Tuesday, May 01, 2012

English : A Boon or a Curse



I came back from China on 27th April after an Eleven days trip. It was extremely difficult to communicate there, as the number of people capable of speaking or understanding English in China, was extremely limited.
With my Indian mind set, I could in a knee jerk reaction,perceive that Chinese people who do not know English are very Backward. But taking into cognizance their infrastructure, their total dominance over International Trade, their rate of Growth, one has to admit the obvious that the Chinese state is way ahead of India.
The inference that is drawn out of this dichotomy is that Knowledge of English has no bearing on the development of a Nation. India way ahead of China in their knowledge of English is lagging way behind their rate of growth.
Thence the question that arose in my mind was that ‘Has English been a Boon or a Curse for India’.
     
There are 36 nations in the world that have democratic from of governance. India perhaps is the only developing nation that fits in this bracket of Democracy.
To trace the roots of this aberration one has to delve into the history of India. Lord Maculay an Indian Civil Service Officer, in 1835 advocated English language over Sanskrit and Arabic as the medium of education for the “emancipation of Natives”. The stated objective was couched in diabolical words. The actual objective was manufacturing of English educated Babus to run the state machinery.
I have a strong perception that had the English Masters been smart enough, they would had taken pains to learn Indian language and administer through their acquired knowledge of Indian Languages.
To transfer the burden of learning a foreign language they brought in English as the medium of education for Indian Natives. The consequence was that the uninitiated Indian now armed with the knowledge of English language was able to rummage through Rousseau and Voltaire . The British Government was now teaching Indians revolutionary literature and hoping to make clerks out of them.
Though substantial numbers did join the bureaucracy and became their stooges, yet a significant number of Indians did hoist their flags of revolt. The breed of rebels in India was largely made up of lawyers trained in Macaulay inspired English medium education. Bred on Rousseau and Voltaire the concept of civil rights and liberty became their mainstay.
This accelerated the Freedom Movement and the ouster of British Government. Hence if the British Bureaucrats had learnt Indian Languages and the knowledge of English Language was alien to the natives, it is unlikely that the ideas of rebellion would had germinated in such an environment. Rousseau and Voltaire were not available in Indian languages and without their influence concepts of civil liberties would had remained incongruous. There was no history of a Freedom movement or any other civil liberty movement during the long Mughal Rule.
The same train of thought ushered in Democracy at the stroke of a Pen, with no cooling period. India till then had had only Imperial / Monarchy form of Government. These leaders did not vacillate even for a moment and formed a Republic with powers vested in People.   
At the time of Independence there was a move to declare Hindi as the National Language. Tamilnadu or Madras led the opposition to Hindi. The classic reply of Kamraj deserves to be quoted. When it was cited that Hindi was spoken by the largest number of Indians and hence deserved to be given the place of National Language, Kamraj retorted that “Rats are the most commonly found animals in India, hence by similar logic can we make a rat as the national animal.”  He even threatened to secede from India. The Central Government wilted and put off the declaration of a National language till some time in future. The some time is yet to arrive even after Sixty Years.
Today India has about 20 officially recognized languages. With strains of Parochialism running high, there was a need for a link language. English fitted the bill.
The first speech by the head of state Pt. Nehru on the eve of independence was made in English and this set the trend. Suddenly English was the language of the State and the Elite. With the level of 12% literacy on the eve of Independence, English was certainly an alien language to at least 90% of the population. Today though the rate of literacy is respectable 75%,yet access to English education is extremely limited.  Still most of the state’s work and commerce is transacted in English. This has made state and education inaccessible to a large number of people. Young people first struggle to master the foreign language and then the subject of education.   
English has become the Berlin Wall dividing the East and the West, today in India. People living in the Western part are unaware and unconcerned  of the hurdles faced by the people living in the eastern side and the people living in the Eastern side can merely look with an envy at the people living in the western side of the wall without mustering up the courage to scale the wall.
Without being taught in Mother tongue one’s growth would always remain stunted. No Nation has progressed on the bulwark of a Foreign Language. Neither can India.
Hence when English has been a Boon for India before Independence it has become a curse for the development of India after Independence.





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9 comments:

aSTha said...

true that..lot of disparity between who all can speak-write in english and others who can barely understand. The mass, for which the government is working for did long way back forgot, that people who understand english are less and limited to cities..still, large part of India lives is village or suburbs where reach of english is negligible. How easy it is to forget the language in which we all can talk and adopt a foreign language to cope up with it. Happens only in India.

sarcastico said...

