fraternity, says the BBC's Habib Beary in Bangalore.

Scholars led by the Kannada Literary Council said the decision was shocking and harmed the Kannada language, and called on the government to overturn its decision.

A public meeting of Kannada writers heard calls to boycott state-organised language events and risk jail to oppose English teaching, the Hindu newspaper reported.

But other writers came out in support of the government.

"While English is a tool of mobility for urban, upper middle-class children, the lack of English knowledge is a handicap for rural Dalit children," said Dalit writer K Marulasiddappa.

The chief minister is to hold talks with the protesting academics and writers to convince them that poor children need to be taught English to get jobs.