How do we empower the learner to become an active creator of knowledge and to acquire and develop new skills? What are the barriers in this process? These are the key questions that this paper tries to seek answers to. It focuses on one crucial barrier-language-and the way it governs the teaching-learning process. Specifically, the paper tries to illustrate ways in which a bias in favour of English medium poses serious problems for non-English medium students in accessing knowledge and adapting it to their needs. This paper also argues that at present a variety of languages are not considered which can have a meaningful role in redefining education and enabling the minds of the youth. This paper includes a study based on a sample survey of 52 students in a Hindi medium school and its analysis and implications for teaching-learning practices.