‘Stepping stone’, ‘degradation of quality’: Hindi MBBS textbooks draw mixed reactions from doctors, students

The use of Hindi textbooks by Madhya Pradesh’s MBBS students has drawn conflicting reactions from physicians, medical students, and health professionals. Some referred to it as a “stepping stone” and a “breakthrough” in medical education. In contrast, others criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for using it as a “gimmick,” “propaganda,” and “linguistic politics” (BJP government). As part of the MP government’s initiative to provide medical education in Hindi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah issued textbooks for three MBBS subjects in that language on Sunday.

At a ceremony in Bhopal, Shah introduced the medical biochemistry, anatomy, and physiology textbooks for MBBS students in the presence of the state’s chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and its education minister, Vishvas Sarang.

Chouhan announced that Madhya Pradesh would be the first state in the nation to offer medical education in Hindi on the eve of Shah’s unveiling of the MP’s Hindi-medium medical education project. He joked that doctors would put “Shri Hari” at the top of prescription sheets before writing the list of medications and other information in Hindi. The introduction of the MBBS in Hindi project was praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who asserted that it will result in a significant improvement for the nation. One nation, one culture, and one language, according to a 2016 batch of Government Medical College (GMC), Bhopal MBBS students, is the underlying cause of striving to encompass everyone under one roof.

This ring of superior language chauvinism will not fit each finger alike. Disheartened to see crores spent on propagandas, spitting on the spirits of democracy.”

A doctor wrote, “It’s not simple for a 17-year-old youngster to handle the burden of studying challenging material in a brand-new language, such as human anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry and to pass. Sensitive children who had previously excelled in the government’s local language programme suddenly became depressed after failing.

On Twitter, a healthcare activist wrote: “In India, this is not the case, unlike other nations where medical education is offered in the native tongue. Nearly every state in India has its unique language. Every state will begin placing identical demands, which will result in a decline in quality.”

A physician from Lucknow wrote on Twitter, “Dr. Manohar Bhandari of MGM Medical College Indore began the Movement for Applying Hindi in MBBS Courses in 1990. A breakthrough in medical education has been made. Students who disbelieve in Rattafication will gain from it.

Even if you studied in an English-language classroom, analyse the problems you had with English words despite producing memes, he continued. “Why should the method of instruction be more important than the subject matter? Is it more crucial to already be a caring physician or to become one after reading a translated book? Another doctor tweeted, “Do such gimmicks basically degrade the core objective and that is exactly what our politicians want?”

“Linguistic politics in the sphere of medicine & health is the most archaic and strange step,” a Twitter user stated. There are various places where a language can be imposed. Playing with human life and safety is the most reprehensible thing (this holds true for all non-English languages).

For MBBS and other professional courses in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, etc., “#MBBSInHindi is a stepping stone. All Indian languages, beginning with Hindi, can use technical phrases and vocabulary from Sanskrit, according to another user.