Open Forum English is not the key to prosperity

By Nirmal Laungani, Hong Kong

Continuing our debate on the role of English in India, we present here more articles received in response to the open forum dated July 4, 2004.

?I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or Arabic. But, I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanskrit works. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and Sanskrit books. I would abolish the Sanskrit college at Calcutta. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern: a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.?
?LORD MACAULAY'sMINUTE, FEBRUARY 1835

(In 1834, Lord Macaulay had accepted a position on the Supreme Council of colonial India, in charge of allocating funds for education. He had argued against releasing funds for Sanskrit, Arabic and vernacular teaching, as he claimed that it was a waste of money. Instead, he argued that available funds should be used to teach English and European systems of philosophy, science, history, etc. in order to brainwash India'syoung generation into believing that English education was most necessary if they had to progress).

Some time back, when I had published the first edition of English is not the Key to a Nation'sProsperity, many people had criticised the book by saying that it was unrealistic and against ?progressive and modern values?. They were firm believers in the theory that only that nation can be successful where people would communi-cate with each other in English. As I had mentioned in my previous article, not just was this false but also it was based on fantastic and dangerous presumptions?it simply meant that the first step to progress was to learn English thoroughly, even if it was at the cost of ignoring our own Indian languages. And secondly, this theory went a step further?just knowing English was not enough. One ought to speak English with friends, with family members, on official functions, in business meetings, every-where?basically it meant that English was the key to one'sown as well as the nation'sprosperity! Just by having a good command of this language, a person'svalue would increase greatly.

It clearly shows that Macaulay'sfamous minute of 1835 continues to have a drastic effect on our country'spsyche. Isn'tit ironic, strange that 56 years after Independence, the Education Policy in India continues to suffer from this slavish mentality. It is totally out of tune with the absolute reality of who we are?WE ARE INDIANS, AND AS INDIANS, we should be communicating with each other in Hindi or in our native tongue?not in English. When two Japanese speak in Japanese, two Germans in German, and two Turks in Turkish, how weird that two Indians should speak in English? For Indians to be communicating in English with each other is the worst form of colonialism.

What is taught in Indian schools is a continuation of what Macaulay had intended. When one brave person?Human Resources Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi?attempted to undo the long damage in 1999 by making education more Indian-oriented and pursuing the cause of Indian languages, including Sanskrit?he was dismissed by the ?elitist? crowd and the English-language media as a fanatic and full of ?old ideas?.

What is taught in Indian schools is a continuation of what Macaulay had intended. When one brave person?Human Resources Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi?attempted to undo the long damage in 1999 by making education more Indian-oriented and pursuing the cause of Indian languages, including Sanskrit?he was dismissed by the ?elitist? crowd and the English-language media as a fanatic and full of ?old ideas?.

And so, it continues. In India, people continue thinking that any person not having sufficient knowledge of English is as good as an illiterate. Never mind if he was proficient in Hindi or his native tongue (by this theory, a Japanese scientist not speaking English would be considered an illiterate in India!!!). And thus, everybody will speak or at least attempt to speak in English publicly (even if they might have been speaking in their mother tongue at home). This can be illustrated by the following incidents which occurred during my recent trip to India:

1. I decide to eat in Pizza Hut, located in Mumbai'sposh and suave Juhu neighbourhood. The doorkeeper greets me with ?Good afternoon, Sir,? and my order is taken in English. Thrice, I try to switch the conversation in Hindi, but to no avail because I am answered back only in English. Great. While waiting for my meal, I visit the washroom. The sweeper stops me at the door and speaks in his broken English ?Toilet now cleaning, you waiting 5 minutes.? Now, this is getting too much. Even the sweeper is attempting to speak in English. I return to my seat and while waiting for my meal, manage to overhear the conversation of the family sitting on the next table. The mother telling the kid that she likes the way he is progressing in school, the husband telling his wife that they will watch a movie tomorrow, etc., all normal family talk, but only in English. The table behind me is full of youngsters deciding on which discotheque they should visit and, but natural, the spoken language is only English and that too, full of American slang words. By this time, my patience is wearing thin. Luckily, my vegetarian pizza arrives. The manager walks by the restaurant and asks me in his accented English if I am enjoying the meal. Now, enough is enough. I ask him in English if there was any unwritten rule in their restaurant of speaking to customers only in English. Stunned at my question, he hesitates and then answers in Hindi (thank God, I could hear some Hindi finally!) that I am free to speak in Hindi. I tell him the point over here is, why do you people speak with customers in English in the first place? After all, we are sitting in Mumbai, not New York!
2. The next day, I am in McDonalds branch on Linking Road, also in Mumbai. A woman in front of me struggles to tell the waiter that it is her first time in McDonalds and she is not very comfortable reading in English. She wants the waiter to tell her exactly what she should order, or to read her the menu and tell her what is what in Hindi? I wonder?such a situation would not be there in any other country. In China, the menu is only in Chinese. In other countries, it is only in their national language. If at all, there is a crowd in India who prefer reading in English, why should others who are not good in English or prefer reading in Hindi suffer? The least fast food chains/restaurants like McDo-nalds/others can do is to print a bi-lingual menu. Why take it for granted that a person would want to read the menu in English?
3. I take the train to Pune. I make friendship with a middle-aged couple. The gentleman happens to own a small-scale factory while his wife teaches in a convent school. I ask her why students studying in convent schools are punished if they speak in Hindi or regional languages with their classmates. This creates a negative impre-ssion in their minds that speaking in their native tongue is inferior to speaking in English. She ignores my question but instead tells me what she firmly believes. That, it is very necessary for all who can afford it to send their children to English-medium schools. She even suggests government subsidies for this purpose! Not stopping, she continues that only if today'skids speak perfect English, would they stand a chance of succeeding when they, go abroad to study or work? So, that is it. Suddenly the entire thrust of education should, according to this lady, be geared towards people emigrating to foreign countries!!! This is the level of confidence that this lady has in our country'seconomy that she foresees that everyone should, at the earliest opportunity, start life abroad!

