English, the Language, Reconquering Polyglot India. After three decades of often bitter squabbling over what the national language of this country of many languages should beWilliam K. Steuens After three decades of often bitter squabbling over what the national language of this country of many languages should be, it appears that English is winning. Despite longstanding official attempts to make Hindi the country's chief language at all levels, the language of the British colonizers has become the voluntary, preferred choice of urban Indians and India's educated, rapidly burgeoning middle class. English is also the language of commerce, finance, science, technology and the social sciences. And, as even a casual look suggests, it is the main language of advertising, the most influential newspapers, the rapidly growing magazines and the budding national television network. No longer a language strictly for the British-educated elite of pre-independence years, authorities say, English is now permeating areas it never reached before. Working-class urban fathers who speak it a little are sending their children to school to learn to speak it fluently in the hope that better jobs will lift them into the middle class. Schools in which English is the medium of instruction are springing up everywhere and cannot seem to keep ahead of demand. In the relatively affluent Punjab, there are said to be 5,000 such schools, although many are of uncertain quality, catering to that state's substantial middle class. "Even the poorest person would like to send his child to a school where the medium is English," said Dr. S. P. Bakhshi, the head of such an institution, Dr. Bakhshi, principal of New Delhi's Modem School, which has 1,100 applicants a year for 200 places, added, "They say, 'I'll cut back to only one meal a day to pay for it if you'll let my child in.'" Fluency in English greatly enhances the marriageability of middle-class daughters. And a sort of English chic has developed. "It is the fashion to leam English in the same way it is to have stereos and radios and electronic gadgets," Dr. Akhileshwar Jha, a linguist at Delhi University and a recognized authority on the subject, said recently. English commands respect, as Rama Jha, a university English teacher and the wife of Dr. Jha, finds when she rides on city buses. "The conductor is very polite when you use English," she said, "but unpleasant and uncooperative otherwise." Many authorities cite more substantial and possibly more durable causes for the resurgence of English. One is that to the extent that English is becoming the language of the world and, particularly, of world commerce, science and technology, it is to the advantage of Indians to speak it. Some authorities say further that the structure, vocabulary and flexibility of English give it an innate advantage over Hindi, which, according to Dr. Jha, "is not able to cope with the experiences of the modem world." Finally, English is widely and increasingly viewed as a vital key to good jobs, financial success and personal advancement. "Some of the people believe now that if you don't study English you're going to be a nobody, an ordinary person," Dr. Bakhshi said. For urban jobs in the private sector. Dr. Jha said flatly, "English is a must." Whatever the reasons, English is spoken the length and breadth of the land by many in India's modern; sectors. "Infinitely more than Hindi," Dr. Iha wrote recently, English "has quietly established itself in India as its de facto national language". Not all experts agree with that conclusion. Some point out that even though English may be the premier language of emerging India, it is still spoken by only 15 million to 20 million of the country's 700 million people. Furthermore, linguists say, Hindi has spread rapidly in the traditional largely rural world in which most Indians live. As many as 150 million Indians may now speak Hindi, far more than those who speak any other language. It is being more widely accepted in non-Hindi regions, authorities say, not least because it dominates the movies. "Only 10 to 20 percent of the people in all of India cannot understand Hindi at all" B. N. Tiwari, another Delhi University linguist, maintained. He and others believe that Hindi therefore has a better claim to be the "link language" in a country with at least 50 major regional languages, 14 of which are officially recognized. Some analysts see the strong emergence of English in India's modern sectors, and the parallel establishment and spread of Hindi, as one expression of a deeper conflict between modem India and traditional India. Unless •and until this conflict is resolved, they speculate, India will probably never have a truly national language—and it may not have one in any case. Some who favor English as the single national language argue that democracy demands it. Since the decisions that affect the lives of the most Indians are now primarily made in English, they argue, and the most trenchant discussions about what is going on in the country are carried on in the English news media, most Indians are increasingly cut off from public life. Hindi and English are both established as official national languages for governmental use. Originally, Hindi was to stand alone. But opposition over. the years from states where Hindi is not spoken, particularly in the south, has enabled English to hold its own in central Government use. Analysts oh both sides of the argument concur that, for all the new vigor and popularity of English, it faces a quality problem: although the use of English is increasing, authorities say, it is frequently spoken badly, and is even more frequently read and written with poor fluency. Indian English has adopted many local words and expressions, as is the case in many other countries where the use of English has expanded. Conversely, in a kind of cross-fertilization that may be producing a sort of "'Hindish," Hindi has incorporated many English words. Some authorities place the proportion of English in Hindi as high as 30 percent.
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