The estimated reading time for this post is 15 Minutes
Research Question: What was the impact of British Colonization on India, in establishing the indigenization of ‘Indian English’ in the Indian Education system and forming a diglossia over primordial Indian varieties?
Basic Overview of my essay:
Introduce the history of Indian English and how it came to be through British Colonization (Part 1)
Then delve deeper into the entry of English into the Indian Education System system and how it transformed into the ‘Indian English’ known today (Part 2)
Explain different areas of English in the Indian education system and how they came to be, ie: the details about the Syntax and Semantics and how they have evolved from when the British Raj was present, exploring what proficiency and what type of English is taught in the Indian schools (Part 3)
Explain how and why these came to be accepted in the Education system and why they are more prominent than the other Indian varieties that used to be taught in schools, how they have been replaced by English (Part 4)
To conclude, express how the British colonization transformed education in India and how this has affected the future of Indian students, and what is now in store for the citizens of India under the teaching of ‘Indian English’
The British colonization of India was a momentous period of evolution for the citizens, it was the birth of English in India. What is now one of the official languages in the constitution of India, was once just a developing linguistic change forced upon the country. Before the rule, Hindi was the medium of all communications, with a diglossia of colloquial and formal formats (Annamalai, 2004). To open up India as a port of trade and international communications, English was required and hence commenced the implementation of English into the Indian education systems. While the colonizers attempted to learn the various Indian languages to communicate, soon their power heightened, and as Diglossia shows political influences can bolster a language’s authority, the same way British English took over India in the 17th century (Vijayalakshmi & Babu, 2014). Those who once spoke pure Sanskrit and Hindi were now drawn towards two combinations: Anglicised Hindi which consisted of English phrases embedded into Hindi sentences and then the well know ‘Indian English’ that underwent many transformations through a timeline.
Establishing British English in the Indian education system:
It was never the aim of the East India Company to establish education in English but once the power of change was unveiled, aims shifted. Missionaries were introduced to the Indian culture, while universities were the first institutions to adapt to the change in language. Soon secondary schools and primary schools followed suit as they believed in the beneficial restructuring of the system as English was prevailing worldwide. Vijayalakshmi & Babu (2014, pg 1) reiterate that Macaulay’s aim was “Indians in blood and color but English in taste, in opinions and morals and intellect” amplifying this idea of revolutionizing the way of communication forever. Macaulay, an affluent politician, wrote down a minute in 1835 to establish the rules and clear goals for the induction of English (Edufocus, 2017). One of Macaulay’s aims was to enrich all Indians with English as he believed it was the language associated with the ruling class and would soon be the language of trade and commerce, which eventually turned out to be true. As the higher class blindly followed the British rule, a ‘Filtration theory of Education’ was established, where the idea that English was imperative to learn, was passed down through the hierarchy (Macaulay, 1835). While there were both advantages and disadvantages to this implementation of English, overall Macaulay had managed to transform a country of numerous vernacular languages to admire English as the bridge to all future answers.
The transformation of English in India:
Long after the British left, the English imprint remained and the language was passed down as revered through the generations. However, Indians were intent on immersing their roots in English, be it for convenience or for preserving their identity, this represented the symbiotic nature of the British and Indians working alongside. Annamalai (2014, pg 179) iterates “English, to be sure, has been indigenized functionally, pragmatically and grammatically in India.” In linguistics ‘indigenization’ represents the acceptance of a certain language in an area according to its interpretation there, hence, in this case, it is the acceptance of the ‘Indian English’ that arose. In an attempt to bridge the pedagogic split between the elite and rural citizens the Three Language formula was drawn up where students must study a regional language along with the two official languages so that the cultural heritage remained amidst the controversial position of English (Advani, 2009). Moreover, once the British hegemony dispersed, what remained were conflicted thoughts about English among local teachers, hence, the teacher’s performance simultaneously with the state deliverance was very influential upon the child (Advani, 2009). One of the key thoughts by author Nikesh Shukla was that the reason the Indian influence imbibed itself into their English was simply that certain Hindi words did not exist in English and so a compensation had to be made by substitutions; for example ‘veranda’ or ‘pajama’ were introduced by the Indians (Verma, 2015).
