Commentary/Amberish K Diwanji
Don't throw English out of India!
Once upon a time, there were 10,000 languages in the world. Now, there are only 3,000. To be more precise, from 5000 AD to date, 7,000 languages have been lost, or destroyed. It is therefore important to remember that languages do die. Despite all the Hollywood nonsense that decrees that Jesus Christ will speak English with an American accent, Jesus Christ, we know, preached in Aramaic, among other languages. That language no longer exists. As for God's language, that depends upon your religion, and thereby hangs another tale!
Recently, the redoubtable defence minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, decreed that English will be removed from India. Mulayam has claimed that excessive use of English has prevented people from learning Tamil! How, no one is too clear. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is also against English, calling it an alien language. The RSS also, incidentally, calls Urdu a foreign language!
There is no denying that English was introduced in India as a tool of imperialism. It was much easier for the British in London to rule India in a language understood by them rather than the native people's tongue. Yet, it was Britain's gift to India, uniting the country as little else had, bringing in ideas of the Enlightenment and Renaissance to India, and helping the birth of modern Indian nationalism. It was the language our leaders debated in when fighting for freedom.
Moreover, today English is truly the world's language more than any other, and its use in India can only benefit Indians in a shrinking world. In today's Age of Information and Globalisation, this cannot be overstressed.
India is unique, and the idea of replacing English with Hindi fraught with dangers. India has over 18 recognised languages, and about 800 dialects. Hindi is not the national language of India as is often mistaken, it is only a national language of India, along with 17 others, including Sanskrit (spoken by how many is still a guess). However, Hindi and English are the official languages. Hence, Hindi's advantage is that it is India's language for official purposes.
Funnily, English is not a national language of India, though there are millions who speak that language and Nagaland has declared it the state's official language (just as, say, Bengali is in Bengal and Hindi is in Uttar Pradesh). Certainly, there are more people who speak English as a first or second language than those who speak Sanskrit or some of the other Indian languages considered a national language.
Hindi fanatics often point out how people in France or China speak only their native language. Yet, these arguments are flawed. France, or for that matter any European country, is small. The most populated European country is Germany, with only 80 million people. Germany, incidentally, has different dialects within the country. France's 48 million speaking one language is no big deal; many Indian languages have more speakers.
China is more comparable to India, but again there are glaring differences. The ethnic Han race comprises 80 per cent of the population, making the country homogenous to a very great extent. For comparison, India's largest single ethnic group comprises only 11 per cent of the population. Also, though China has many dialects, the Chinese script is common to all, whether Mandarin or Cantonese (the language spoken in south China and Hong Kong).
This helped China promote Mandarin, already spoken in one form or the other, to a great extent. Mandarin has also been the Chinese emperor's court language for thousands of years. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest living language! Hindi was born as a bazaari language barely two-to-three hundred years ago, part of the reason why its literature is so shallow.
The drive to make Hindi the sole language has been violently opposed in certain parts of India, especially in the south. The reasons are easy to find. What, for instance, would happen if the Government of India tomorrow decrees that all central government jobs will be available to those who can pass a Hindi exam? Millions of non-Hindi speakers would suffers, million others would benefit only because they know Hindi.
If higher education or employment is conducted in Hindi without first ensuring that it is spoken well by all, certain segments would benefit only for being Hindi speakers. It could become a tool of power in the hands of its speakers to oppress others, prevent others from reaching the top. It is such a clannish attitude that till recently saw all save one of our prime ministers from one state. The 30 per cent speakers would try to dominate 100 per cent of India!
No doubt the same applies to English also. And there is no doubt that the English-speaking elite are an incredibly selfish lot, aggrandising their own power at the cost of their poor brethren, which is why millions of deprived persons despise the existence of English. There exists a glass ceiling in speaking English for rising to top positions in India, which is a despicable attitude of the urban elite. It is not just speaking English, but understanding the idiom (an metropolitan upper class, upper caste idiom) which makes those not so glib in English lose out, thus fueling their resentment against the language and the system as it exists. Is it any wonder that Mulayam and other English-baiters invariable receive a rousing reception every time they threaten to throw out English?
For instance, till a few years ago, for the Indian Institute of Technology entrance examinations, English was a paper where only passing grades were required, not ranking grades. Still, this was a hurdle for non-English speakers. One may argue that since English is needed to understand complex technology, an English language test is necessary. But in polyglot India, it is unfair. Instead, if a student turns out to be weak in English, he should be given special tuition in English after being admitted, rather than rejected. English cannot be a basis for selection under any circumstance. Those who do not know English can be trained. Luckily, this has now happening.
The advantage of English is its spread. While Hindi is the language of a certain part of India, English has its speakers all over India, in every community and region. The English elite's mother tongue is the same as the masses across India, which is why it is psychologically easier to accept English. In Tamil Nadu, the factory manager would probably be a Tamilian who can speak English, in Bengal, an English-speaking Bengali.
Since Hindi lacks this spread, not only is the language seen as alien, so is the speaker (there are no Britons around). Of course, there are persons fluent in the native language and Hindi. But if language is a criterion, it gives the Hindi-speaking person a definite advantage in terms of knowledge and fluency, whereas English is equally alien to all. This perhaps might explain why so many in India prefer English to Hindi. There are other factors also.
