During the recent visit by our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi to Canada for G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta (15 – 17 June, 2025), he was mocked for lack of his ability to speak in English. I personally have shown great displeasure at government servants who cannot write English, especially when it is incoherent or completely changes the meaning of the sentence or word (e.g. using Stationary for Stationery) and I am expected to understand what it was supposed to be. The former example of spoken English is not a serious shortcoming except when it is done in a formal diplomatic setting. However, the latter example of written English by government staff is a grave issue since this is a formal communication channel in many states and any change in meaning could have potentially serious implications.
This does not mean I favour or promote English. On the contrary, I have always been a supporter of mother tongue; be it in Science and Technology or everyday usage. Moreover, I am also not perfect in speaking or writing in English as my primary education has been in vernacular and I learnt “A” only in 5th standard (we did not have English as a subject in primary school when I studied). I am extremely proud of this fact as studying in local language gave me an inherent strength and ability to understand wonders of the world through the eyes of Science. Ironically, it also helped me learn English.
Government staff using English in a country like ours is not a prudent way of communicating with the masses. In one State, I know, one of them was found writing in English probably without understanding what they were writing. I could decipher their instruction only after speaking to the concerned government staff.
Why then not write it in local language as the government staff in some States do? Staff will not only have better control over what they communicate but masses will also understand them better. To me, it is a clear government failure of those States who insists on using English for communication even when the staff themselves are not trained to do so. Any language is just a way to convey our thoughts across. However, in India, sadly it has become a status symbol to be able to speak and write English (ironically reading is not given too much importance as no one can hear or see you doing it) and have mistakenly tied it up with material success in this world. This has been so, due to British ruling most of India. I have been told by a language expert in England that this is called linguistic imperialism.
However, material success is, in no way always tied to English. If that was the case, then countries like Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, China, Italy and Russia (there are many others) would not have been at the forefront of technological development. In fact, it is my strongly held belief that learning in one’s mother tongue helps understand the concepts (science and non-science both) better and in turn this helps in better application of these concepts to problems of the society. This precisely is a reason that the countries I have mentioned are so successful.
Countries like USA and UK are also successful because they study in and use their mother tongue all their life and in this case that language happens to be English.
So, why is it that we destroy curiosity and career of our younger generation by insisting on English? Can we not slowly reduce its use to only when it is necessary and use local language most of the time? Abandonment of our own languages will not only destroy our culture but also the future of our coming generations.
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