Of course, one doesn'tneed to travel to India to witness what is going on in the minds of people there, especially those belonging to the elitist and upper class. All you need to do is to switch on your Indian cable channel. I can highlight the following instances that I have seen recently:

1. I watch the Star (NDTV) news channel in English. The reporter asks a question to a leading Delhi politician?Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra. Prof. Malhotra answers in English. The reporter reminds him to speak in Hindi. And poor Malhotraji has to switch from speaking in English. Compare this with the Hindi Zee News network. When a similar instance occurs and if the person interviewed speaks in English instead of Hindi, Zee News network takes the trouble of writing the subtitles in Hindi while the person continues speaking in English. Zee News network will never gather the courage to ask that person to speak in Hindi, even if he was from north India. Why? For the very same reason?it is expected that if a person is from a rich background, a leading politician, socialite, filmstar, businessman, he would definitely be speaking in English. Because English is the language of the elite. So, Star News network will pursue that person to speak in English. But, Zee News network will never do the same, because of the very same reasons. Successful people, the elite, filmstars, of course, they will never converse in Hindi! Because that will be below their dignity.
2. Coming back to another programme, Zee TV'sJeena Isi Ka Naam Hai is shown on Fridays?where the host, Farooque Sheikh or Suresh Oberoi?converse only in Hindi?but the guest who is interviewed?in most cases?answers back in English. This includes people as diverse as Hindi filmstars Aishwarya Rai and actor Aftab Shivdasani'smother?their replies are always in English. This creates a very curious situation?questions in Hindi, answers in English. What does one make of it? On a Hindi network, on a programme conducted in Hindi, people who know perfect Hindi prefer speaking in English. There is something terribly wrong in all of this. There can be no other parallel found in any other country.
3. And speaking about film artistes, what can be more bizarre and absurd than the annual Filmfare awards which are held to nominate the best performances in the Hindi film industry?but where the entire programme is conducted in English!!! And not just that, when the nominated best actor or the actress, best director or playback singer acknowledges his award, he always addresses the audience in English?only in English!!! And to think of it that the awards were being distributed for the Hindi film industry, not Hollywood movies!!!

I am answered back only in English. Great. While waiting for my meal, I visit the washroom. The sweeper stops me at the door and speaks in his broken English.

Does the widespread speaking of English, as in India, make a difference to that country'sprogress and prosperity? A brilliant research done on this subject, by Sankrant Sanu ?THE ENGLISH CLASS SYSTEM? (whose article will be published in the next issue of Sandesh Bharati), details the list of the top 20 richest countries, whose population exceeds five million. This list includes Switzerland (No.1 position? official languages German/French/Italian), Denmark (No.2 position?official language Danish) and Japan (No.3 position?official language Japanese) all the way to Israel (No.16 position?official language?Hebrew) and South Korea (No.20 position?official language?Korean) as well as English-speaking nations like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The most important message that Shri Sanu conveys through this list is: ?In none of the top 20 richest countries is the language of official business (and the primary medium of education at the school level) different than the native language used by the general population. Furthermore, the top 20 are not restricted to European languages alone? Japan and Korea have done perfectly well economically by using their native languages as the medium of education, including the sciences

Then he makes a Table of the 20 poorest nations, whose populations are over five million. Out of these 20 nations, save Nepal and Ethiopia, the official languages of these countries are either English, French or Portugese. And these official languages are the languages of colonisation that are foreign to the native culture of these countries. The vast majority of this list of the poorest countries has a class system similar to India, where the language and culture of the colonial masters is considered superior to the native languages, with much of the government and businesses being conducted in the colonial language.?

Thus Shri Sanu completes his data by saying, ?There are more countries in this list of poorest countries with English as the official language than in the list of richest countries?obviously that hasn'thelped their economic good.?