Every year, October 5 is celebrated as the Indian English day to commemorate the start of English being taught as a language in India. This year marks the 208th Indian English day. The celebration of this day is not only meant for expanding the use of the English language, but to create a modern, globally competitive India.
In a way, the movement to expand Indian English education started as a response to the retrograde steps of the Union government from 2014 onwards to discredit and rundown the language.
Denying English education to the poor rural masses is an ideological design of the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has received push in recent years.
In terms of caste location the people who are impacted by this are mostly from Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) communities, who survive in a weak agrarian economy.
Though the English language teaching in India is more than two hundred years old in urban private educational institutions, in rural India and tribal areas across the country, if one were to use a metaphor, it remains a small plant that has sprouted and needs to be nurtured.
After the 2024 general elections, as the influence of RSS/BJP deepened with the support of leaders like Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, their strategy appears to be preventing this sapling of English education from taking root. This could leave the future of rural and tribal masses increasingly uncertain, depriving them of a language that has become essential for economic mobility and access to opportunities in contemporary India.
During the regimes of the Congress and other political dispensations, the policy of denying English language education for the rural poor remained, but in a muted form, as the state governments could allow it as an option in higher education institutions. But the BJP-led NDA government is slowly and systematically pushing for Hindi in higher education institutions as rural youth from the SC/ST/OBC communities reach there aided by reservation.
Unfortunately, even NDA allies like the TDP and the JDU are trying to stymie the English language education from growing in rural areas of states under their control, while allowing promotion of English medium education among the rich and upper castes.
Look at the way the Union government is naming their institutions and programmes. They are doing this either in Hindi or Sanskrit by removing the English names. The Union Ministry of Education and the NCERT are asking to adopt book titles in Hindi or Sanskrit, even if the content inside the book is still in English. This policy affects the entire South States, North East India and non-Hindi speaking states like West-Bengal and Odisha. People in these states would struggle to understand the meaning of such titles and names.
The Modi government started this retrograde step by abolishing the Planning Commission of India and establishing NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India, Aayog). Though most of the name is in English, many states, not just individuals, failed to understand what the word “Aayog” meant. When I searched for its meaning on the internet, it turned out to be “Commission or Committee”. The concept of ‘Commission’ is known all over India, even in villages of all states, not Aayog.
The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has now been changed to Rashtriya Mukta Shiksha Sansthan, the Directorate of Education is now Shiksha Nideshalaya. A person from South India or North East India would be hard pressed to understand what Nideshalaya means.
The book for India's new criminal law system is called the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. While the name, Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC), is understood by police officers of all states and lawyers of all states, Nyaya Samhita would go above the heads of someone from a non Hindi-speaking rural area.
Several schemes and campaigns launched or repackaged by the Union government after 2014 now sport Hindi names. Prime examples are, Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan (self-reliant India campaign), and various schemes in the name of Prime Minister - Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Mandhan Yojana (pension scheme for traders and self-employed persons), Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan Yojana (pension scheme for unorganised workers), Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana (pension scheme for farmers), Pradhan Mantri E-Shram Yojana (national database of unorganised workers), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (crop insurance scheme), and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (farmers’ tribute fund).
Following the footsteps of the Modi Government, Chandrababu Naidu has adopted a policy that all Government Orders (GOs) in Andhra Pradesh would be released only in Telugu language. Nara Lokesh, the state’s Education minister, said the change was made with pressure from Venkaiah Naidu, a BJP leader.
The former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana is also campaigning for the use of Telugu in all government operations and in courts. The irony is that many of these leaders educated their own children in costly private English medium schools. Chandrababu Naidu educated Lokesh, his son, in the United States. This kind of hypocrisy and duplicity of education policy followed by NDA leaders is harming the future of the marginalised when they need it the most.
During British rule, when the first political party was formed, they named it the Indian National Congress. In the course of the Independence struggle several movements like the Quit India Struggle were named in English. Even the illiterate masses understood those names and participated in them risking their life and properties.
One of the first organisations of national stature to adopt a Hindi name during the British rule seems to be the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Communists formed a party in the same year that the RSS was formed, 1925, and named it the Communist Party of India (CPI) in English. Later, many socialist parties were launched with English names. When the RSS launched a political wing it had a Hindi name: Jan Sangh, though it later transformed into the BJP.
The retrograde politics of using Hindi while naming schemes and Institutions, terms that need to be understood by people of all regions and states, does not help in keeping the nation integrated.
The sidelining of English and promotion of Hindi is part of the ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindustani’ ideology followed by the RSS and BJP. But can they ever make Hindi a global language like English?
In India, English spread its wings as a British colonial language but sustained itself after the country attained independence. World over, English rose up to became the language of knowledge production in every branch of science, engineering, medicine and humanities.
Former colonies of Britain like the United States, Canada and Australia, empowered by the English language, became rich and innovative. The power of the English language has even forced communist countries like China and Russia to adopt it as the language of science and technology research.
Speaking at 5th Akhil Bharatiya Rajbhasha Sammelan in Gandhinagar last month Amit Shah stated that “Hindi is not just a spoken language or a language of administration. Hindi should also be the language of science, technology, justice and police." This is not the first time that he openly spoke about the wish to replace English with Hindi.
Has any original science book been written in Hindi before English came to India? The idea of modern science is alien to both Sanskrit and Hindi. If today, the Hindi speakers know something about modern science, technology, medicine and engineering, that knowledge comes mainly from books written in English. By stifling access to English the Union government will be doing enormous disservice to nation building.
The obsession with having only Hindi names for the government schemes would adversely affect non-Hindi speakers, limiting their understanding and thereby access to it. If these names were in English, there would be someone in all villages, perhaps a school teacher, who could explain to them the meaning of these schemes. This seems plausible because English is far more recognised in the country than Hindi by now.
It is because of these attempts to impose Hindi that the celebration of Indian English Day on October 5 looks more relevant than ever.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist, and author. His latest book is The Clash of Cultures—Productive Masses Vs Hindutva-Mullah Conflicting Ethics.
Views expressed are the author’s own.