Today, on the English language day, we ponder on the influence and significance of English in India. While English is a global language today there’s no denying that after Hindi, English is the most spoken language in India.
It was during the British Raj when India was a British Colony that the English language was imposed on India. People who aspired to acquire higher jobs and positions had to learn English. The British rulers wanted to establish a whole new class of Indians who thought like the British and adopted their ideology. Lord Macaulay was of the opinion the traditional Indian education would get the natives attached to their culture and traditions, which would not help colonial rule. They needed Indian clerks and interpreters. Thus Lord Macaulay started what he called his, “civilising mission!”. He wanted to establish a whole new class of people, “Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”
Added to that the English missionaries who came to India set up English medium schools and colleges. University education in India today remains in English. Prof. Joseph Lo Bianco from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education University of Melbourne is a professor of Language and Literary Education who says, “English is within the constitution of India. It is the co-official language. It dominates many areas of Indian life.” He goes on to add, “I don’t think they should just function in English, because I think this removes many opportunities. I think we appreciate and value multilingualism and English within multilingualism.”
Source: Pixabay (Creative Commons)
Even while conversing in Hindi or other regional languages, Indians inadvertently use a lot of English words. Interestingly enough, this has given rise to the emergence of “Hinglish.”
On being asked about “Indian English” Prof. Lo Bianco says, “When Indians use English its frequently communication full of Indian cultural norms and ideas and ways of communicating and this is, therefore, an Indian language. Like Malaysian English is a Malaysian language.”
While hundreds of English words are used in the Indian languages, the English language itself has adopted many words from Hindi and other Indian languages. Consider English words like – cot which comes from khaat (खाट), bandana from the Hindi bandhnaa (बांधना), juggernaut from Jagannath (जगनाथ), punch from panj (पन्ज) which was a drink made from 5 ingridients, karma from (कर्म) and of course the list can go on…
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