Renaming of Teachers Day on Guru Utsav will it change anything?
Months after the NDA government came into a charge a new controversy which raised reluctance all around the south Indian States is about renaming teacher's day as Guru Utsav. After the controversy of 'Love Jihad' an obligation by the government which raised reluctance after the Ministry of Human resources and development issued a directive to all the schools of the country to make arrangements for telecasting Honorable Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi's Speech on Guru Utsav. So this seems to be an action of inculcating Hindi over other classical Indian Languages is what that is agitated by the South Indian political parties. So the topic of discussion in this particular essay is whether renaming would bring about any change or not?
In many countries Teachers Day are intended to be special days for the appreciation of teachers, and may include celebrations to honor them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community in general. In most of the cases, they celebrate a local educator or an important milestone in education as teacher's day. India celebrates Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birthday on September 5 as Teacher's day since 1962. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was an Indian philosopher and statesman who was the first Vice-President of India (1952-1962) and the second President of India from 1962 to 1967. One of India's best and most influential twentieth-century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy, his academic appointments included the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta (1921-1932) and Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford (1936-1952). So on account of his Birthday Teachers day is celebrated on September 5th every year.
About vast majority of Indian States have hindi as their official language which belongs to Indo-Aryan family of languages, while about 25% of the Indian population speak Dravidian Languages. So renaming teacher's day as "Guru Utsav" basically the words Guru and Utsav having their origin from Sanskrit language is regarded as an act of inculcating Sanskrit or Hindi over the Dravidian languages according to some South Indian political parties. Till 2013 the Teachers day was termed Teachers day, i.e., the word teacher has its origin from English language which is not the original language of this subcontinent. When we the people of India could tolerate using an English word for naming an honorable day as such then why not hindi which is the official language of vast majority of the States of our Country. When considering the term "fraternity" which means brotherhood from the preamble of our constitution will that be wrong tolerating a Hindi name, as every Indian Citizen irrespective of caste, religion, race, language is expected to observe brotherhood. So instead terming it as Teachers day guru utsav would be more appropriate and it would be like something that promotes patriotism among the Indian citizens.
While considering to the point of Equality, Secularity renaming could regarded as providing the Dravidian language an inferior status. Every person will have a strong sprit over their mother tongue. From this point of view, every language has to be given equal status so considering their spirit to protect their language is also important.
So finally I would like to conclude, that as India is Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic, which supports fraternity and Equality there is very essential to provide equal status to all the languages of the country, at the same time from the view of fraternity every Indian citizen could support the usage of the term 'Guru utsav" for teachers day and teach the students the feeling of brotherhood and equality. Teachers day is the occasion on which teachers are honored for their contribution so renaming wouldn't bring about any huge change.
Vaishali S
Related Essay
- Renaming of Teachers Day on Guru Utsav will it change anything?
- DMK, Left slam renaming of Teachers Day as 'Guru Utsav
- Essay on Should Teacher's day be renamed to "Guru Utsav"?
- Discuss on Should Teacher's day be renamed to "Guru Utsav"?
