Language of upward mobility

Here we go again. language chauvinists in Goa have launched disruptive protests against the state governments proposal to allow primary and secondary schools to offer English as the optional medium of instruction in addition to Marathi and Konkani.A bunch of rabble, associated with Hindutva forces, stopped traffic in Panjim recently and threatened to hold the state hostage to their misbegotten worldview. Its not just about Goa, its all over India. They are the same people who protested the screening of Slumdog Millionaire; the same people who assaulted women emerging from a bar in Mangalore; the same who renamed the airport and the railway terminus in Bombay, and who rechristened Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. English, both as a language and our cultural heritage, is a convenient horse to flog. Increasingly though, the burgeoning middle class is embracing it as the key to success in a modernising country. Thus, while politicians go on renaming sprees, ‘Indianising names of city streets and entire cities, real estate developers across the country sell their projects with Western-sounding names such as ‘Provence, ‘Belvedere and what not. Coming back to Goas language disturbances, even the usually rational Mano-har Parrikar, opposition leader and erstwhile chief minister, backed the obscurantists protests. He said if children are educated in English, they will look down on their parents who dont speak the language. He is right. The problem with the English language is that it is subversive. To accept it is to accept the cultural and philosophical worldview of the Enlightenment. It requires acceptance of the rules of courtesy, egalitarianism and right of dissent. In the Hindutva worldview, these values dont count for much. Instead the focus is on superstition, indulgence, exclusivity and conformism. Children schooled in English wont easily buy into backwardness. If you look around today, journeyman classes that offer students English language proficiency are mushrooming everywhere. Parents and children know that to make their way in the world, English is essential. They have no time for chauvinist arguments against the language. Parents just want their children to get ahead and like all middle class Indians, place their faith in education. Its high time obscurantists who oppose English learning became aware that English has always been an Indian language, and that in recent years the number of people who use English as the lingua franca has increased exponentially. A new form of Indian English has taken shape which incorporates Indian idioms. Today globally, literary salons celebrate Indian writers in English for introducing Indian cultural flavours to the world. I can name at least a dozen and their number is probably in the hundreds. Therefore its madness for people in India to dismiss English as a foreign language. The Supreme Courts judgements are in English as is government legislation. They may be translated into various languages but the first draft is written in English. Vernacular chauvinists, who disparage the use of English in India, are products of a feudal mindset that still regards India as a long-suffering victim of colonial…