English is our language; only we have to own it

The three-language formula being implemented at school level under the NEP2020 project has created a dilemma regarding the status of English language. The CBSE operating under NEP guidelines considers English a foreign language. Now, students are required to learn two Indian languages alongside a foreign language, and if English is a foreign language, the choice with regard to other global languages being widely used –French, Spanish, Mandarin, etc. — becomes unfortunately limited, which is not a good news.

It would hypocritical to say that English is a totally foreign language. If it were so, it would not have been recognized as the medium of inter-state communication in our constitution. Besides, while Article 343 originally allowed English to be used for all official purposes for 15 years, the period was extended indefinitely by the Official Languages Act, 1963, making English virtually an associate official language. Various adjuncts of the state like legislatures in some states, and judiciary on the whole continue to use English for official purposes. Apart from it, we may remind ourselves that English has been used since pre-independence times by litterateurs and spiritualists, and above all, by freedom fighters who used English to fight the English colonialists.

So far as the use of English language in our times is concerned, we know that in common parlance, English words are widely used in all regional languages. If we consider the number of English-knowing people – those who know it as their first, second or third language — then Indians are proportionately double of the people in England. Meta places this number second only to that for USA. So, let’s not treat English as a language of non-Indians only. It is very much our language. The only problem is that we have not made it our own.

What do we mean by owning it is that it should not remain the language of the elite class or a language of power, nor be the lingua franca, but of anyone in the country who chooses to use it like any other language. For this, we need to act at various levels. Simple communication is one aspect, the other is academic or domain-specific use ranging from journalism to medicine to governance and diplomatic levels, etc.

Taking up the communicative English that students learn at the school level, we know that learning English is a big problem for a vast majority of students, who study in rural areas or in ordinary schools in cities. Even the ones studying in hi-fi public schools, not all are good at English. The problem is encountered majorly in spoken and written English. Speaking like an Englishman becomes the benchmark of a good student even if he or she lacks in applying satisfactorily the grammatical rules or has a shallow knowledge of the subject being talked about. This is also felt in our society at large. This slant towards polished pronunciation –remnant of colonial mindset — must stop. It would be interesting to quote the British linguist David Crystal who said long ago that the future of English pronunciation lay with the Indians because they would constitute the largest number of English-speaking people in future. That time has indeed arrived. At a seminar, I accosted him to elicit his present views, and he was forthcoming that he heard the Indian accent whenever he stepped into the Oxford Street or any other street of London market!

We spend a lot on language labs in schools and thousands of teaching shops attract their clientele promising to polish the spoken English. Of course, when it comes to clearing IELTS or TOEFL to study or work abroad, it becomes a necessity. Also, for those entering the profession of English teaching, it is understandable. But for all other categories of people even at the senior level, it is certainly not necessary to speak proper RP English or BBC English or Yankee English. When Americans, Canadians, Australians can have their individual pronunciational pattern, why not Indians? Understanding different accents and pronunciations of English is actually a necessity in this globalized world due to international trade and commerce linkages. So, why be fussy about it?

It is as necessary for an Indian to understand the way a Chinese or African speaks English, as it is for them to understand native Indian use of spoken English. There should be no hierarchy in this respect. This will remove the inferiority complex which the students or common people in India develop while interacting with a pucca English-speaking Indian or non-Indian. Americans have even simplified the spelling of English words to some extent. Maybe we can do in India at some stage, which will further ease the learning and use of English language for common Indians.

Owning English language has not to be limited to the use of Indian pronunciation. Going beyond, we also need to check the curriculum in schools where poems or stories by English or American writers are prescribed for study at an early stage. Despite the noble motive that literature teaches you of other cultures, such writings are found to be problematic in ordinary rural and urban school students due to their alien cultural context. We have a good number of Indians who write in English or the regional writers whose works have been translated into English.

My own survey of English novels produced in the first two decades of the 21st century places the number of novels by Indians at 1400. Such novels and other forms of literary compositions, if these use Indian background, situation or philosophy, then these would be found to be much easier for students to enjoy because of cultural connect. That should be another step in making English amenable to ordinary students. Lastly, if we are ablet to apply Indian literary theories in place of western theories to appreciation of literature, that will surely be the final step in making us feel English as our own language.

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