Speaking at the launch of a book by a former civil servant, the Union home minister, Amit Shah, predicted that the day is not far when speakers of the English language in India would feel ashamed. This, in fact, is a shameful statement from a leader of Mr Shah’s stature. It is reductive and reeks of prejudice and myopia — elements that knowledgeable politicians ought to shun. English’s centrality to the Indian context is undeniable. In a country that speaks in many tongues and where linguistic tensions are quite common, English has served as the veritable lingua franca, bridging segments of the population. There is more. In this globalised world, English is the bridge that connects India to the world and its economy. The Indian economy cannot survive as an insular entity in an interconnected and competitive financial ecosystem. The fundamentals of the Indian engagement with international communication, business, trade and investment revolve around its proficiency in English. Certain critical industries in the country — services and, in it, information and technology — are especially reliant on this language. What is true for the national economy is also true for its people: a hold on English opens up the frontiers of employment for the common Indian. Moreover, this language is also the shared global currency when it comes to India’s ties with the world of ideas and knowledge. India’s contribution to and gains from innovation, research and development, collaborations, discoveries in the global production of knowledge are inconceivable without English.
Mr Shah’s demonisation of English needs to be located within a broader ideological and epistemic thrust. It is also rooted in a problematic understanding of what constitutes the idea of India. The minister sought to underline the importance of Indian languages by dismissing English: a foreign language, Mr Shah asserted, does not suffice when it comes to understanding India and its culture. But the spirit of the idea of India — linguistically or otherwise — advocates exactly the opposite. It is a celebration of pluralism and accommodation: English, with its many virtues and uses, thus has a firm place in the Indian ethos. Mr Shah needs to know that the flourishing of Indian languages is not contingent upon the marginalisation of English. Such a totalitarian attitude is consistent with the majoritarian impulses that are associated with Mr Shah and his party.