There is the fear that Hindi can hurt other languages. For instance, by making Hindi the state language in some of India's largest states, languages such as Maithili, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Marwari, the languages of the tribal people in Madhya Pradesh, have been denied recognition or assistance. Granted that every single dialect of India cannot be nurtured to the same degree, but to stifle languages/dialects to promote one language is the reason why many fear Hindi. It can cause immense problems.
Years ago, the recognition of Hindi as the administrative language, ignoring Urdu, fueled the alienation of north Indian Muslims. When Sikh terrorists were demanding a separate state, they had decreed against the use of Hindi! Till today, many Sikhs fear the decline of Punjabis, especially after many Hindu Punjabis prefer to use Hindi as their mother tongue.
Moreover, ever since linguistic states were created, many state languages have received a boost. Promotion of Hindi will create a backlash. Many years ago, on a trip to Bangalore, I complained to a senior IAS officer about how every form was in Kannada, a language alien to me. He replied that it was the strict imposition of Hindi in the north a few decades ago, making communications very difficult for south Indian professionals and businessmen, that led to the 'Kannada only' forms. One can imagine the nightmare of this happening in every other state, or has it already happened?
Hindi is the language of India's worst region -- the cow belt areas marked by poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, feudalism, and a teeming population, which is what gives Hindi the numbers, but little else. While English has lifted vast segments of Indians out of darkness and ignorance, 50 years of promoting Hindi has failed to improve the plight of its speakers. Of course, it is not Hindi alone to be blamed, but the stress should be on spreading knowledge in this region rather than worry about Hindi all over India.
In fact, north Indians need to learn English after they have learnt Hindi, to be exposed to the ideas of the other parts of India and the world. Unfortunately, it has often been noticed that north Indians rarely speak any other language besides Hindi, and are in fact hostile or indifferent to other Indian languages. It appears they want a unilingual Hindi India to make life easier for them.
It is time to review the entire language situation. To demand the exclusion of any language is ridiculous, and patently impossible. If India is really keen to be in the 21st century, throwing out English is not the answer. A recent survey showed that 71 per cent of Indians can understand Hindi, 66 speak, 49 read and 47 write; corresponding for English is 31 understand, speak 19, read and write 34. More interesting is the urban-rural divide for English: read -- 53% urban (28% rural), understand 49% urban, (25 rural). This also makes India the world's second largest English-speaking country! Also, the desire among Indians to learn English is far greater than to learn other Indian languages. To say that English is preventing people from learning Tamil is utter nonsense.
The truth is that after learning their mother tongue, every youngster will try to learn English next, regardless of which part of India he comes from. If millions of north Indians do not know/understand English, let us remember that most of them are illiterate anyway (which explains Hindi's low read-write figures). India has the world's largest number of illiterates, certainly most of them come from north India. Hence, it is not English that has harmed their interests, but illiteracy. And politicians find it easier to abuse English than set up decent schools.
The desire of Indians across the length and breadth of the country to learn English as their second language is what makes it India's national language. It has been noted that as a region in India grows prosperous, there is a spurt in the English-medium schools. For instance, as metropolitan cities spread into neighbouring villages, in highly literate Kerala and prosperous Punjab, the number of English-medium schools keep shooting up.
Urbanising and industrialising Indians seek out English. And the reason is simply because English offers far more opportunities, not just in India but worldwide. It is the most potent weapon of India's growing middle class to meet their rising aspirations, the most important asset in the global village. A language which regions like China are now teaching; which new countries of the former Soviet Union have made the second language in place of Russian. So can India afford to throw out English?
Hindi has its role and place in India, and so does English. Neither can be banished, neither should be. The phenomenal increase in cable and satellite television has brought Hindi into most homes. But not pure Hindi, it is 'Hinglish', which seems firmly entrenched in India. Channels are replete with Hindi movies and music, which have integrated Indians more than any government-inspired effort. But the same televisions broadcasting in Hindi today also beam an increasing number of English programmes. Millions of children spend the entire day watching the TNT Cartoon Network, in English!
Some day, it is likely that every Indian will understand Hindi. That day will be only slightly earlier than the day every Indian understands English (not fluently, but enough to get by). Also, watching television, one realises that most of the regional language programmes sees a mixture of that language with English, not Hindi! So while Hindi spreads across India, English too goes deeper into India, from the upper class to the middle, the middle to the lower class. It is likely to go further.
Today, we have thrown the British out (50 years ago), but retained many useful British institutions. Even if English is banned, it is unlikely to leave India. And a grave danger lies in the fact that while the north Indian sees English as the imperial leftover which must go, the south Indian might very well see Hindi as the language of another set of conquerors, to then be thrown out. Just as the Bangladeshis did to the Punjabis who tried to use Urdu to dominate them in East Pakistan. Language was a factor in Sri Lanka also: Colombo's insistence on Sinhala only way back in the 1950s, sowed the seeds of Tamil rebellion. Our politicians must spare India the same fate.
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