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Group Discussion: Is English language more important than Hindi language for the educated Indians?

English language is more important:

  • Any Armed Forces officer must interact with officers of friendly & enemy countries for military exercises or resolving matters at the border through dialogue. Thus, Armed Forces officers of every country learn English.  Therefore, a student aspiring to be an Armed Forces officer must be fluent in English.
  • English is spoken in most parts of the world because any economic activity on national & global level will flourish only when the service provider can understand the customer. English language opens doors to easier business and international relations. Thus, English should be one of the languages in which students are able to communicate well.
  • The less educated Indians need a local language for communication. Whereas English is the language of the educated who are likely to interact with people of different regions of India and sometimes people of the world.
  • More than 1.2 billion people speak English in the world in comparison to 637 million Hindi speaking population in the world. English is the language of internet, electronic media, and mass communication. Hence, if we learn to communicate well in English, we can exploit social media and internet better for learning and we will also have a better exposure.
  • Recently, when PM Modi used Hindi during diplomatic talks, it surged agitation in non-Hindi states especially Tamil Nadu. Also, the recent NDA government’s proposal of giving importance to the Hindi language on social media accounts faced stiff opposition by the Tamil Nadu CM and other regional parties. Because of the diversity of India, Hindi cannot be pushed to be the only official language. English remains to bridge the Gap between Centre, Hindi Speaking states, and Non-Hindi speaking states. In 1963, the Official Languages Act was passed. It maintained that from 1965 English “may” still be used along with Hindi in official communication. Thus, English is important as a common binding language at the national level.
  • All middle & higher-level job interviews are in English because the manager is expected to communicate with people of other regions and countries as well.
  • Students need to write their research papers in English. If one does not learn English from school level, it will be very difficult to learn it in college. Scientifically, 13-year-old have best potential to grasp a new language. Hence, a student should be taught English from nursery class onwards. The draft national policy 2019, submitted by the Kasturirangan Committee, recommended to ‘continue three language formula in schools.  All Schools have 1st language as English and 2nd language as the state language (For e.g. Tamil for TN, Bengali for WB etc.) and the 3rd language as Hindi. In that way the country would have the international outlook with traditional assistance and anchorage.
  • Only 8.5% of Indians are graduate. Out of which almost all can speak English. The Medical & Engineering studies are done in English because we must keep pace with the technical advancements. Hence, the importance of English must be understood by the usefulness rather than just for communication.

Hindi language is more important:

  • English should not be encouraged in India because maximum percentage of people in India speak Hindi. Propagating and giving undue importance to a foreign language makes our people loose pride in our own literature, research, and culture etc.
  • The total population of Europe is equivalent to 9.78% of the total world population. Whereas India’s population is equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population. Instead of learning language of ever European country, it makes sense that the minority population learn the culturally rich Hindi language.
  • It is estimated that 12% to around 30% of the Indian population can speak in English to some extent, most of them not very fluent though. However, more than 40% population can converse in Hindi in India. Hence, it is only reasonable to give more importance to Hindi in India.
  • Knowledge and products wherever they are developed, they must reach everybody and everywhere in a most easily accessible way. Easy access is defined that knowledge and product along with the relevant information must be made available in the regional or the native language. The consumers pay for it and they have the right to access it in their chosen language.
  • English is not the fastest growing internet language. Many Asian languages including Indian languages have shown a very high growth rate. Experts in the field predict that soon Indian languages will have recognizable presence on the internet. Videos in Hindi on You tube are quite common for knowledge and learning.
  • Technology has ensured on spot translation of any language. Hence, multilingualism in the business may open huge employment opportunities for other languages in terms of learning, teaching, training, translation, printing, and advertising.
  • Hindi is serving the purpose of binding the nation at appropriate levels. We are the oldest civilization and we have inherited useful traditions, mythology, and scriptures which other cultures have started respecting. Giving importance to Hindi will ensure goodness of our culture gets disseminated in easily understood language. However, a foreign language will also propagate foreign culture which is undesirable.

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