Excitement has taken over at least some parts of the country with the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. People are joining it in droves because they see hope of a new world. But it may not be such an easy path to beat. The ‘old world’ will always pull the strings backwards. Just recently, a leading UP politician again brought up an issue that gets flogged intermittently- English and its use in India.
Mr Politician vows that he won’t allow English to be used in Parliament. He rakes up again the language-is-culture issue. Through the berating of English, he hopes to come across as patriotic and supportive of the great Indian culture. I think that many people would agree with a few things: Beating up English proves nothing of your patriotic credentials; allowing English in the work place or school in no way means doing away with India’s beautiful, varied culture of a myriad languages; English is the language of the world.
If the argument against English is that all parliamentarians don’t speak it then probably someone needs to tell us which one language can bind Indians together. The truth is that if we favour Hindi or any other Indian language there’s enough reason for others to fight for their mother tongues to get that status. But English is as close to, or distant from, any part of India. It is for us to decide whether to make it our friend or foe.
A recent study by the NCAER threw up results that most of us would know instinctively. It said that people fluent in English earn 30 per cent more. Yet, only about 25 per cent of students get their higher education in English medium schools in UP, Bihar as compared to 75 per cent in the southern states. Currently only 20 per cent of Indians speak English of which four per cent could be considered fluent. The author of the study says, “Politicians who don’t like English are captains of a sinking ship. Higher education in English helps us get better integrated into the globalised, organised labour market.”
I can vet this. In the training I have done over these years I have had several people say to me that their lack of fluency in English makes them less confident. They say that travelling to other countries for this one reason makes them nervous. I can recall a case where this gentleman- with very sound credentials- refusing a promotion because it entailed going abroad and working in English.
Not surprising then that a country like China is pumping in big money to get its people fluent in English. A few years back, I remember, the Maharashtra government schools had started a course to teach English to its teachers.
We have a historical strength as we have a base in English already. We have plenty of trainable resource here. We just need to support, and build on it.
Mr Politician vows that he won’t allow English to be used in Parliament. He rakes up again the language-is-culture issue. Through the berating of English, he hopes to come across as patriotic and supportive of the great Indian culture. I think that many people would agree with a few things: Beating up English proves nothing of your patriotic credentials; allowing English in the work place or school in no way means doing away with India’s beautiful, varied culture of a myriad languages; English is the language of the world.
If the argument against English is that all parliamentarians don’t speak it then probably someone needs to tell us which one language can bind Indians together. The truth is that if we favour Hindi or any other Indian language there’s enough reason for others to fight for their mother tongues to get that status. But English is as close to, or distant from, any part of India. It is for us to decide whether to make it our friend or foe.
A recent study by the NCAER threw up results that most of us would know instinctively. It said that people fluent in English earn 30 per cent more. Yet, only about 25 per cent of students get their higher education in English medium schools in UP, Bihar as compared to 75 per cent in the southern states. Currently only 20 per cent of Indians speak English of which four per cent could be considered fluent. The author of the study says, “Politicians who don’t like English are captains of a sinking ship. Higher education in English helps us get better integrated into the globalised, organised labour market.”
I can vet this. In the training I have done over these years I have had several people say to me that their lack of fluency in English makes them less confident. They say that travelling to other countries for this one reason makes them nervous. I can recall a case where this gentleman- with very sound credentials- refusing a promotion because it entailed going abroad and working in English.
Not surprising then that a country like China is pumping in big money to get its people fluent in English. A few years back, I remember, the Maharashtra government schools had started a course to teach English to its teachers.
We have a historical strength as we have a base in English already. We have plenty of trainable resource here. We just need to support, and build on it.
Yes, I have seen how English is becoming a must-know for even technical people. In the earlier days, it was widely believed that a technical person did not need language skills that much. But today people themselves realise that they need to be able to use English effectively to grow in the work place.
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ReplyDeletevery nice article Nirupama... three cheers...
Vriti Khanna
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ReplyDeleteAmazing analysis and thoughts.
Abhishek Mathur