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VERNACULARS FOR THE M.A. DEGREE

 The following letter was written by Sir Rabindranath Tagore to a correspondent, and is published with the latter's permission. Ed., M.R.

Dear—,

 It is needless to say that it has given me great delight to learn of Sir Ashutosh's proposal for introducing Indian vernaculars in the university for the M. A. But at the same time I must frankly admit the misgivings I feel owing to my natural distrust of the spirit of teaching that dominates our university education. Vernacular literature, at least in Bengal, has flourished in spite of its being ignored by the higher branches of our educational organisation. It carried no prospect of reward for its votaries from the Government, nor, in its first stages, any acknowledgment even from our own people. This neglect has been a blessing in disguise, for thus our language and literature have had the opportunity of natural growth, unhampered by worldly temptation, or imposition of outside authority. Our literary language is still in a fluid stage, it is continually trying to adapt itself to new accessions of thought and emotion and to the constant progress in our national life. Necessarily the changes in our life and ideas are more rapid than they are in the countries whose influences are contributing to build the modern epoch of our renaissance. And, therefore, our language, the principal instrument for shaping and storing our ideals, should be allowed to remain much more plastic than it need be in the future when standards have already been formed which can afford a surer basis for our progress.

 But I have found that the direct influence which the

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