When one hears the word “English” many things cover up the mind instantaneously. One starts to think about one’s future, the present modernisation, and of course, the past British rule which lasted for about two centuries. In our education system, mostly imitated from the western world, the language-queen English has now conquered the territory of every kingdom viz. mathematics, physics, astronomy (not astrology, LoL), biology, humanities, etc.
Probably, the word “English” comes from England – the land of people who once gained control of almost the whole world. And most of its ex-colonies still use its language nonchalantly today. I’m an Indian – the reason I’m writing this article in English.
Here, I just want to clarify that I’m not against English. I see it as an interesting and probably one of the easy-to-learn languages in the world. But the way English has acquired space in our society is somewhat making us “think west”. Again, the western world has given a whale of inventions and philosophical ideologies that were needed to drag the stuck-in-the-mud world into the river of modernisation. But the way we’re adopting western culture and losing sight of the golden Vedic Age is just not justified. (Let’s leave the talk on the Vedic Age for another day).
English is now a global language. And with the word “global”, I mean it. Even in India, children in kindergarten are made to learn it. (We don’t give a damn — and we shouldn’t.) Being multilingual has its benefits — one can express and criticize inter-community thoughts, plus, it improves mental concentration as well — as published in various research papers. However, persecuting the very own mother tongue for the sake of English, as I see things, is not that cool!
Even if we express our concern now, our hands are not free –I mean that we can’t do anything for this at any ground-breaking level. It’s not a matter of holding candles in hands or doing a flag march. The subjects which we’re learning –mathematics, business studies, history, astrophysics or mechatronics or even physical education –all are immersed in the ocean of the British language.
Now, hey, don’t you blame the government or political leaders for it. When our constitution was being drafted, it was denied to make any language the “national language” of the country. Yeah, there were many different lingual groups throughout the diverse land and hence, making one language superior to other ones would have proved to be a grave solution. Our constitution makers didn’t do this for our well-being, but we don’t bother doing this. We have now adopted English as a superior (if not supreme) language sub-consciously. For instance, if a person doesn’t have even the basic English skills, he/she is slammed as illiterate, no matter if he/she is having a Ph.D. in his/her own language. The current generation now makes fun of those who can’t spell crazy English words.
There will neither ever begin a “crusade” against English nor am I dreaming of it. The only thing I want is appropriate respect for other languages and their native speakers. What can I expect more for now? As for English, you know, it’s a necessary evil. What do you think?