Such influences began seeping into the semantics of English and have evolved to the modern ‘Indian English’ used today. The availability only of Indian teachers meant the teacher’s application of personal accents and mannerisms were prevalent and still is through schools across India, resulting in intriguing lexical differences. For example, Phonology (the basis of sound and pronunciation in a language) differs to suit preliminary Indian speech. Many alveolar (pronounced at the tip of the tongue) consonants like ‘t’, ‘n’, and ‘d’ are often muted by retroflex pronunciations (spoken from the back of the tongue), as this is more comfortable for their palette. Additionally, this concept is also swapped around where retroflex words convert into alveolar words such as ‘then’ sounding like ‘den’ as the combination of consonants to create different sounds was never present in the Hindi language. It is also noted that there is often misprocessing for similar letters, resulting in mistakes such as interchanging ‘v’ and ‘w’ – ‘volleyball’ becomes ‘wallyball’. Sometimes prefixes and suffixes are missed or stressed in words as they do not exist in the Hindi languages to express past or future; ‘walked’ becomes ‘walk. These variations are hence the modifications by Indian citizens over time (Baldridge, 1995). Further modifications of the neoteric English were seen through the change in morphology ( the structure/form of a word). For convenience salient dissimilar words were conjoined to create compound words that often identified gender and simplified the conveyance of messages. Moreover, it was a purposeful move to manipulate the imparted English as a form of opposing the repression. These words included: cousin-brother, cousin-sister, chalk-piece, key-bunch, and ‘time-pass’ signifying the act of wasting time aimlessly. Besides this change, Indians had the tendency to pluralize words that shouldn’t be pluralized and vice versa; this stems from the issue that the pluralization of Hindi words wasn’tweren’t consistent with those from English linguistics. Words like furniture, wood, and litter are spoken with an ‘s’ as the Hindihindi version of these words is often associated with pluralization. Contrarily, words like relatives transmute into relatives within the verbal speech. As English wasn’t their primordial language, shortening extensive words was imperative for their ease of speech. ‘Fundamentals’ transitioned to ‘fundas’, now associated to Indian colloquialism, while ‘enthusiastic’ became ‘enthu’. To personalize English words to their liking it was common for people to structurally change the word and its meaning by inputting suffixes and prefixes. In Mumbai, the suffix ‘fy’ was utilized to display one person doing an action to someone else. ‘Maro’ means hit in Hindi, and people often turned it to ‘marry.’ Similarly prefixes like ‘pre’, symbolizing the ‘before aspect’ were established; like prepone. Even in syntax, there have been some changes. As Hindi syntax and English syntax reside on the far ends of the spectrum, it was hard for the Indians to transfer their knowledge of syntax into English. Often the use of ‘a’ and ‘the’ was arbitrary, they were used where they shouldn’t be and not used where they should. For example, you could have found a person saying “I would like to go to the temple,” skipping out ‘the’ entirely. When it comes to the transference of Hindi knowledge to English, there are clear instances where new uses of a word have been formed; ‘hi’ in Hindi is often used to emphasize a place or time, therefore to translate this action to English, Indians used ‘only’. For instance: “I was here only”. Furthermore, they use a ‘reduplication’ method (Baldridge, 1995) to emphasize items, like ‘very cold juice’ as it is common when speaking in Hindi. “Na” is a word to express “itself” so indirection direct translation Indians tend to put ‘no’ at the end of their sentences to replace the ‘na’.