No Nation has progressed on the bulwark of a Foreign Language. What is your source for that claim? English itself is not the native language of England and certainly not of Scotland, Ireland, or Wales. Celtic, German. The Anglo's were one of many tribes on the British Isles. Their original languages are largely lost to us. English is an amalgam of the many languages and many peoples who lived, invaded, and colonized the islands and who eventually created the British Empire.

kuldip said...

Look at all the developed nations.They all have their own native language.None has been saddled with a foreign language.My Blog is about China.They too have developed with one language as their National Language and that is Mandarin.

Rahul said...

Amazing article.. I am myself an advocate of English at most places, but reading your article I would accept that I agree with all your points and I think you are right...

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Dr. Manish Kumar Mishra said...

आदरणीय मित्रों ,
सादर नमस्कार .

वेब मीडिया और हिंदी का वैश्विक परिदृश्य - इस विषय पे एक पुस्तक प्रकाशित करने क़ी योजना पे मैं , भाई रविन्द्र प्रभात और शैलेश भारतवासी काम कर रहे हैं . आप का आलेख पुस्तक के लिए महत्वपूर्ण है , आप से अनुरोध है क़ि आप अपना आलेख भेज कर इस प्रकाशन कार्य में सहयोग दें . आलेख ३० जून तक भेजने क़ी कृपा करें . आलेख के लिए कुछ उप विषय इस प्रकार हैं -


मीडिया का बदलता स्वरूप और इन्टरनेट

व्यक्तिगत पत्रकारिता और वेब मीडिया

वेब मीडिया और हिंदी

हिंदी के विकास में वेब मीडिया का योगदान

भारत में इन्टरनेट का विकास

वेब मीडिया और शोसल नेटवरकिंग साइट्स

लोकतंत्र और वेब मीडिया

वेब मीडिया और प्रवासी भारतीय

हिंदी ब्लागिंग स्थिति और संभावनाएं

इंटरनेट जगत में हिंदी की वर्तमान स्थिति

हिंदी भाषा के विकाश से जुड़ी तकनीक और संभावनाएं

इन्टरनेट और हिंदी ; प्रौद्योगिकी सापेक्ष विकास यात्रा

व्यक्तिगत पत्रकारिता और ब्लागिंग

हिंदी ब्लागिंग पर हो रहे शोध कार्य

हिंदी की वेब पत्रकारिता

हिंदी की ई पत्रिकाएँ

हिंदी के अध्ययन-अध्यापन में इंटरनेट की भूमिका

हिंदी भाषा से जुड़े महत्वपूर्ण साफ्टव्येर

हिंदी टंकण से जुड़े साफ्टव्येर और संभावनाएं

वेब मीडिया , सामाजिक सरोकार और व्यवसाय

शोसल नेटवरकिंग का इतिहास

वेब मीडिया और अभिव्यक्ति के खतरे

वेब मीडिया बनाम सरकारी नियंत्रण की पहल

वेब मीडिया ; स्व्तंत्रता बनाम स्वछंदता

इन्टरनेट और कापी राइट

वेब मीडिया और हिंदी साहित्य

वेब मीडिया पर उपलब्ध हिंदी की पुस्तकें

हिंदी वेब मीडिया और रोजगार

भारत में इन्टरनेट की दशा और दिशा

हिंदी को विश्व भाषा बनाने में तकनीक और इन्टरनेट का योगदान

बदलती भारती शिक्षा पद्धति में इन्टरनेट की भूमिका

लोकतंत्र , वेब मीडिया और आम आदमी

सामाजिक न्याय दिलाने में वेब मीडिया का योगदान

भारतीय युवा पीढ़ी और इन्टरनेट

वेब मीडिया सिद्धांत और व्यव्हार


आप अपने आलेख भेज सहयोग करें , इन उप विषयों के अतिरिक्त भी अन्य विषय पे आप लिखने के लिए स्वतन्त्र हैं । आप के सुझाओ का भी स्वागत है ।

आलेख यूनिकोड में भेजें यदि आपको यूनिकोड में टाइप करने में असुविधा महसूस हो रही है तो कृपया कृतिदेव के किसी फॉन्ट में आलेख भेज दें।

आप इस साहित्यिक अनुष्ठान मे जिस तरह भी सहयोग देना चाहें, आप अवश्य सूचित करें ।

डॉ मनीष कुमार मिश्रा
अध्यक्ष - हिंदी विभाग
के . एम . अग्रवाल महाविद्यालय 421301
गांधारी विलेज, पडघा रोड , कल्याण - पश्चिम
महाराष्ट्र
8080303132
manishmuntazir@gmail.com
www.onlinehindijournal.blogspot.com
www.kmagrawalcollege.ओर्ग
http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Hindi-Seminar-2013/351281781550754

Unknown said...

good one...

keep it up...

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महोदय,
नमस्कार!
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