When was the last time Indians educated in English medium schools read a book in their mother tongue?

• It is certain that Indian language literature will die in next few years because most of the people educated in English medium never read a single book in their mother tongue and rapidly more and more children are being educated in English medium. So I am just curious to know that how many people educated in English mediums read in their mother tongue. A NEW & IMPORTANT POINT:  Through my friends and relatives situated in many corners of India, I have noticed a thing that although some people Educated from English may read books in their mother tongue, but parents of most of these people got their school education in vernacular medium. I have collected data from 600 people, out of these 600 people, parents of 300 people were also educated from English Medium, and my results are: 32 out of 300 Indians from English Medium schools whose parents were from vernacular medium have read a book  in their mother tongue in last 2 years. Only 4 out of 300 Indians whose parents also studied in English Medium have read a book in their mother tongue in in past 2 years.

• Answer:

  Yesterday! :) I just finished reading a repository of classic Tamil short stories over the past 100 years(1 per decade). A good read! (Edit : This is the book : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22323479-tamil-sirukathai-kalanjiyam) I generally make it a point to read one or two Tamil books for every few English books I read(Before this one I read Song of Ice and Fire - Clash of Kings. Talk about contrasting reads!). I have actually discovered some gems in Tamil books because of this, so in that sense it has been really refreshing.  In the short run at least, Tamil literature is not dying. But you raise a valid concern. With the advent of globalization and increase in the importance of the English language, the possibility of the gradual death of the regional languages themselves is high, forget about their literature. As you rightly point out, the root cause for this lies in our education system. A small(but essential) first step we need to take in the long road in addressing this really serious problem is to change the medium of instruction in our schools. Not to be confused with the subject language(which is a whole another matter entirely - will come back to that in a minute). There is absolutely no point in "explaining stuff in English" when a native language would be more than sufficient. In fact I'd say instructing in native language is better since the child's understanding of the subject does not depend on his language comprehending abilities.  I am not proposing to replace everything in the syllabus word by word. That is completely impractical  and would probably end up having a negative effect. I am talking about how each teacher interacts with the students. Which brings me to my next point- the subject language.  What is the point in learning every bloody subject in English? Take history for instance. Is there any advantage of learning history in English than in native language? None! Hell even my moral science syllabus was in English. Ridiculous!  Maths and Science are good though. English is pretty essential for such technical subjects. And finally, stupid rules like the "Speak only in English in school" have to be done away with for good. If you want a child to be proficient in English, make him attend compulsory spoken English classes and train him. Don't curb his natural tendncies by forcing him to converse in English. In short, a lot has to be done to our education system, and soon. But I dont have much hope for the foreseeable future. Just my 2 cents!