The English-Driven, Exclusivist Nature Of The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)
A position of power and privilege for an individual or institution tends to lend its own perspective of viewing the world. It is, more often than not, a tunnel vision which unquestioningly views the surrounding as ‘normal’ and ‘obvious’ and stays in the dark from recognizing the layers of inequality and oppression present within our society. The recently concluded Common...
A position of power and privilege for an individual or institution tends to lend its own perspective of viewing the world. It is, more often than not, a tunnel vision which unquestioningly views the surrounding as ‘normal’ and ‘obvious’ and stays in the dark from recognizing the layers of inequality and oppression present within our society. The recently concluded Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) exists in the same darkness with a mode of testing which solely operates in the English language. On the 18th of December, CLAT was conducted by the Consortium of NLUs for thousands of aspirants across the country. CLAT is the gateway to a premium legal education in the National Law Universities which have also been referred to as ‘islands of excellence’. In a nation which celebrates a diversity of languages, the CLAT examination favours the privileged, English-speaking elite of the country and does a great disservice to the students who belong to other linguistic educational backgrounds. In writing this article, I will explore the problematic stance of the CLAT examination and the possible solutions to address this problem.
Approximately sixty thousand law aspirants appear for the CLAT examination (undergraduate) across the country every year. With a huge difference in the number of seats available (2538 for 2023) and the cohort of aspirants, the paper assumes a hyper-competitive nature which requires a rigorous preparation of the students. A seat in a top-tier NLU means a shot at quality legal education, high-paying corporate jobs and for the underprivileged classes, a chance for social mobility. However, while the paper aims to test the analytical and interpretative skills of students through reading, it boils down to a test of proficiency in English. The format of the paper transformed in the year 2020 with every section ranging from English to Logical Reasoning testing a student’s interest and aptitude for law through lengthy and difficult passages. While the reading intensive nature of the paper removed the redundant rote-learning of GK and Legal Knowledge, the flipside of the change is the renewed and increased emphasis on an aspirant’s mastery of the English language.
English And Intersectional Discrimination
Due to this, the paper discriminates against and fails to provide a level playing field to the students belonging to educational backgrounds rooted in regional languages. In a hyper-competitive paper, they are linguistically disempowered as they have to surpass the additional hurdle of learning and mastering a new language. Naturally, aspirants belonging to English-medium schools have an advantage over their peers belonging to schools operating in Hindi or other vernacular languages. The underprivileged and disempowered aspirants can never view an exam solely based in English as ‘obvious’ unlike their privileged, English-speaking competitors.
However, the exclusionary nature of the exam goes beyond the axis of language. In a post-colonial India, the access to and the use of English as a language is intertwined with many other socio-economic factors. English speakers are very much India’s elite and constitute almost over 10 percent (2011 linguistic Census) of the country’s population. A large, nationally representative sample survey conducted by Lok Foundation and Oxford University, administered by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy in 2019 provides some valuable insights into the connection between English-speakers and these socio-economic factors. The survey reveals that English-speakers are concentrated in the urban areas and upper classes of society. Moreover, a higher proportion of men could speak in English and an upper caste individual was more likely to be well-versed in English than an individual from the SC/ST background.
Therefore, the exclusionary nature of CLAT goes beyond language and restricts the path to legal education for the oppressed and backward castes and classes. Campus surveys regularly conducted by the organization – Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) reflect the lopsided composition of the student body. A majority of the students belong to high income backgrounds and have been tutored at expensive coaching centres. The crowd predominantly consists of upper caste Hindu students and the religious minorities find a disproportionately low presence in NLUs.
Discrimination On Campus And The Need For Diversity
This discrimination based on English and the other socio-economic factors intertwined with it transforms in different ways on campus. The students from vernacular backgrounds who manage to surpass the hurdles of the examination end up on NLU campuses to face exclusion in renewed and latent ways. More often than not, NLUs lack an institutional support program to help these students make a smooth transition to a curriculum entirely based in English. The support groups and societies which fight discrimination and support these individuals on campus can only go so far without any institutional support.
The lack of a support system translates into low grades and minimal participation in extra-curricular activities like Mooting and Debating which become the bastions of the English-speaking elite on campuses. Students from the backward and oppressed sections of society struggle to compete in such an environment which invisibilises their problems and fails to address their concerns. This leads to low self-esteem and a sense of incompetence which stems from a lack of proficiency in English which is incorrectly synonymised with merit.
CLAT, if conducted in the regional languages, will lead to a more diverse and representative college community. It shall not only tackle the linguistic barrier of English but also fight the other forms of discrimination that come along with it. Fundamentally, it means a campus space where one will find a diverse cohort of language speakers and a potentially greater representation of students belonging to low-income families and the backward caste and classes of India. It will complement the EWS and caste-based reservations that serve to fight the structural discrimination present within our society. Such a campus space accommodates more original thinking and perspectives by recognising individuals who for long have not found their voices in NLUs. A greater diversity in Law schools ensures that the debates and deliberations on campuses are enriched with different perspectives which throw new insights and solutions for problems. The recognition of the lived experiences of individuals from the under-resourced and backward sections of society also increases the scope for experiential learning for individuals on campus. Experiential learning inculcates a sense of empathy and sympathy in individuals which can potentially transform NLUs into more inclusive and safer learning spaces.
In the inaugural address for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at IIT Delhi, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud articulated on the need to redefine the notion of merit in terms of diversity and inclusion –
"We need to redefine our notions of merit but inclusion itself has a very positive element in defining merit. So when we redefine merit in terms of a more inclusive society, in terms of a more plural society, a society which truly represents India as it stands today, we would really speak of true upliftment and not then treat upliftment and merit as lying on a dichotomy or on 2 opposing ends of the spectrum."
A linguistically diverse CLAT runs in line with this vision. It provides a level playing field to the aspirants of regional languages and breaks the erroneous link made between merit and English. The snowball effect of an exclusive entry to the premium legal education in the country is a Bar and Bench mirroring the same inequalities in society. There are grave existing concerns about the representative character of the Judiciary and especially the Higher Judiciary in India. Democratising CLAT could potentially be one of the many solutions as it would open up the entry to legal education to a larger section of society.
The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and the Bar Council of India have expressed support for conducting CLAT in regional languages. In light of the major entrances like the Civil Services exam, the NEET (Undergraduate) and the JEE being conducted in multiple languages, the argument for an exclusively English-based CLAT finds itself on a weak footing. Naturally, the road to transition will go beyond restructuring CLAT to providing institutional support in NLUs to facilitate the transition for numerous aspirants to a curriculum based in English. It raises numerous questions of policy that the BCI and the CLAT Consortium need to responsibly deal with!
Views are personal.