English:

Can Indians Do Without It?

GRK Murty

Language is a tool—a tool to communicate, and prosper; prosper

socially, psychologically and economically; and ultimately be
happy with oneself. Getting down to the brass tacks, language,
incidentally, has no race, caste, creed, and religion. Though Greek
and Latin were not from Britain, its elite were not considered elite
unless they had mastery over these languages; Sir Isaac Newton
wrote Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
(“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”) in Latin.
“How beauteous mankind is!” It has developed language for the
‘formation and expression of human thoughts and aspirations’. It
has no ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ shades; it embraces everyone and
outcasts none; nor does it warrant to be outcast—it is only a
question of knowing or not knowing it.

The more languages a man learns, and the more countries he

visits to meet people and experience their cultural moorings,
perceptions, and aspirations, the more he becomes a
‘humanist’—like M N Roy who is said to have learnt 16 languages
and visited some 20 countries.

And English is a language—a “language of international science,

commerce and public relations”; a language which India has been
romancing with for quite a number of decades; a language that
has, unlike many Indian languages that have mostly remained
even to date as languages of mere literature with little or no
scientific and technical terminology, by virtue of its travel across
continents become rich in scientific and technical words, has
helped many Indian boys and girls become bright scientists and
business leaders on various global platforms; a language, thanks
to which, India is today exporting the voice of its girls and boys to
earn a few more dollars.
English—today’s Sanskrit—has indeed become a link language of
India, a nation of bewildering multiplicity of languages, facilitating
a Bengali speak to a Marathi; a Punjabi to a Tamilian; a Gujarathi
to an Oriya. It is English, as the tool of communication that is
‘binding’ the academic India ‘together’. It is India’s language of
‘international intercourse.’ It continues to remain as the associate
official language of India.

It is no exaggeration to say that no person can keep abreast of

scientific developments, for that matter modern developments in
any walk of life, unless he masters the language in which more
than two thirds of the world’s periodical literature is produced.
And that lingua franca of the world is English.

China—a country that maintains a growth rate of around 8% even

in today’s economic meltdown across the globe—is envious of our
competency in English that catapulted us on to the global
pedestal of computer sciences, and is struggling to catch up with
us and also dethrone us from the pedestal by mastering English
with singular devotion—teaching English has indeed, become a
national mission of China.
Today, no one is prepared to lose the advantage that one has
derived from one’s relationship with English for more than a
century. A growing awareness that to be a patriotic Indian one
need not ignore English is taking deeper roots in today’s youth
that is enjoying the fruits of liberalization and globalization. They
are rooting for more of English, for any attempt to minimize the
value of a language that is most widely used in the domain of
science and technology is sure to handicap us in a competitive
world. Any deviation from this proven importance of English is
incompatible with our cherished goal of becoming the economic
power of the 21st century.

Also, “experience shows that a society”, as Eric Ashby

propounded in his Chancellor’s Lecture in Johannesburg,
“however successful it may have been in the past, will not long
survive if it cannot cope with the tasks of a new era,” and hence
“every civilized society tends to develop institutions which will
enable it to acquire, assimilate, and advance knowledge relevant
to the tasks which, it is thought, will confront it in the future.” He
further adds: “To forbid the student to learn where and what he
will, or the teacher to teach whom and how he will is to put a curb
on the hazardous adventure of thinking; and a nation, where
thinking is rationed, simply cannot survive in today’s world.”

But man the builder is man the destroyer too. On the historic
night of India’s independence, Dr. Radhakrishnan reminded the
people of “our national faults of character, our domestic
despotism, our intolerance, which have assumed the different
forms of obscurantism, of narrow-mindedness, of superstitious
bigotry” and warned that “when power outstrips ability, we will
fall on evil days”—days when we may fancy forbidding the kids
from learning a particular language, forbid the teachers from
teaching a specified language, and so on.

However, the choice of language to be mastered to acquire the

necessary competency to compete in the global job-market is, of
course, the right of an individual. And the Constitution of India
guarantees that freedom of choice to every Indian. And exercising
that choice is the gift of democracy.

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