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The Russian language in India

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The Russian language in India

04.02.2018

Elena Barman

India is our long-term traditional partner that has always had a steady interest in the Russian culture. Currently The Raisina Dialogue 2018 conference is taking place in New Delhi, which shows that India takes Russian political and soft power for serious. Further we shall speak about promoting the Russian language and culture in India.


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We would like to draw your attention, dear reader, to the work around spreading the Russian language in India. It has been especially important since the opening of the Russian Culture Centre and the Russian Research Centre at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1965. Since then the Russian language, literature and culture have been studied thoroughly and systematically in India, even though first enthusiasts now collectively referred to as Russianists appeared long before that. The first Russian Consul General in India, Baron Vasilii von Klemm (1861-1938) was known to emphasize the importance of bringing the Indian authorities to Russia and teaching them the language. He believed it was one of the key objectives for the Russian diplomatic mission in Bombay (The present name of the city is Mumbai).

Nowadays Russian is being taught at over 40 universities all over India, including the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia University and educational institutions of local importance such as the universities of Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and also in smaller cities like Kolhapur (Maharashtra), Vadodara (Gujarat), Reba (Uttar-Pradesh), etc. Children all over India study Russian at schools. The important centres for the Russian linguistics are Russian Centres for Science and Culture (RCSC) in New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Trivandrum and Calcutta, whose curricula are based on Russian state education plan and textbooks. The training centre opened in the end of 2011 at New Delhi RCSC monitors their operation and ensures efficiency.

As practice shows, Russian people have worked as teachers at the Russian language courses for the RCSCs. Thanks to the Centres, they are able not only to find jobs, but also to improve their qualifications under the Russian Language Federal Target Program. We are really proud to make a fair contribution to the promotion of the Russian language and culture outside the country. The students don’t just study the language, they are also exposed to the country’s culture. It’s difficult to name all the projects and clubs within the program, so we’ll mention just a few of them. In New Delhi there is a successful project Modern Russia in Films carried out by the Movie Planet club, an art school, the Roerich museum, etc.

The experience of Russian centres in the other Indian cities is of some interest too. The Russian language courses at RCSC in Trivandrum have been working for over 35 years now and have taught several generations of the Indian people. Among the graduates are school children and university students, doctors, businessmen and guides, engineers working both at the Cundanculam nuclear power plant and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), as well as navy officers. As the Russian-Indian, cooperation expands, new career opportunities turn up for the people who speak Russian. At the students’ request teachers at Trivandrum center developed special-purpose courses including Russian Language for Tourist Guides, Business Russian, Conversational Russian, the most popular being Russian Language in Tourism and Russian for the Indian Navy in the Cochin City. The Russian language specialists in Trivandrum employ a lot of innovative technologies. For instance, they do an interactive Russian language course broadcasted by the Edusat satellite.

In the city of Chennai there is a popular drama school Nadezhda run by the Russians.

The Indians have traditionally been interested in the Russian culture. However, in the 1990s there was some decline in studying the language and this trend has not been overrun until just recently. It’s a known fact that in the 1990s a number of Russian companies and state organizations, which used to be efficient providers of Russian cultural, educational and scientific presence in India, either reduced or completely stopped their operations in India. Russian magazines and books translated into many national dialects stopped coming out, regular theater and music tours ceased, the number of joint projects in medicine, art and science declined, all this slowing the development of partnership between the two countries.

There is no need to explain that the Russians living abroad play an important part in strengthening the position of the Russian language and culture in the world. This is crucial for Russia’s public image abroad. The Russian community is a good support to the government in its attempt to lobby the country’s interests on the global stage by means of soft power. According to Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, it can help Russia influence the global community, positioning the country as civilized, liberal, cultural and attractive in many other ways.

In 2004 the first attempts were made to unite the Russian and CIS citizens permanently living in New Delhi. At the moment there is an Association of Russian Compatriots in India, bringing together the Russians from all over the country. In the last three years it has succeeded in carrying out a number of effective projects. Every year the winners of “Hello, Russia” competitions organized by Rossotrudnichestvo have a chance to visit Russia; Russian children attend free weekend Russian language courses; the youth department of the Association can now participate in international youth forums. The participants of all the events and trips can then share their experience at meetings. This is a unique opportunity for the children form mixed families growing up in India to find out more about the culture and traditions of Russia.

At the moment extending Russian language training is a key objective in the Russian-Indian humanitarian cooperation and our compatriots working at RCSCs contribute here a lot. A number of various activities of different forms and methods are organized for the purpose. For example, the Russian Language Institute at New Delhi RCSC holds regular competitions in the Russian language for school children and students, quizzes in the country studies, as well as competitions in reading Russian poems, writing essays, illustrating famous books. The Days of Russian Language, Literature and Culture held by the RCSC are popular with the people of New Delhi and have actually become an annual festival attracting hundreds of participants. The importance of such events is hard to overestimate. They encourage the youth to study Russian, support the teachers and promote the Russian language as a means of international communication in general.

The Association of Russian Compatriots in India actively participates in organizing the Russian Language Days and other events dedicated to the Russian culture at Indian schools. The trips to Russia they arrange for the school children and students have also proven to be an efficient stimulus.

We are trying to find new ways of promoting the Russian language and raising cultural awareness. In 2012 the New Delhi RCSC opened a Sunday school for the compatriots’ children. Its main objective is to support Russian language and traditions in the mixed families. Children over 10 years old currently attend the school.

The Russian and Soviet University Graduates associations have traditionally been holding cultural and educational events dedicated to the memorable dates in the history of Russia and bilateral relationships. The RCSC’s students also participate in these events. Working closely with the members of the Indian Association of Russian Language and Literature Teachers we get the first-hand information about these activities. The most important thing now is to reestablish the exchange program for native language speaking teachers between Russian and Indian universities. The Indian teachers of the Russian language have more than once said they would be happy to participate in this win-win partnership.

To sum it up we can say that there is a positive trend in promoting the Russian language and literature in India. However, having thoroughly analyzed the situation we are forced to admit that there are still a lot of gaps and unemployed reserves. The potential of the Russian-Indian partnership is not yet fully implemented. There are a lot of opportunities for its strengthening and diversification. Russian compatriots living in India have a serious job to do in this direction.

Source: International Life magazine

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