English Vinglish!

R Krishna Das

He was the captain of the Indian cricket team that won the World Cup in 1983. A cricket Board official once mocked, “India’s Captain and can’t even speak English”.

At that age, Kapil took it positively and learnt English but he wasn’t shy about it. He even became the brand ambassador for “Rapidex English Speaking Course”.

But even after he learnt the language, he knew that his cricketing success had nothing to do with speaking English, “I was picked to play for India because of my cricketing credentials and not my excellence with a language which was not my mother tongue”.

Of all the points under the new education policy unveiled, the issue of “English” has found a prominent place of debate. Many asserted that the promotion of the regional and local languages will push English to take a back seat. While English is the language that was imposed on us for centuries, and is the language of our coloniser, it does give us a great comparative global advantage because it is the language that the world talks in.

Here lies the biggest contradiction for those trying to find flaws in the new education policy. The most spoken languages across the world in Mandarin Chinese (918 million) followed by Spanish (460 million). Interestingly, there is not a huge difference between English (379 million) and Hindi (341 million).

With the changing life style and metro culture where money matters more, one assume that the daily life has certain pre-requisites. Carrying a smart phone, being active on social media and talking in English have become the norm of new lifestyle.

Four years ago, when one saw Sridevi’s character struggling with the language in English Vinglish, it struck a chord. English isn’t first language and one found it mean when her daughter and husband made fun of her for not knowing the language. Her talent lay in her cooking and she was an independent entrepreneur. Her skill had nothing to do with the language she spoke but she learnt it anyway.

Moreover, talent does not have language boundaries. Children with extraordinary talents from village schools have been finding place in the merit lists and creating niche for themselves in other sectors.

If English is really a language of success, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping may have reasons to worry. Both the world’s powerful leaders are among many others who do not speak English.