Page 272 - Education World Nov-21 Low 81.6MB

ANNIVERSARY ESSAY

Throwing away English

advantage

RAJIV DESAI

NGLISH IS THE LANGUAGE INTRODUCED BY In turning their backs on a language
the British colonisers of India. It evokes mixed
emotions. In some middle-class families and that’s not only recognised by the
Eschools, you are likely to be criticised for speaking Constitution but is the language of global
it, as well as not speaking it.
Attitudes are complicated by politics. It was the language business, India’s myopic politicians are
of the colonial masters. However, the freedom struggle was doing the electorate a great disservice
conducted in English, partly because it was directed against
the British Raj but also because its vanguard was English
speaking. The realisation of the nationalist movement was ministers. That’s because they mostly read prepared texts.
in the freedom at midnight speech by Jawaharlal Nehru: The problem is far more acute in the states where many
“Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny… when the cannot communicate in either English or Hindi.
world sleeps, India will awake…” You would think the businessmen who run newspapers,
Widely acknowledged as one of the best speeches of the magazines, and television, would take steps to remedy this.
20th century, it was also affirmation of the adoption of Eng- But neither they nor their readers and viewers seem to care.
lish in Indian public life. Though Hindi has aggressively While many may look askance at this as part of the c halta
replaced it in the political arena, English remains a force hai syndrome that had turned India into a mecca of me-
in the courts, the press, and education system. The truism diocrity, their owners may well be justified in their ‘who
still holds that to get anywhere in your career, you need to cares’ approach. They reckon they can’t recruit people who
know it. are fluent in English and the audiences are the same. So
However in India, the future of English is clouded. It why bother!
has been a political football for years as politicians played hile it is understandable the prime minister may ad-
populist games to appeal to and to secure vote banks. While Wdress international audiences in Hindi because of
the government in Delhi looked the other way, state level his obvious problem with English, it is a sad commentary
politicians championed regional languages. that India has come to be dominated by people who cannot
Given the political dominance of Hindi-speaking states speak, or attempt to speak, an official language used in the
such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar — the courts, government and commerce. In turning their backs
so-called Hindi heartland — it’s no wonder it was adopted on a language that’s not only recognised by the Constitution
as the national language. Aggrieved, states of South India but used widely around the world, the language of global
challenged Hindi, demanding English also be made part of business, India’s myopic politicians are doing the electorate
government business as well as the medium of instruction a great disservice.
in schools and colleges. This hypocrisy is of seven-decades vintage. All shades
Things went south when Madras (now Tamil Nadu) of political opinion have trashed English for political ad-
threatened to secede. This led to the adoption of the three- vantage. The norm is for their progeny to acquire globally
language formula in which English, Hindi, and the regional benchmarked education in English-medium schools and
language was included in school syllabuses. Inevitably chil- colleges while the people pay the price of their populism.
dren suffered under the burden of studying so many lan- In the end, many middle-class students flee India for
guages. Most important, the political confusion deprived real education in the West, where universities are about
young people of English learning in the heartland and states scholarship and learning. And India is left with the rubble
like Gujarat, which were midwifed by linguistic chauvinism. generated by political ambitions of mediocre, myopic, mof-
In the event, thanks to political populism, India has nur- fusil men and women. You can see the results every night
tured generations of youth who know no English or very on television, where correspondents and anchors routinely
little of it. Teachers of English are not just in short supply lapse into Hindi because of their patent shortcomings in the
but even the depleted lot aren’t proficient in the language. English language.
The result is the incomprehensible garble you read in It’s just a matter of time before the English option is
newspapers and magazines or watch on television. Or the closed. Our access to the global mainstream will be cur-
failure of most people to engage in English. This is true from tailed. It’s not as though Hindi or any other regional lan-
the prime minister downwards. And it’s not just about ac- guage has the same international currency as French, Ger-
cent and pronunciation but communication. man, Italian, Spanish.
For example, Dr. Manmohan Singh with an accent A most disconcerting outcome for cosmopolitan Indians.
drawn from the earthy sounds of the Punjab or Sonia Gan-
dhi with her Italian lilt are easily understood, but not so (Rajiv Desai is president of Comma Consulting and a well-known Delhi-
the prime minister and many members of his council of based columnist)

272 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2021