English Language in India
When India gained freedom after a long drawn struggle of 100 years the patriotic fervour of the people was at peak. There was natural antipathy for English, it being the language of ex-colonial rulers. The people questioned the propriety of the continuation of English in administration and educational institutions. There also were farsighted supporters of English who advocated its continuation for continuity in government work and education. The supporters of English were mostly South Indians. At one time it polarized the country in North and South camps. There were violent agitations even.
The English was allowed to continue for 15 years through a constitutional stipulation when India became a Republic in 1950, under its own Constitution. It was a compromise. India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was a Anglophile. He declared, ‘English is our major window on the modern world.’ Hindi became lingua franca of India meanwhile. However, Parliament had to pass necessary legislation to continue the use of English even after 1965. It has become clear that the country could not do without English for many years to come.
The Official Language Amendment Bill-1967 put in force the three language formula—English, Hindi and Regional. It enjoyed and still does, wide acceptance throughout the country. English continues be the preferred language of educational institutions and most of the departments of the government. The reality has been accepted by all that the wisdom lies in sticking with English. Meanwhile the world situation has changed fast. English has become world’s language of communication. The revolutionary progress made by communication and information technologies has shrunk the world into a global village.
The nations are now thinking global. India is also emerging as a major global player. English education has played a great role in taking India forward globally. Today, we can’t even think of banishing English because through it we have become a world power in technological, medical, management and scientific work forces. The advanced knowledge’s in different science, technologies and researches became available to Indian students through the medium of English. English has also become the language of trade, commerce and the diplomacy. As an aspiring economic giant and the global political force how can we afford to do away with English? We shall need more and more English educated youth.
English also has a rich literature. It gives us the joys and wisdom of the thoughts of William Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Milton, Ruskin, Carlyle, Charles-Dickens, Bacon, C. Lamb, Hazlitt and a host of other writers. Only through English we can reach the world.
It is now an accepted fact that English serves as a unifying force in the country. The great diversity of India is bridgeable through English only It helps Indians in one part of the country to be understood in other parts of the land. Because of English the migration of students from one university to another poses no problem. This will become very difficult for students if different universities employed different medium of education.
A good command over English opens the doors for one to better opportunities of employment. And professional success and promotions come at faster rate. The better English you know the better placed you are. Today, all parents have woken up to realize this fact. They want their children to do better in life and for that they make the needed sacrifices to have their children get education in English medium public schools. The number of such public schools and kindergartens are mushrooming all over the urban areas of the country.
The regional languages and Hindi are far behind in availability of books in science, technology and medicine. And this gap in widening-as technology is making progress in snowballing fashion creating new words, terms and expressions in its wake every day. But the progress of Hindi has not been badly hurt by this fact. It is also running in the parallel lingua-franca lane making progress. Hindi movies have played a great role in taking Hindi to the farthest corners of the country and abroad. The progress of Hindi and English has been supplementary in a way. The readership of Hindi newspapers has outscored every other language including English. Hindi has already become the language of everyday life. English will continue to be the language of higher education, the administration at centre and states, trade, commerce, technology based industries, science and upper classes of the society. Thus, English and Hindi both are in for good times. Many people believe that English will become second mother tongue of Indians in a period of time.