Embedded into Indian culture:
Many more examples like this can be seen in multiple studies of India, through the empirical knowledge of explorers and researchers. However, as Kachru (1965), highlights in his paper, it is not only the lexical differences that act as a locus loci for change but also the mix of English into the culture and social context. He states it to have created “Pan-Indian literature which symbolizes cultural and socio-political aspirations of Indians. “ (Kachru, 1965, p. 408). Hence, coming back to our main question, we can determine that even with the British influence, an Indian identity seeped into the diction, be it for ease or for a sense of authority over those who once controlled them. What had occurred, as described by Percival Spear in Sedlatschek’s (2009) book was that the Indians “liked the impinging west no better but realized that it now had to be lived with and absorbed into Indian life,” even after the British departure. As the nineteenth century progressed, English was used in many aspects, in multiple forms, therefore the spread was inevitable, introducing the opportunity for evolution to Indian English (Sedlatschek, 2009). VarietiesVarities like ‘Butler English’ – used by servants, Babu English – spoken by high clerks, and Boxwallah English – used by door-to-door salesmen (Sedlatschek, 2009) became common and induced the transition to the indigenization of English. Edgar Schneider, an author, proposes a model explaining how language ecologies have been embedded into cultures through the process of competition and selection resulting in acculturation, and adapting to local norms as their own. His model highlights a process disseminated into five phases. The fourth phase, known as Endonormative Stabilisation, explains how there is a country-wide complete acceptance of the language as their own, and the local culture is successfully integrated into the language, with no more reliance on the roots that the language stemmed from (Mukherjee, 2007). Using this model, the final acceptance of English was established after the amendment of the language act of 1965 due to the language riots between the North and South of India. As Hindi was non-native to the south, clashes emerged with the north who only inherited Hindi as their main language. Seeking peace, India had finally officially made English its own by using it as the bridge to this quasi-catastrophe, ensuring every child has access to it in newly established colleges and schools, due to its ethnically neutral nature (Mukherjee, 2007). In further analysis, Kachru (1965) explains that due to this deeply seated indigenization of Indian English, there is a widening distance created between Indian English and British English, seen by the deviant mannerisms of English speech salient to India and its various regions. This major influence of Indian English (IE) which excludes its British roots within the education system, is hence a paradigm of the authority of IE over various vernacular languages of India.
IE and its authority in present-day India:
Succinctly IE has been predominant in the Indian culture for years now and its propagation continues within education, inadvertently making people overlook regional languages as a medium to learn from, leaving us with this question of why and how? As discourse is a key contributor to a student’s education, the interactions of teachers shape how they deliver education. Even though the language is English, the method of communicating it is Indian, thus ethnocentrically conveying the lessons and tasks to the students (Valentine, 1991). Over the years this has made students more accustomed to the English language and alongside having to obey the Three language law with English as a second language, it became a way of life rather than a circumstance for students to learn in English. And due to the development of secularism, many missionaries were left behind while “original pieces of writing by the native speakers of English are sought to be replaced by the writings of the nationals who are masters of English prose and poetry,” (Vijayalakshmi & Babu, 2014, p. 3) hence furthering the idea of English being their own language and causing them to disregard regional languages. As education is a strong medium and method to indicate a language of a country as it is preparing the youth of that country, it was vital for India to embed English into their teaching and ensure that everyone understood and English would prevail in order for disruptions from the implementation of the Three language policy to subside. Hearing directly from citizens, their belief is that English makes one look elite and of high status due to its use in renowned educational education institutions as well as in administrative and bureaucratic work. They are willingly adapting to the change as it enables them to link to people all over India while impressing those around them in the youth circle (2004). The impetus of English as an official language of education nationwide was, therefore, an omnipotent force facilitating the rise of English’s power over vernacular languages. With around 125million (Masani, 2012) (and growing) English speakers in India, it is evident that English has become their beacon of mutual understanding and civility as a link between states, surpassing the various 200 plus native tongues (Annamalai, 2004).
