Madhya Pradesh’s Hindi MBBS books have few takers in medical colleges despite much publicity

NEW DELHI: It has been seven months since the Madhya Pradesh Government launched Hindi textbooks for MBBS courses in the state. Despite the fanfare, very few students have bought them.

Medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh continue to teach in English and students are continuing to use the English textbooks. The Madhya Pradesh government, in October 2022, in an event attended by home minister Amit Shah, launched three MBBS textbooks – anatomy, physiology and biochemistry – in Hindi for first-year MBBS students. They have found few users.

“Only eight or 10 students out of the 250 in GMC Bhopal have opted for these textbooks. And they were mainly sold in Bhopal. Otherwise, it is just three or four students across medical colleges in the whole of Madhya Pradesh,” said Hareesh Pathak, president of Resident Doctors Association Gandhi Medical College (GMC) Bhopal. “The government is trying to push the books to students and teachers but there doesn’t seem to be much demand.”

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Students and Indian Medical Association (IMA) members point to the lack of options in Hindi for higher education as a reason for the unpopularity of the books. The lack of an academic atmosphere for MBBS in Hindi means that students will have to turn to English to publish research journals, get niche information. Yet, officials are confident that with time, and with more states opting for textbooks in regional languages, this will change.

MBBS Textbooks in Hindi

Madhya Pradesh became the first state to launch MBBS textbooks in a local language in October last year. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra plan to introduce MBBS textbooks in Hindi and Marathi from the coming academic year.

The decision came on the back of a recommendation by a parliamentary panel led by Amit Shah which recommended that Hindi and local languages be the medium of instruction in all technical and non-technical higher educational institutions. This recommendation was opposed by MK Stalin and Pinarayi Vijayan, chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively.

Students said that there was a lot of hype around the books which did not translate into sales.

“When the inauguration happened, they started distributing some books but after that there haven’t been many buyers. This could be because they are not aware. If there is more awareness, it is possible more students will opt for it. If the number of books is more, and more students start studying from them, then maybe there would be higher demand. Right now, even the classes are in English,” said Arun Sisodya, president of Junior Doctors Association (undergraduate wing) Madhya Pradesh.

Lack of options

A main reason for low demand was that Hindi textbooks were limited to only three subjects. Plus, English is a must for postgraduate, certificate and diploma courses.

“Students usually opt for specialisations like maternal health, general health, diploma courses or four month courses and one year courses. There are online and offline options for these. For instance, if a student wants to go for diabetes specialisation they can opt for either online or offline courses. All the diploma and certificate courses are mostly affiliated to [institutions in] foreign countries so those will never be in Hindi,” said Asif Lala, president, IMA Medical Students Network, Madhya Pradesh.

“Postgraduate and other exams are in English. So, everyone writes the final exams in English because nobody wants to be fall behind because of this,” said Pathak.

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Although the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG exam, which is the single-entrance exam for admission in all medical colleges in India, is conducted in 13 languages, NEET PG can be attempted only in English.

Some students said that the lack of demand might also be due to the social pressure.

“Earlier it was expected that the Hindi students coming from Hindi medium will opt for these books but that has not happened. This could be because of social pressure. No one wants to be the odd one out in a class where the majority is relying on English books,” said Pathak.

Good quality, bad execution

Students, however, agree that the books are of good quality with care taken not to introduce new Hindi terms to replace the existing medical terms in English.

“The books are good and the quality is good. The language is good. They have not converted the medical words into Hindi. For instance, for heart rate they have used the same word instead of opting for the literal translation. So, they have kept the integrity of the medical terms instead of using the Devanagari script. This is good because otherwise it would have been a tougher job for the students,” said Pathak.

Only the first-year books are available as of now.

“I have read the books and they are actually good. But the only thing is that one cannot build up a rhythm while studying those books. They write the English word in the Hindi script and then in the bracket write the same thing in English. So, there is no flow while studying,” said Sisodya.

However, students said that, instead of launching Hindi versions of primary books, the government would have been better off offering good reference material in Hindi.

“They should have made a reference book in Hindi which students can turn to if they don’t understand a chapter or if the language of that chapter is difficult. Otherwise it should not be forced as a primary book,” said Pathak. “India is a land of diversity you cannot force like in China or Russia. If a Madhya Pradesh student goes to Karnataka to practise then how can he speak in Hindi when the language is Kannada?”

English as global language

Doctors and academics feel that Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra will be in the same situation once they introduce their own textbooks. Students studying in English will be able to keep up with the updates in the medical world.

“In Maharashtra, I don’t think even five students will opt for these books. Those who are going for MBBS seriously and realise the importance of the language in acquiring information from all over the world won’t go for the Marathi textbooks. You also have to think about how many Marathi schools are there. Marathi is not even taught in many schools. So, we never asked for all this, it is just politicians to gain some mileage from the general people,” said Pankaj Bandarkhar, state secretary IMA Maharashtra.

“Medical education is a vast discipline and English is a global language. We can accumulate information from anywhere, whether through the internet or otherwise. So, just by keeping a few subjects in Marathi is not going to help anyone. Even China initially used to teach in their own language some 20 or 30 years back and now they are teaching and learning in English. We are going backwards,” he added.

Madhya Pradesh officials, however, say that the primary aim of the textbooks is to aid comprehension, adding that the academic system surrounding medical courses in local languages will improve with time.

“The major idea behind these textbooks is that students understand the subjects well. No one is forcing them to use the Hindi textbooks. The Hindi textbooks for MBBS just started with Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, in south India, they have started teaching in their own languages. Gradually it will develop to the extent that it will be possible to publish a journal in Hindi. It will take time but sooner or later it will be established,” said Arun Kumar Shrivastav, director of medical education, Madhya Pradesh.