Language, it is said, is a system of convention al spoken, manual (sign), or written symbols
by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. While the basic function of language is communication, other important functions include the expression of identity, imaginative expression, and, of course, emotional release. The language a newborn baby hears immediately after his or her arrival on earth may well be a few cooing sounds from the mother or a couple of words in the language she speaks. But the child is already listening and making attempts to formulate its own language, which is its mother tongue. This mother tongue is so important that the National Education Policy 2020 has very clearly said that young children learn and grasp non-trivial concepts more quickly in their home language or mother tongue. According to the National Education Policy, a home language is usually the same language as the mother tongue or that which is spoken by local communities. In Paragraph 4.11, it is particularly said that wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably until Grade 8 and beyond, is to be the home language, mother tongue, local language, or regional language. Thereafter, the home or local language shall continue to be taught as a language wherever possible. Gandhiji had observed that English had “usurped the most precious place in our hearts and dethroned our mother tongues.” He had compared mother tongue with mother tongue, but not before expressing anguish over the fact that “we do not feel the same way about it (our mother tongues) as we do about our mother.” According to him, overuse of English had depleted the nervous energy of children by reducing them to mere imitators, emphasizing that “no country can become a nation through the production of an imitation race.” Gandhiji had laid so much importance on the mother tongue that he once said, “I must cling to my mother tongue as to my mother’s breast, in spite of its shortcomings. It alone can give me life-giving milk.” In this context, it is important to note that about 25 percent of all primary-school-going children in India face a moderate to severe learning disadvantage owing to their language background or learning in a language that is not their mother tongue. Children who do not fully understand the language of instruction may be learning a dominant language by submersion but miss out on content learning.