Double face of English in India

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Name: – Pandya Riva m

Roll no: -23

Paper :– 12

Topic :-  Double face of English in India

Email id- rivapandya.rp@gmail.com

Year :- 2015-2017

Submitted to :- M.K Bhavnagar university, Department of English

Double face of English in India:-

English plays a conflicting double role in India in policy and practice in public platform and private choice and in symbolic,allegiance and instrumental use.After Independence  a pattern of bilingualism has emerged at the executive, legislative ,legal and educational domains with English and an Indian languages .At the popular level however preference for English has increased in spite of political opposition to it. English is declined as our official language. Now, in our India, we have two official languages: Hindi and English and one language that the regional language as our official language.Being a global and link language, English language has become an important tool for various fields like, education, business, journalisma etc. But it plays double roles in country like “India”. There were many controversies for English language in its initial stage; it  plays a conflicting double role in India.

English language is just a medium, not our goal, but it has become our need. Because, nowadays, the higher-education is only in one language available that is English language. while dealing with the English language in education, the first and the fundamental problem is that we face some cultural conflict. Our belief system is completely different from the English Culture. Every language represents its culture and belief system. We can not translate our myths,feelings,idea or belief system or our cultural ideology into English Language.so sometimes it is very difficult to use or learn English language in India.

 Socio-Cultural dimension creates the Satanic Image of English Language towards us while learning it. we face some difficulties while translating some words in English like, we can not write in English, “Hanuman is a servant of Lord Rama.” Here, we can find the conflict while translating our ideas into English. It completely changes the meaning of the information that we want to convey. There is a lot of difference between the words like, “Bhakta” and “Servant”. When we write “Servant” for translating the word “Bhakta”, at that time, it kills the real meaning or originality of the word “Bhakta”. By this example, we can understand that it is impossible to translate our cultural belief into English language.

Parliament passed the official language bill providing for the continued use of English without time limit giving legal status to the assurance given by the prime minister Nehru in the parliament to the opponent of hindi four years earlier.English now is the associate official language of the union.As far as the states are concerned the legislative of most states passed bills making one or more of its language after linguistic reorganisation of the states the official language of the states with provision for continued use of English,one state Nagaland passed a bill making English as official language and some states have passed no bill yet in this regard.So in most states and union the official work is transacted in English and in one or more Indian languages differing in the extent and administrative levels of their use.

English is taught as a language for its instrumental value in school and colleges compulsorily in almost all parts of the country with the exception of a very few states, where it is an optional or non-examinable subject. At the secondary school stage a student should learn at least three languages and one of them is English uniformly throughout the country.

So English has been spread all over the country, except some states of India, which don’t follow the English language as a compulsory subject. It can be possible that the satanic image of the English is responsible behind this reason. The double role of the English language creates the chaotic situation in a way that it can be impossible to solve this problem.

After independence, the number of students learning English has greatly increased, but their level of competence in English has decreased. This thing completely shows the policy and practice of the English language. English is taught in the school, but the policy that is made which is not followed by the teachers or we can say that it is not put into practice. That’s why at the very initial stage (school level) students are facing difficulties to learn the English language.

This is the biggest problem in the country like India that the policy which are made for teaching English, are not put into practice by the teacher so the very beginning stage of learning English, difficulties are created by this confusion or folly. Perhaps, this creates the satanic image of English in the minds of the students.

After the second world war the power of English increased internationally in the political and commercial spheres.It was perceived that India will have some natural advantage in the world politics and commerce by officially remaining an English using country.There was a growing awesome fear that the knowledge gap cannot be caught up by the Indian languages in content and in vocabulary by interaction.The increased international morality and possibilities of higher education abroad which gave new returns to the already advantage,the importance of English education.The language despised as language of satans by the freedom fighters came to be praised as the boon of sarasvati the goddess of learning .

English has become more and more Indianised grammatical and functionally due to its use by a large number of Indians think to increased education, commerce and journalism and the Indian English was no more foreign. It’s because of widely use of English language became it our own Indianised English.

English also proved as Satan in India because English is not used in lower level – in a particular situation, so English cannot be the language of day-to-day conversation in India and it has only become medium to go for higher education and the age of specialization. We learn English as a  subject not as language.people can not easily pronounce in English or it is also difficult to speak or learn because this language is use as second language in India so students also face some problems to learn English because it is not their mother tongue.so it can be satanic side of English

India is multicultural country English serves as a link language across the nation .There are many states in India and each states has it's  own culture and language so we can not easily  understand eah and every language or we sometimes face some difficulties to communicate with each other because of less knowledge of other states language so for that we have to learn  English  so we can easily communicate  with other states or countries or English is an international language so it is easy for conversation.

Conclusion:

No doubt English is difficult for  learners because some times it creates problem to translate .But it is very useful in official and educational fields.English is an international language so Indian can learn and also use as an occupational purpose .so here English plays a conflicting double role in India as satan or as saraswati , it is not like good and bad but we can say that English language is like two sides of one coin in India.

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