05-04-2007, 05:52 PM
I may be wrong - but the way I see things moving is something that has little to do with this thread except peripherally.
India is probably going to end up having the biggest absolute number of English speakers outside the US which would probably make Macaulay squirm because the anglophone media could (if nurtured appropriately by Indian English speakers) be relatively dominated by India. I see great potential in this - because Indian ideas (and yes, Indian narratives too) can be rammed down throats of Western anglophone unbelievers with a huge body of people calling themselves "Indian" and sharing their experiences and knowledge in the very English that was originally forced down their ancestors throats as a marketing ploy by Macaulay.
If the waters are rising, it makes sense to utilize the flood to drown some people out - and I believe the pessimism lies in believing that Indian languages are going to die out. The choice of what to drown out will lie in Indian hands though.
I see the flood of English speakers as an opportunity. Fluently bilingual people in India are common, but those who use that bilingual ability to translate from one language to another are rare. A great rise in the number of fluently bilingual people would be an opportunity to use translation skills to convert and make accessible unique knowledge from one language to unlingual speakers of one of those languages.
English skills can be an opportunity if we are ready to recognize those opportunities.
How about an onslaught of indefatigable and undefeatable <i>anglophone</i> India? That will come anyway as a side effect of what is going on over here. Might as well put it to good use.
India is probably going to end up having the biggest absolute number of English speakers outside the US which would probably make Macaulay squirm because the anglophone media could (if nurtured appropriately by Indian English speakers) be relatively dominated by India. I see great potential in this - because Indian ideas (and yes, Indian narratives too) can be rammed down throats of Western anglophone unbelievers with a huge body of people calling themselves "Indian" and sharing their experiences and knowledge in the very English that was originally forced down their ancestors throats as a marketing ploy by Macaulay.
If the waters are rising, it makes sense to utilize the flood to drown some people out - and I believe the pessimism lies in believing that Indian languages are going to die out. The choice of what to drown out will lie in Indian hands though.
I see the flood of English speakers as an opportunity. Fluently bilingual people in India are common, but those who use that bilingual ability to translate from one language to another are rare. A great rise in the number of fluently bilingual people would be an opportunity to use translation skills to convert and make accessible unique knowledge from one language to unlingual speakers of one of those languages.
English skills can be an opportunity if we are ready to recognize those opportunities.
How about an onslaught of indefatigable and undefeatable <i>anglophone</i> India? That will come anyway as a side effect of what is going on over here. Might as well put it to good use.