t some return for the fares they pay under the
expectation of being carried from place to place with ordinary creature
comforts.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Ranchi, September 25, 1917.

VERNACULARS AS MEDIA OF INSTRUCTION[2]

It is to be hoped that Dr. Mehta's labour of love will receive the
serious attention of English-educated India. The following pages were
written by him for the _Vedanta Kesari_ of Madras and are now printed in
their present form for circulation throughout India. The question of
vernaculars as media of instruction is of national importance; neglect
of the vernaculars means national suicide. One hears many protagonists
of the English language being continued as the medium of instruction
pointing to the fact that English-educated Indians are the sole
custodians of public and patriotic work. It would be monstrous if it
were not so. For the only education given in this country is through the
English language. The fact, however, is that the results are not all
proportionate to the time we give to our education. We have not reacted
on the masses. But I must not anticipate Dr. Mehta. He is in earnest. He
writes feelingly. He has examined the pros and cons and collected a mass
of evidence in support of his arguments. The latest pronouncement on the
subject is that of the Viceroy. Whilst His Excellency is unable to offer
a solution, he is keenly alive to the necessity of imparting instruction
in our schools through the vernaculars. The Jews of Middle and Eastern
Europe, who are scattered in all parts of the world, finding it
necessary to have a common tongue for mutual intercourse, have raised
Yiddish to the status of a language, and have succeeded in translating
into Yiddish the best books to be found in the world's literature. Even
they could not satisfy the soul's yearning through the many foreign
tongues of which they are masters; nor did the learned few among them
wish to tax the masses of the Jewish population with having to learn a
foreign language before they could realise their dignity. So they have
enriched what was at one time looked upon as a mere jargon--but what the
Jewish children learnt from their mothers--by taking special pains to
translate into it the best thought of the world. This is a truly
marvellous work. It has been done during the present generation, and
Webster's Dictionary defines it as a polyglot jargon used for
inter-communication by Jews from different nations.

But a Jew of