At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru ushered in a new age of independence for India in his celebrated “Tryst with Destiny” speech. Yet seven and a half decades later, India continues to be shaped by echoes of its colonial past. Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the British empire in India, alongside its commitment to parliamentary democracy, has been the English language.
To this day, English remains one of the two official languages of India alongside Hindi, and with over 129 million English speakers, the country boasts the largest population of English speakers in the world after the United States. A large English-speaking population has put India in a unique position to reap the benefits of an increasingly globalized world economy, and for many Indians, English has emerged as a powerful tool for social mobility. However, access to English in India has largely remained the prerogative of the elites. To achieve robust and equitable economic growth, it is vital that India ensures access to English for all its citizens.
The benefits to knowing English in India are manifold. English is the language of higher learning in India: premier educational institutes in India such as the IITs and IIMs have English as their sole medium of instruction. Most high-paying white-collar office jobs in India also require a decent command of English and proficiency in the language is a requisite for many government positions. Indians with knowledge of English are also better positioned to take advantage of global opportunities and ideas as they enjoy greater access to the world. With the internet lowering economic barriers to information, English has enabled many Indians to access scientific and academic knowledge from across the world. This in turn has sparked innovation and bolstered India’s human capital stock.
The returns to speaking English in India is considerable: hourly wages are on average 34 percent higher for men who speak fluent English and 13 percent higher for men who speak some English relative to men who do not speak any English, after controlling for demography, ability, geography and schooling. One study that examined a policy change in West Bengal found that removing English in primary schools led to a significant decline in wages and made students less likely to hold high ranking jobs. In addition to enhancing employment prospects, English also functions as a lingua franca in facilitating communication between people with different linguistic backgrounds, which is essential with a population that speaks over a hundred languages.
Most crucially, English, as the language of international trade and business, has empowered India to reap the economic benefits of an increasingly globalized world. Multinational companies are attracted to India’s large pool of low-cost, English-speaking manpower, and as such, India has turned into a hub for outsourcing of operations. The remarkable rise of the IT sector has contributed significantly to India’s GDP and positioned the country to benefit from a rapidly globalizing world. As India asserts itself as an emerging power in an integrated global economy, its English-speaking population will inevitably play a crucial role.
The dividends of the English language in India, however, are not equitably distributed. There is a very strong correlation between educational attainment and English proficiency: a third of college graduates in India can speak English, whereas this figure drops to almost zero for people without formal education. Indians living in urban centers are much more likely to speak English than their rural counterparts. Similarly, Indian men speak English at a much higher rate than women, and the two most disadvantaged groups in India, scheduled tribes (STs) and scheduled castes (SCs), are three times less likely to speak English in comparison to higher castes.
The ability to learn English in India has been the privilege of a narrow class of educated, city-dwelling elites, and the language has become another tool for social stratification. The anglophone elite has long looked down on non-speakers, and fluency in English is generally considered a suitable proxy for intelligence and competence. English has long been perceived as a language of status and opportunity in India, and it is no wonder that sending children to English-medium schools has emerged as a middle class aspiration. The wealthy send their children to expensive private schools that instruct in English, while lower income families are forced to send their kids to subpar government schools that lack resources and funding. This serves to further amplify the existing inequalities in a country that is already very unequal.
Despite the allure of English, the language faces strong opposition as many continue to view the language as foreign and a symbol of colonial imposition. Many political leaders have called for a total ban on English. With the election of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there has been a renewed push for establishing Hindi — mother tongue of less than 44 percent of Indians — as the national language at the expense of English and regional languages. This too, however, has been met with a lot of backlash. In 2019, then BJP President and Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments on the need for expansion of Hindi for national unity provoked the ire of many. That same year, a draft of India’s new National Education Policy sparked outrage and had to be revised as people in the southern states took issue with the proposal to make Hindi mandatory in schools across the country. Indians outside the northern Hindi-speaking states have vehemently opposed the push toward Hindi’s linguistic hegemony as they see it as an imposition from the central government. Against this backdrop, there is an even stronger case for promoting English as a link language given its neutrality and utilitarian value.
For too long English has remained the language of the elite in India. Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need to democratize it. English proficiency is a crucial component of human capital development and will largely determine what kind of jobs Indians will be able to take. As such, English is crucial for upward socioeconomic mobility, particularly for disadvantaged communities whose access to English is currently limited. Instead of promoting Hindi, the Indian government should focus on expanding accessibility to English and ensuring that disadvantaged groups are not left behind in an increasingly globalized world.
“Indian Children at School” by José Morcillo Valenciano / Flickr is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
