When British traders landed on India’s shores in the 1600s, they arrived in search of spices and silk but stayed for centuries – leaving behind a legacy that would shape the nation long after their colonial exploitation ended: the English language.
Over the centuries, English seeped into the very fabric of Indian life – first as a tool of commerce, then as the language of law and, eventually, a marker of privilege.
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Now, after more than a decade of Hindu-nationalist rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is mounting perhaps the most significant challenge yet to the language’s place in India.
“Those who speak English will soon feel ashamed,” Home Minister Amit Shah said last month, igniting a heated debate about national identity and social mobility in the polyglot nation of 1.4 billion.
While Shah did not mention India’s former colonial masters, he declared that “the languages of our country are the jewels of our culture” – and that without them, “we cease to be truly Indian.”
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Spoken behind the walls of colonial forts and offices, English in India was at first the language of ledgers and treaties.
But as British rule expanded from the ports of Gujarat to the palaces of Delhi, it became the lingua franca of the colonial elite.
At independence, India faced a dilemma. With hundreds of languages and dialects spoken across its vast landscape, its newly appointed leaders grappled with the question of which one should represent the new nation.
Hindi, the predominant language in the north, was put forward as a candidate for official language.
But strong resistance from non-Hindi-speaking regions – especially in the south – meant English would remain only as a temporary link to unite the country. It’s a legacy that endures to this day – and still rankles some.
“I subscribe to the view that English is the language of the colonial masters,” Pradeep Bahirwani, a retired corporate executive from the southern city of Bengaluru, said, adding: “Our national language should be a language which… has got roots in India.”
