Thejas Jagannath
The Influence of English in My Subcontinent
While reading Leila Seth's 'On Balance', a first woman Chief Justice on a state High Court, I learned that the English language was widespread during the colonial period, before independence in 1947. Leila's family was thoroughly “westernised”, having mostly been educated in convent Catholic schools with puritanical values. She states that her thought processes and behaviours were completely westernised because of her family background.
She says “..I used to be embarrassed that I always thought in English and was reluctant to acknowledge this fact" and continues "...because my parents, like most parents, were anxious that we do well in school, they spoke to us in English even at home, so that we become confident and fluent in the language” (p.10). Such adherence to the English language is not uncommon among Indian families residing in India. Books like these open a new perspective into the influence of the English language in Indian society, but also in a variety of other post-colonial societies.
This topic fascinates me because I can relate to the concept of maintaining English as my first language. I attended higher education institutions in New Zealand and in England, and my family has strong ties to the English language. The newspapers we get at home are written in English, the books my parents and grandparents read are vastly English, so the feeling of English being a “foreign” language disappears when one accepts it as their own language. I am not a rare case in India, being instead a product of post-colonial India with its ties to the language of the colonising power.
I see a lot of international influence all around me and I’m not sure if I’m thankful for it or if I detest the fact that Indians do not value India as highly as they do other countries. Other countries seem to be more valued because of their better governmental functions and provisions. The fact that I have degrees from an Anglo-Saxon country has had a tremendous impact on me, especially since I chose to stay and work in India. Just as immigrants are devalued in European nations, migrants, even those who have chosen to stay away for a long time, are valued in India. Many migrants decide to stay away from India to never return again because of prior financial circumstances. They may not realise that their temperament may be based on western ideologies and principles.
However, as this BBC article informs, Indian English and the accent with which Indians in India choose to speak English varies from the accents commonly heard in western cities like London and New York. As a result, people struggle to settle in western nations as immigrants because of the language differences. I cannot, however, relate to this because my accent is distinct with New Zealand vocabulary as I studied there for 10 years. However, I do have immigrant friends who needed to take many English tests to settle abroad. It also depends on the school one goes to in India and whether English is the dominant language.
As the article states, “...even the colloquial Hindustani of Bollywood films is spoken by only 40% of the population, concentrated in the "cow belt" of northern India.” India has many languages of its own but English still serves as the common language that binds most people in the country together. In other words English is the "...country's only Lingua Franca”. This has
led to some serious consequences in the way the country is run, who governs it and how powerful one appears, as indicated by the level and quality of their spoken English. With this, I suppose Indians have an advantage over other Asian countries such as China, who remain
protectionist of their own languages, cultures and traditions.
According to an article by the British Council, “...English language arrived in South Asia as a result of colonisation”, but the eminent consequences of colonisation has had a tremendous impact on how the language is used, and the fame it has gained in a country that still struggles to be “independent”. The Anglo Saxon influence exceeds beyond denial, and one that looks to be steadily surviving. Most of our schools were run by Christian missionaries (Indians converted into Christians), which offered the choice of English as a first language. This option came into being because English was regarded as the most adequate medium of instruction for the job market, a medium of international communication and even survival, to get money within the Indian subcontinent and abroad.
Something amused me on my recent travels around Bangalore City, the fact that Britain's colonisation of India remains all too apparent. From new malls, Anglo-Indian architecture, wide roads to people cultivating English habits. It is no surprise that new immigrants are shifting to
Bangalore. People commonly feel a sense of belonging to their nation of origin, but when
they're constantly influenced by external cultures, a lot of questions spring to mind.
Although people immerse themselves in Indian traditions, many middle class Indians are found speaking more fluently in English than in their local dialect. Although Hindi and state language Kannada are mandatory for school-children, they are not as revered as English throughout India.
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