Name : Shranti Sitaram Hake Roll no: 3057Class : M. A. part 2nd Sub : English Language and Literature TeachingGuided by: Kakade Madam College : S. M. Joshi College Hadapsar, Pune

English in India : Sociolinguistic perspectives

1.About India in history.2.About British in history.3.How English came to India?4.Pre-independence scenario

of English in India.5.Post –independence

scenario of English in India.

6.The role of English in Today’s India.

7.The role of English in Future India.

1. .

Contents:

•India was multi-state and multi-lingual country which was well cultured and likely to preserve its rituals.•India was known as golden bird in history

1.About India in history:

•India was rich country and it was well known for it’s following things:• India was rich in

minerals and metals.• The stories of richness

of India in the past had reached far and wide that the foreign explorers were attracted towards India.

• Gemstones such as pearls,corals,ruby ,sapphire were popular in India.

• And in metals gold,silver,brass,copper and iron was in huge quantity in India

1.Minerals:

•India had a diverse and rich textile tradition.•It is believed that erstwhile roman emperors paid fabulous sums for the prized Indian cotton.•Indian silk was also popular in Rome in early centuries of the Christian era.

2.Textiles :

•Amongst all minerals coal mines were found in very large quantity in India.•In history it was used as a primary source of fuel and thus it was much important for trade and transport.

3.Coal :

•Indian history marks huge

population of India which was

used to built armed forces .•And on other

hand they were also used as

slaves.

4.Population :

India was also known for its food.

Spices were enormously present especially in southern part of India.

It is said that foreign invaders were attracted towards India for spices as they need salt, spices to preserve flesh for their diet especially Europeans , Afghans ,Turks and Islam's. As all spices were hardly available to them.

5.Spices and condiments:

•As the above factors reveals wellness of India ,all foreign invaders were attracted towards India for trade.• Among all of them ruled over India such as Portuguese , Dutch ,Mughals, British, etc.•But British were the one who ruled India for long period over 150 years.•So let us see who were the British ,who brought English in India.

•The British Empire was a worldwide system of dependencies under the sovereignty of the crown of Great Britain.•At its height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the largest empire in history and covered about a quarter of the world’s land surface with territory on every continent.•Trade ties with nations outside of its sovereignty reinforced its global dominance.

2.About British in history:

British came as traders to buy spices from India to trade in European markets.

Over time, to safeguard their commercial interests in India, they were given permission by local rulers to build fortifications and employ guards to safeguard their goods which they had to look after before they could ship them.

Many local rulers started involving the British traders in their mutual fights which gave the British a foothold to play one ruler against the other and to amass territory.

And then build up an army to manage the territory.

3.How English came in India?

First of all they wanted to set up facilities for trading with India, but later they found India as a big opportunity for expansion of their kingdom.

The British first arrived in India in the early 1600s and soon established trading posts in a number of cities under the control of The East India Company granted by Queen Elizabeth 1st

of London.By 1765 the Company’s influence had grown to

such an extent that the British were effectively controlling most parts of the country.

This date is often taken as the start of what is referred to as The Raj — a period of British rule in India that lasted until Independence in 1947.

English was actually introduced in India in 1823 for the following reasons:

-To popularize European culture and science among the Indian masses.

- Initially English was only taught to the local population through the work of Christian missionaries — there were no official attempts to force the language on the masses.

-To consolidate the position of British Raj in India.- This date is often taken as the start of what is referred to

as The Raj -a period of British rule in India that lasted until Independence in 1947.

- But by the 1700s, English had firmly established itself as the language of administration and many educated Indians were demanding instruction in English as a means of social advancement.

4.Pre-independence scenario of English in India.

So in 1835 English was formally introduced as a medium of instruction.

Macaulay's famous ‘Minutes’ set out the aim of this move. It was “to form a class of people who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.

The British rulers began building their universities in India from 1857.

By 1857 universities had opened in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.

English became the first language in Indian education.

The ‘modern’ leaders of that era in India also supported English language and claimed it to be the main key towards success.

Indians who knew good English were seen as the new elite of India.

According to the British laws the language of instruction at university level was English and therefore schools that emphasized English were preferred by ambitious Indians.

English was increasingly accepted as the language of government, of the social elite, and of the national press.

In 1869 Lord Napier’s speech in convocacation at Madrass University spelt out the objectives of European education in India are as follows:

-to give new basis of national utility.

-to give better knowledge of India.-to enable self –government.-to enable participation in the general intellectual movements of the world.

After Independence, India became a nation state, and it was intended that English would gradually be phased out as the language of administration.

But there was no simple solution as to which language should replace it.

At first Hindi, the most widely spoken language, seemed the obvious choice, but following violent protests in 1963 in the state of Tamil Nadu against the imposition of Hindi as a national language, opinion has remained divided.

In a country with over 900 million people and more than a thousand languages, it is difficult to choose a single national language, as mother tongue speakers of that language would automatically enjoy greater social status and have easier access to positions of power and influence.

