Language and Humanities in the Maritime Curriculum

Below is an extract from a report of the Maritime and Education Summit held on 1^st August 2013 at the Crowne Plaza, Kochi.

The highlight  of the day was the very effective and erudite presentation by Vice-Admiral Pradeep Chauhan AVSM, VSM, Commandant, Indian Naval Academy. With his command over the language and effective style of delivery he made a case for language and humanities in the syllabus.

He urged everyone to revisit the basics. He said that the quality of officer was a problem not just in the Merchant navy or navy but across all sectors. He felt it was fundamentally wrong to avoid humanities and focus on science. He said we have “de-romanticised”the merchant navy ( and navy)and so we (institutes) produce mechanics.

He believes for developing concepts we need a strong base in Humanities , history and language. For translating such concepts to reality we need the sciences.

He felt it imperative to define what the institute was producing. He talked of his dilemma where the INA he heads produces BTechs who are officers or Officers who are BTechs. He felt the need to clearly define in words the end product desired. He defined an Officer as “An intellectually, physically, emotionally and behaviourally exemplary, courageous and inspirational leader, imbued with a fine sense of pride, honour and integrity, possessing strong articulation and clear and evident expertise and refinement in multiple domains and deeply committed to the service of his country and the wellbeing of his subordinates”.

He felt training institutes must handle the Role of language in their curriculum. That language is a means of communication, according to him is a myth. Language is an expression of thought, he says. He lamented the fact that Lexicons don’t exist. We don’t use nouns anymore. He illustrated this with an example where an officer gets what he wants without using any nouns -  “अरे तुम, नही तुम। हा तुम.वो देना। वो नही ,वो. हा वो”

Romanticism is extinct,  he feels,  because trainers lack knowledge of language.  He defined Ethic as “ what I do institutionally aligns with what I do individually” If in an organization there is difference between what they purport to do and what they do, that organization breeds unethical people.

People are nowadays concerned only about how to man their ships and not in what manner they man