Moulinath Moitra is a Class IV boy at St James’ School, who comes from a traditional Bengali family. But instead of choosing Bengali for him as his second language, his parents have chosen Hindi. Reason: it will give him pan-national acceptability both in higher education as well as in the job market. And Moulinath is no exception. Most schools say that at least 70% Bengali parents these days are preferring Hindi over Bengali.

Take the case of La Martiniere for Boys. There are just 30% kids there who study Bengali, as against 70% studying Hindi. Apart from a handful of Bengali boys, the rest have all chosen to join non-Bengali boys in the Hindi second language class. Teachers say that even five years ago, this was not the case, as Bengali parents felt their kids should have a firm grounding in their mother tongue, which does not end at just being able to speak the language.