According to Kachru, there have been three phases in
the introduction of bilingualism in English in India. The first one of them,
the missionary phase, was initiated around 1614 by Christian missionaries. The
second phase, the demand from the South Asian public (in the eighteenth
century) was considered to come about through local demand, as some scholars
were of the opinion that the spread of English was the result of the demand and
willingness of local people to learn the language. There were prominent
spokesmen for English. Kachru mentions two of them, Raja Rammohan Roy
(1772-1833) and Rajunath Hari Navalkar (fl.1770). Roy and Navalkar, among
others, were persuading the officials of the East India Company to give
instruction in English, rather than in Sanskrit or Arabic. They thought that
English would open the way for people to find out about scientific developments
of the West. Knowledge of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic or of Indian vernaculars
would not contribute to this goal (Kachru 1983: 67-68).
A letter of Raja Rammohun Roy addressed to Lord
Amherst (1773-1857) from the year 1823 is often presented as evidence of local
demand for English. Roy embraced European learning, and in his opinion, English
provided Indians with "the key to all knowledge -- all the really useful
knowledge which the world contains" (quoted in Bailey 1991: 136). In the
letter, Roy expresses his opinion that the available funds should be used for
employing European gentlemen of talent and education to instruct the natives of
India in mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy, and other useful
sciences, which the natives of Europe have carried to a degree of perfection
that has raised them above the inhabitants of other parts of the world (quoted
in Kachru 1983: 68).
Roy's letter has been claimed to be responsible for
starting the Oriental-Anglicist controversy, the controversy over which
educational policy would be suitable for India. The third phase, the Government
policy, begun in 1765, when the East India Company's authority was stabilized
(Kachru 1983: 21-22). English was established firmly as the medium of
instruction and administration. The English language became popular, because it
opened paths to employment and influence (NEB 1974: 406). English of the
subject Indians became gradually a widespread means of communication.
During the governor generalship Lord William Bentinck
in the early nineteenth century, India saw many social reforms. English became
the language of record of government and higher courts, and government support
was given to the cultivation of Western learning and science through the medium
of English. In this he was supported by Lord Macaulay
India, after becoming independent in 1947, was left
with a colonial language, in this case English, as the language of government.
It was thought that the end of the British Raj would mean the slow but sure
demise of the English language in South Asia. This, of course, has not happened.
The penetration of English in these societies is greater that it has ever been
(Kachru 1994: 542).
Nationalist imperative wanted that English continue to
be used. Nationalist motivations were of the opinion that an indigenous Indian
language should be adopted as the official language. Hindi seemed
most qualified for that, since it had more native
speakers than any other Indian language and was already widely used in
interethnic communication (Fasold 1984: 24).
In addition, it was thought that linguistic unity was
a prerequisite for political and national unity. Thus, Hindi was designated by
the constitution as the language of communication between and within the
states. It was to replace English within 15 years. The plan was that Hindi
would be promoted so that it might express all parts of the "composite
culture of India" (Spolsky 1978: 56).
There were, however, several problems with selecting
Hindi, and since the protests were often violent (e.g. the riots in Tamil Nadu
in May 1963, protesting against the imposition of Hindi), the government wanted
to adapt a policy which would help to maintain the status quo. Firstly, Hindi
is not evenly distributed throughout the country; e.g. in Tamil Nadu, in the
south, only 0.0002 per cent of the people claimed knowledge of Hindi or Urdu,
whereas in the northern states this figure can rise up to 96.7 per cent.
Secondly, it was thought that the speakers of other languages would be offended
by its selection; other Indian languages, for example Tamil and Bengali, had as
much right to be national languages as Hindi. The other Indian communities felt
they would be professionally, politically and socially disadvantaged were Hindi
given the central role. Thirdly, Hindi was thought to need vocabulary
development before it could be used efficiently as a language of government. In
spite of these problems, Hindi was chosen as the national language in the
constitution, and English was to be replaced by Hindi in fifteen years' time.
However, due to the continuous opposition in the south, this replacement was
not politically possible. In 1967 a law was passed which allowed the use of
both Hindi and English for all official purposes - and that situation still
exists (Fasold 1984: 24).
The controversy between Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani
made the case for Hindi even worse. Support for Hindustani almost ended with
independence; Hindi's supporters' enthusiasm was not, also, channeled in a
constructive direction. As a result, English continues to be a language of both
power and prestige
3. 5. THE POWER OF ENGLISH: THE CASE OF INDIA
The British were given a lot of political stature due
to their political power, and they were required to adopt a pose that would fit
their status. Language became a marker of the white man's power. Kachru quotes
E. M. Forster in A Passage to India (Kachru 1986: 5): "India likes gods.
And Englishmen like posing as gods". The English language was part of the
pose and power. Indians accepted it, too (ibid).
English was used in India and elsewhere in the colonies
as a tool of power to cultivate a group of people who identify with the
cultural and other norms of the political elite. European values were,
naturally, considered somehow inherently better whereas the indigenous culture
was often considered somehow barbaric. English was considered as a "road
to the light", a tool of "civilization". The Europeans thought
that they can bring emancipation to the souls; they considered this as their
duty. They sincerely thought they would contribute to the well-being of the
native people in the colonies, and their language was elevated into being
almost divine (6).
English provided a medium for understanding technology
and scientific development. Non-western intellectuals admired accomplishments
of the west. European literature was made available in colonies. Macaulay shows
his ignorance towards the native languages in India by saying
I have never found one amongst
them (the Orientalists) who would deny that a single shelf of a good European
library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.
In India, English gradually acquired socially and
administratively the most dominant roles: the power and prestige of language
was defined by the domains of language use. Ultimately the legal system, the
national media and important professions were conducted in English (Kachru
1986a: 7). In the words of Kachru, skilled professional Indian became the
symbol of Westernization and modernization. Raja Rammohan Roy was committed to
the idea that the "European gentlemen of talent and education" should
be appointed to instruct the natives of India. English came to be used by
Indians, as well. (Kachru 1986a:7).
By the 1920s English had become the language of
political discourse, intra-national administration, and law, a language
associated with liberal thinking. Even after the colonial period ended, English
maintained its power over local languages
English was eventually used against Englishmen, their
roles and intentions as it became the language of resurgence of nationalism and
political awakening: the medium, ironically, was the alien language. Mohandas
K. Gandhi (1869-1948), for instance, although struggled to create consensus for
an acceptable native variety as the national language, expressed his message to
the elite in English
Hindi descends directly from Sanskrit. More than 180
million people in India regard Hindi as their mother tongue. It belongs to the
Indo-Aryan group of languages (Hindi. 1998). It is, according to the Article
343 (1) of the Constitution, the Official Language of the Union (India
Constitution. 1998.)
The position of Hindi as the Official Language of the
Union becomes problematic the souther in India one gets: while it is the
predominant language in the north, in the south very few people speak it. The
most ferocious opposition toward the adoption of Hindi comes from the south;
along with the strongest support for the retention of English
DOMAIN ANALYSIS
The survey included statements related to domains such
as family, friendship, neighborhood, transactions, education, government and
employment. The informants' duty was to fill in the language he/she most often
uses for each occasion (grading the frequency of use from one to four, four
indicating the highest frequency). The aim was to analyze the use of English in
India in different domains.
The domains used in the study could be divided into
formal and informal domains: education, employment and government are formal;
family, friendship, neighborhood and transactions more informal domains.
Conclusion
Thus we can say that English has got more attention as
an official language in correspondence than Hindi
Regards
K.K.Singh
No comments:
Post a Comment