THE SAGA OF ENGLISH IN INDIA

                          

Three years back I saw a video where a guy from my state, Odisha was appearing an interview on skype for a job of fitter in some gulf country. His English and accent was very funny. I laughed out loud watching that video. Weeks later I was returning from my office in cab. I saw two of my cab mates were watching the same video and they were laughing at it. This time I felt a bit insulted and annoyed. I felt like they are laughing at someone close to me.

That day I learnt one thing about human behavior. We can make fun of our own people, but if someone else does it, we take offense. I dint much gave a thought about it that day.

Some days back, during the champion’s trophy, I saw a bulk of videos (Mauka Mauka) making fun of English of Pakistani cricketers. They were hilarious and like any other Indian I enjoyed them. But then a thought stuck my mind. So I thought to pen it down with this article.

Does weak English make one any less great a cricketer or actor or a man of any other profession? In Bollywood also classism is highly prevalent. Whenever someone is criticized for their English or accent, they try to correct it, which is good thing but they never try to fight the mindset which considers English as a class. Before trolling our fellow Pakistani counterpart, let’s introspect ourselves.  Does good English come natural to us? Certainly not. Because it’s not our mother tongue and its quite natural. Our cricketers speak fairly good English because they are being trained by our cricket board. The other day, I saw a survey video on youtube. A girl was asked who is your favorite cricketer? She answered Virat Kohli. Then she was asked why. She replied that, he speaks English very well.

Somehow we have made it a norm that you need to speak English to gain respect in our society. Mere English is not enough. You have to speak it in an American or British accent to be considered as a progressive man/women. A Tamil guy ll sound like a Tamil and an Odia guy ll sound like an Odia; that’s completely natural and it’s not a crime, the way it is being perceived in our country these days.

It’s quite funny to see that people these days try to copy some celebrity’s fashion, some celebrity’s hair style and some other celebrity’s accent. And then they post their photo on social media with status like “Be yourself”, “believe in yourselves”.

One of my friend was almost rejected by a girl for arrange marriage with a pre-conceived notion that he can’t speak good English as he is from an vernacular medium school. He then had to prove that he is very good at English. But the question is, if someone can’t speak English very fluently, does that make him/her a less good human being.

This is a serious issue & we must take cognizance of it. It has done ample damage to the workforce across the world as the recruiters are impressed not by one’s knowledge or capability; rather they are impressed with their English and communication skill.

Finally I want to say one thing. Now the Pakistanis are being trolled & we are enjoying. But tomorrow there might come an occasion where an Indian would be trolled for the same reason (Let that be the guy from Odisha itself.), we would feel embarrassed for sure. There are two ways we can fix it. Firstly, we can teach good English & good accent to every Indian, which is neither feasible nor desirable. Secondly, we can denounce this mindset that English is a class.

Let’s make it a language again. Language should always have one motto, to be the bridge & not the boundary between people.