While it is true that English is integral for communication between states, the Central Government and foreign companies, is it really necessary to use it within a state where most people have the same mother tongue? To be perfectly clear, no reasonable person could advocate that English should not be taught. However, unlike these nations, the language of the majority is falling into disarray because of strict English use with a prejudice due to governments and companies needlessly conducting intrastate business (with great difficulty) in English when they could reach far more people in the local language. Take Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, for example, where Telugu is the local language: These two states combined have a larger population than France, South Korea and Turkey.
As such, the states in India are generally drawn on linguistic lines with each state having a history of literature, art, dance, politics and value system that is its own being similar to the European Union in this regard.
The most spoken languages in India, according to India’s census data, are Hindi (422m), Bengali (83m), Telugu (75m), Marathi (71m), Tamil (60m), Urdu (51m), Gujarati (46m), and Punjabi (29m). All of this while the vast majority is able to communicate in their respective mother tongues. Curiously, many states in India have attempted to make English the medium of instruction for all schools in an attempt to assuage the demands of the poor however, the shortage of teachers who can even speak English is surreal. It began with the travelled elite, boomed within the middle class that was hired by multinational companies, and trickled to the vast majority hoping to escape their destitution but unable to afford private English education. It remains that Indians have come to believe that their nation’s prosperity, as well as their own, is wholly dependent upon not just learning English, but exclusively learning it as a first language. There is an enormous range of nuanced reasons as to why English has become the language of the elite and of governance in India, even putting aside the original Macaulyism. Why English has become the language of the elite Moreover, the academic conversation on this matter is controlled by those in the cities while the situation is much more dire in the towns, villages, hamlets and tribal regions. Make no mistake, simply because an auto driver, a maid or a store employee knows his or her numbers, colors and a few other cursory words in English does not mean they truly speak it, let alone read it. This goes beyond a basic democratic right to just being inherently illogical and prejudiced. By not having medical instructions, food ingredient labels and nutritional information, government forms, access to the courts and politicians, street signs, and even movie tickets in their mother tongue, they are being harmed in the most discriminatory of manners.
It is incomprehensible that the majority of people in India are being oppressed by the mere lack of knowledge of a language. Therefore, a person’s socioeconomic status in Indian society is approximately in line with his or her fluency in the language. One need not mention that universities and even government jobs require fluency in English, as mandated by the ruling elite. This discrimination has become so systemic that the elite and middle classes send their children to English private schools while the vast poor send theirs to the government schools of their mother tongue. This is the world that hundreds of millions of Indians live in simply because the elite prefer English. Imagine living in a nation where you, a member of the majority, are unable to read the label of the medicine you must give your child, the menu at a local restaurant or even the warning signs of the road a place where you are unable to comprehend the government document officiating your driver’s license, tax filing or marriage.
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