I deeply resent the fact that English as a language plays such a prominent role in India. It's not really the lingua franca, but it's the language of the elite in a sense. For example, in kerala, all of the signs are in English but hardly anyone feels comfortable to speak anything but Malayalam. It really just represents the sort of dependence we have on the anglosphere, it's the language of opportunity. India is still so poor that English is seen as a fast track ticket to stability. This sort of thinking still plagues many indians; poverty and desperate is still so part of our recent memory that we are just trying to trying to survive at this point.
English is the language of finance, but it's not the only language that represents a significant amount of global wealth. There is German, French, and Spanish, or Chinese. I realize we already had an English speaking class at the time of independence, but unfortunately that language has grown and grown since then.
Hindi is a language that is spoken by a large amount of people in India, and should at least replace English. All of the languages of India should be made the official language of India, and people should choose which languages to learn that will suit their economic needs. Ideally every Indian would be able to find employment in their own state, and wouldn't have to learn any other language other then their own. Unfortunately the Indian local economy is not so strong that people have this option, people move around to a handful of cities to gain employment both high skilled and low skilled.
In a sense this is one thing I admire about China, or really the rest of East Asia, like Korea or Japan. They all retained their own language and became prosperous.I think this has to mainly with having a strong economy based in manufacturing, as opposed to a services focused economy. Indian's have to learn English because they provide services to a largely English speaking clientele. Manufacturing things doesn't really drawn upon your communication skills. Also, since the factory workers were able eventually see a rise in their own income, they started to have disposable income which created a huge market around them. So a market that caters to this new class of consumers, their local language all of a sudden has importance. They are buying things on the market and obviously they will prefer the shops that speak their language. So by empowering and enriching the poor to become middle class consumers, you actually work to preserve the local language, and perhaps the local cultures as well.
In fact I admire the Muslims of India, because they have made Urdu their language. Even in Tamil Nadu I was able to speak in Hindi with a Muslim Cab driver.
I don't necessarily believe in imposing Hindi on anyone in India, but I'm not opposed to it being looked at as a unifying language. But it should fill the gap that English leaves behind. I'm a Malayalee but I may go to Kolkata for a Job, in which case it would behoove me to learn Bengali; I wouldn't necessarily have to learn Hindi. I don't understand why the debate around this is so fierce, as if their is a hatred for Hindi. However foreign Hindi may be foreign to a Tamilian, certainly English is even more so foreign. We Indians have a habit of tearing our each other first without even considering to tear down the foreigner.
My hope is that Indians become extremely literate in their own language first, speak read and write it with great proficiency. The problem that we are facing right now is that many Indians know 2 or 3 languages badly, especially in urban areas, and that is completely the fault of English. English is given such priority in India, but it's not a language that is native here, and you can feel it. It's not really our language, and therefor we can't really express all the colors and thoughts that India brings to mind. After all English originates from one of the most dreariest places on Earth, how could we ever expect it to adequately serve a place like India?
At the heart of all of our Languages is Sanskrit. I recognize many words in Hindi, because it shares many Sanskrit words in common with Malayalam. So Sanskrit may not become a spoken language, although it is spoken in pockets across the country, but it can serve to bridge the gap into other local languages.
Even though it's ironic that I'm writing this post in English, I wish English would go extinct in India. Modern India has a knack for making so many things go extinct, why can't English be one of them for a change?
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