INTRODUCTION
“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.” – Geoffrey Willans
India is a mélange of cultures, traditions, and languages as well. Republic of India has 29 States, 25 high courts and 22 official languages recognized by the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. . Still there are more languages vying for space in the Eighth Schedule and list is bound to swell. English as in English language in India is a class of varieties of languages spoken in India and among the Indian Diaspora elsewhere. According to the census 2011, 129 million (10.6%) Indians spoke English. 259,678 (0.02%) Indians spoke English as their first language.
It concluded that approximately 83 million Indians (6.8%) reported English as their second language, and 46 million (3.8%) reported it as their third language, making English the second-most spoken language in India. Journalist Manu Joseph, in a 2011 article in The New York Times, wrote that due to the prominence and usage of the language and the desire for English-language education, “English is the de facto national language of India. It is a bitter truth.” In his book, ‘In Search of Indian English: History, Politics and Indigenisation’, Ranjan Kumar Auddy shows that the history of the rise of Indian nationalism and the history of the emergence of Indian English are deeply inter-related.
ENGLISH IN INDIA- A HISTORY
English has been spreading around the world since the 17th century by the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States. English has become the leading
language through all types of print and electronic media. Moreover English is the “lingua franca” in many regions and professional contexts such as science, media and law. Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent marking pattern, with a great contribution from local dialect turning the language into one of our own.
India, the most ancient civilisation, has language at a very important tier to the propagation, preservation of culture history and the legacy itself. Thus there’s a lesser tone of surprise when we say that Tamil followed by Sanskrit are one of the first languages.
On 31stof December, 1600 Queen Elizabeth signed a charter establishing the east India Company thus beginning of the long journey of English in India. As the Britishers began deepening their roots in the Indian subcontinent, English language slowly began to achieve prominence. Not only are the Britishers to be held responsible but even many Indians like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his fellow champions if English wished for western science and technologies to be taught to our people which automatically entailed the flow of the language.
ENGLISH IN INDIA- TODAY
Indian economy is rapidly developing and paving the way to become the most powerful country. This Hercules task has involves the language in a big way imaginable. People are required to have up to date knowledge of different branches of science technology medicine and again language thanks to globalisation the world has become a village and the flow of ideas, commodities, and people is very evident. The ligament holding this one is undoubtedly English language. With about 360 million people speaking English as their first language thus giving another reason to pioneer in the language.
Today, English is the only language favoured by different industries including legal and banking systems, defence, industrial houses and trade and commerce. Moreover, it is still the medium of instruction at many post-graduate institutions. Having knowledge of more than one language is a gift that makes an individual more efficient and skilful in various ways. It is for this reason that even many Indian freedom fighters adopted English as a language to communicate with masses both inside and outside the country. English also helped in bridging the gap between states and regions when the linguistic diversity in India was extremely sharp. Because of all the roles that English played for the nation, our constitution gave it the status of official language in India. English has an undeniably important place in India today. Leading intellectuals and commentators have noted that English is now an Indian language. Indian writers have contributed remarkable new works to the domain of English literature, and taken it in new directions.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.
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