5.Post –independence scenario of English in India:

Even Gandhi, a proponent of a native variety as a national language, accepted that his message was most widely understood if expressed in English.

So, although English is not an indigenous language, it remains as an ‘Associate Language’ in India, alongside Hindi, the ‘Official Language of the Union of India’ and eighteen 'National Languages', such as Bengali, Guajarati and Urdu, that have a special status in certain individual states.

So in the year of 1947 free India chose to retain English as long as it was needed

In 1948 Maulana Azad’s observation regarding the role of English in which he said, “The position that English is occupying today in our educational and official life cannot be sustained in future. It is but essential that Indian languages should be given their legitimate position”.

Same in 1948 The Radhakrishanan Commission-Free India’s first education commission was set up. It was also known as University Education Commission. It was recommended that English should continue to be studied in High schools and Universities.

In 1952 Madras introduced a list of graded structures for teaching English in schools.

-The aim was to make learning easier for children.

-Experts identified the basic structures in English.

-These sentence structures were then graded and arranged from most easy to most difficult in terms of learning.

In 1952-53 Madras English Language Teaching (MELT) Campaign was hold:

-in this the structural syllabus prepared by the London was introduced

-27000 teachers training at the primary level was having a snowballing effect.

English Language Teaching Institutes(ELTIs) were set up in1954.The first center was at Allahabad.

Then in 1957 The Nagpur Seminar for Lectures was conducted in English from Training Colleges. It came with a recommendation for a 6-years course in English involving the use of 3000 words and 300 structures.

The Central Institute for English (CIE) was set up. Nowadays it is known as The Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL)

-the objectives were to train teachers of English to produce teaching material and improve the standards of English teaching in India.

In 1961 Jawaharlal Nehru pointed out the need for a link language. He said, “The tendency of regional language to become the medium for university education ,though desirable in many ways, may lead to the isolation of such universities from the rest of India,unless there is a link in the shape of an all India language”.

Then in 1963 The Regional Institute of English was set up in Bangalore.

A Study Group Report on the study of English in India was prepared by the Ministry of Education , Govt of India in 1967. The aim was to survey the nature of the study of English in India.

In 1977 The UGC Syllabus reform was the result of regional and national workshops conducted by UGC to examine the syllabuses of various universities in order to update and improve them.

Then in 1887 The Curriculum Development Centre(CDC),Hyderabad was set up by UGC. The aim was to shift the focus in curriculum designing from teaching to learning and make it need-based and socially relevant.

Despite continued pressure from nationalists, English remains at the heart of Indian society.

It is widely used in the media, in Higher Education and government and therefore remains a common means of communication, both among the ruling classes, and between speakers of mutually unintelligible languages.

According to recent surveys, approximately 4% of the Indian population use English.

That figure might seem insignificant, but out of the total population this represents 35 million speakers — the largest English-speaking community outside the USA and the UK.

6.The role of English in Today’s India.

In addition there are speakers of English in other parts of South Asia, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where English plays a similar role.

English is virtually a mother tongue for many educated South Asians, but for the vast majority it remains a second language.

This means there are speakers whose spoken English is heavily influenced by speech patterns of their ethnic language, alongside those whose speech reveals nothing of their racial background and some who are ranged somewhere in between.

Officially English has a status of assistant language, but in fact it is the most important language of India

After Hindi it is the most commonly spoken language in India and probably the most read and written language in India. Indians who know English will always try to show that they know English.

7.The role of English in Future India.As English is an international language, if we want to remain

in touch with the outside world, we will have to retain English.

English is must for the Indians aspiring for higher education or seeking better job opportunities abroad.

English is an important working language of the United Nations. Many Indians who have excellent communication skills are working in international agencies under the united nations.

Indians like Shashi Tharoor are famous for their commendable speeches and debates at international forums.

English is important for every field of knowledge. Careers, in any area of business or commerce, in science and technology, require knowledge of English.

Moreover, most of the latest literature in science and technology, space research, nuclear technology, medicine engineering etc. is available in English.

English symbolizes in Indians minds, better education, better culture and higher intellect.

Indians who know English often mingle it with Indian languages in their conversations.

It is also usual among Indians to abruptly move to speak fluent English in the middle of their conversations.

English also serves as the communicator among Indians who speak different language

Even today schools in India that emphasis English are considered better schools and the same is the case at university levels, even though there is a trend towards Indianization .

For most of these students, English is their first language and it is easier for them to communicate, read and write in English than in Indian languages, including their mother tongues.

Just like the Americans, Australians or even the British who have their unique English words and phrases, the Indians also have their own unique English.

The Indians and the Indian English language press uses many words derived from Indian languages, especially from Hindi.

Other than that, the Indian accent is sometimes difficult for non-Indians to understand.

There are some Indian pronunciations that don’t exist in non Indian languages.

The British also had problems with that and they caused some changes in Indian words so that they could pronounce them.

Even the Indians started using these changed words and made them part of their English.

Two examples of such changed words are curry and sari.

It described a sketch history of India , British , and English language in India.

It also described present and future conditions of English language in India.

Conclusion :

Thank you!