Conclusion:
Evidently, the growth of English in India has been insurmountable and the perennial transformations of literature have stirred up fluctuating periods of acceptance and disregard. What started with the enforcement of English as the medium for trade and business communication became a language of their own through an evolution fuelled by localization and indigenization. The realization that English was a siren of power that prevailed in domains of employment, a sign of wealth and status (Annamalai, 2004), triggered the acceptance of the language as their education instruction and was then widely appreciated with the nativization of teachers’ pedagogy in discourse, literature, and daily interactions. Alongside the economic and social prosperity that English bought, promoting the becoming of the elite and encouraging an increase in labor supply, the dogma created of it as a link language through its neutrality meant that all heeded its dominance, elevating it to be more popular. British colonization clearly had a significant impact on rooting English in India, y introducing it into various major systems across the country, however undoubtedly the convenience of ‘Indianizing’ has resulted in Indians following their own evolution of English after independence, using education as their core of acceptance and dissemination. As Kachru (1965) identifies, “ the Indianization of English which has, gradually, made IE culture-bound in the socio-cultural setting of India,” we begin to understand the influential existence of English in India as an official language.
Bibliography
- Vijayalakshmi, M., & Babu, M. S. (2014, May). A Brief History of English Language Teaching in India. Retrieved from Semantics Scholar: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bbc6/a59b5daf70970234086ddec1da0c137342b4.pdf
- Annamalai, E. (2004). Medium of Power: The Question of English in Education in India. In J. W. Tollefson, & A. B. Tsui, Medium of Instruction Policies: Which Agenda? Whose Agenda? New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
- Edufocus. (2017, April 9). Macaulay’s Minute -1835. Retrieved from Edufocus: https://edufocus.blogspot.com/2017/04/macaulays-minute-1835.html
- Macaulay, T. (1835, February 2). Macaulay’s Minute on Education. Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Retrieved from CSL repository: http://cslrepository.nvli.in/bitstream/123456789/5518/1/AS-001385.pdf
- Advani, S. (2009). Schooling the National Imagination – Education, English, and the Indian Modern. New Dehli: Oxford University Press.
- Verma, R. (2015, June 22). How India changed the English language. Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150619-how-india-changed-english
- Baldridge, J. (1995). Linguistic and Social Characteristics of Indian English. Retrieved from Linguistics at UPenn: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~jason2/papers/ienglish.htm
- Sedlatschek, A. (2009). Contemporary Indian English: Variation and Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
- Mukherjee, J. (2007). Steady States in the Evolution of New Englishes: Present-Day Indian English as an Equilibrium. Journal of English Linguistics, 157-187.
- Kachru, B. B. (1965). The Indianness in Indian English. Word, 391-410.
- Valentine, T. M. (1991). Getting the message across: discourse markers in Indian English. World Englishes, 325-334.
- Masani, Z. (2012, November 27). English or Hinglish – which will India choose? Retrieved from BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20500312
setTimeout(function () {
(function(h,o,t,j,a,r){ h.hj=h.hj||function(){(h.hj.q=h.hj.q||[]).push(arguments)}; h._hjSettings={hjid:265292,hjsv:6}; a=o.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; r=o.createElement('script');r.async=1; r.src=t+h._hjSettings.hjid+j+h._hjSettings.hjsv; a.appendChild(r); })(window,document,'https://static.hotjar.com/c/hotjar-','.js?sv=');
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '827340874076871'); fbq('track', 'PageView');
}, 6000);
#tessayoung #essay #essays #essaywriting #photoessay #tessayoungedit #代写essay #essay代写 #essayhelp #thingsbitchessay #加拿大essay代写 #essayage #essaywritingservice #lombaessay #essayist #photographicessay #collegeessay #essayer #essayons #tessayoungafter #essaycompetition #risolessayur #theessay #tessayoungedits #essaytime #eyessayitall #englishessay #essaywriter #personalessay #odessayoga #bessay #princessayeshatakia #essayages #collegeessays #essayssuck #essaywritinghelp #videoessay #lombaessaynasional #essaytips