05-04-2007, 10:45 AM
Bernard Lewis makes a comparison of the number of Arab works translated into European languages (contributing to European learning) with the number of European works translated into Arabic.
It turns out that Arabs have hardly bothered to translate anything worthwile and make it accessible to Arabs, while anything that used to be worthwhile in Arabic has long since been translated into multiple European languages. Lewis uses this as an example of why Arab are in the state that they are in now.
The situation in India is somewhat different. Courtesy of Macaulay-uncle Indians ended up reading European gyan in European languages. Indian languages were hardly developed to include the jargon required for technical education. There has been plenty of translation from Indian languages to English and other languages by Europeans and Indians, but hardly any translation from foreign languages to Indian languages - especially technical books.
It is all very well for the likes of Mohd Iqbal Ahmed to lament the "convent culture" and oppose sanskritization in the same breath. The fact remains that all technical education in India has to be in English, or one cannot get a technical education. Opposing Macaulay-uncle's English comes easy for those of us who have already made our lives and our children's lives using that English.
But for those who are on the wrong side of that "English boundary" in India - their only future is becoming drivers, "ayahs", "domestics" and low paid laborers working for the English speakers of India. It is strange that those English speaking Indians should oppose the entry of more Indians into benefits of a wider education and currently the ONLY route for an Indian to make a decent living.
Already an entire generation of Indian has utilsed his knowledge of English to go and settle in anglophone lands and make a handsome living in comparison to his parents and peers in India. No Indian of my generation or later who has emigrated to the US has ever failed to encourage his family and peers to follow his path as an ideal route to permanent wealth and happiness. Indians who live in India may find life difficult, but no Indian living abroad ever complains of a tough life. Cursing India and what happens here in India is the common denominator for both the phoren returned person as well as the Indian resident. Little wonder that parents in India who missed that route themselves want their children to go down that path. And learning English is a first step in that direction - to the extent that admission to primary schools is sometimes based on an English "interview" of a 4 year old.
And it doesn't end there. I have friend who is a senior manager in a division of WIPRO who related the story of a young man (incidentally a Telugu speaker) who came after six months in WIPRO and asked why he had not been sent to the US. He was informed that his English was not good enough for the job. Upon hearing this the young man was nearly in tears saying that unless he was able to prove that he had been to the US he would not be able to get married.
This is the way society s heading in India. It may not please some people - but then it seems to be pleasing thousands of others.
It turns out that Arabs have hardly bothered to translate anything worthwile and make it accessible to Arabs, while anything that used to be worthwhile in Arabic has long since been translated into multiple European languages. Lewis uses this as an example of why Arab are in the state that they are in now.
The situation in India is somewhat different. Courtesy of Macaulay-uncle Indians ended up reading European gyan in European languages. Indian languages were hardly developed to include the jargon required for technical education. There has been plenty of translation from Indian languages to English and other languages by Europeans and Indians, but hardly any translation from foreign languages to Indian languages - especially technical books.
It is all very well for the likes of Mohd Iqbal Ahmed to lament the "convent culture" and oppose sanskritization in the same breath. The fact remains that all technical education in India has to be in English, or one cannot get a technical education. Opposing Macaulay-uncle's English comes easy for those of us who have already made our lives and our children's lives using that English.
But for those who are on the wrong side of that "English boundary" in India - their only future is becoming drivers, "ayahs", "domestics" and low paid laborers working for the English speakers of India. It is strange that those English speaking Indians should oppose the entry of more Indians into benefits of a wider education and currently the ONLY route for an Indian to make a decent living.
Already an entire generation of Indian has utilsed his knowledge of English to go and settle in anglophone lands and make a handsome living in comparison to his parents and peers in India. No Indian of my generation or later who has emigrated to the US has ever failed to encourage his family and peers to follow his path as an ideal route to permanent wealth and happiness. Indians who live in India may find life difficult, but no Indian living abroad ever complains of a tough life. Cursing India and what happens here in India is the common denominator for both the phoren returned person as well as the Indian resident. Little wonder that parents in India who missed that route themselves want their children to go down that path. And learning English is a first step in that direction - to the extent that admission to primary schools is sometimes based on an English "interview" of a 4 year old.
And it doesn't end there. I have friend who is a senior manager in a division of WIPRO who related the story of a young man (incidentally a Telugu speaker) who came after six months in WIPRO and asked why he had not been sent to the US. He was informed that his English was not good enough for the job. Upon hearing this the young man was nearly in tears saying that unless he was able to prove that he had been to the US he would not be able to get married.
This is the way society s heading in India. It may not please some people - but then it seems to be pleasing thousands of others.