IAS Preparation Tips: The loss of students is not because of the medium; this is the reason
Today there are many magazines in Hindi. Translations of excellent books into English are available in Hindi. Because a lack of knowledge of English left me to read many excellent books of English.
UPSC Preparation Tips:
It has been over thirty years since the facility of taking the examination through all Indian languages along with English has been implemented, but till now, there is a fear in the mind of the students that ‘how would it be without English They think it is essential to know English.
I can understand your psychological crisis because I, too, have gone through this crisis. And I had passed when the Government of India had taken this tremendous revolutionary step. In 1983, I succeeded in this examination, and I would like to swear to you with a hundred percent sincerity that the lack of English knowledge has not hindered my success. Yes, if it becomes a hindrance, at my level. Today, there are many magazines in Hindi. Translations of good English books into Hindi are available. But it was not so. Due to lack of knowledge of English, left me reading many wonderful books of English. They did the work.
At present, we have the statistics of UPSC. Every year about 10 percent of the students take the exam through Hindi and other Indian languages. Half of these non-English-speaking students are the medium of Hindi. Yes, it is definitely that most of the students are still English medium. But this does not mean that there is no selection from other languages. The truth of these percentages is that when most people who appear in the exam will choose their medium as English language, then obviously more selection will also be from these languages.
For example, almost all South Indian and North-East India students choose English because they have studied through this medium. The number of South Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada is significantly less. And those who take also succeed. Most of the students studying in the metros and cities of North and Western India do the same because English is the medium of instruction. About 70% of the successful students are from a science background. 60% of the totally successful people are engineers. Naturally, they choose the English medium. In this way, Hindi has become the students’ language studying in small cities, villages, and government schools. But as far as the selection in UPSC is concerned, there is never any discrimination about it. Therefore, do not doubt even a little about this subject.
Anyway, before this quality for a general English paper—a little more hard work. But you will not have to take any loss in that way for not taking English as a medium.