The Impact of Excessively Using English

Despite being an Indian and a native Marathi speaker, I have been educated in English all my life and I consider English to be my second language (instead of Hindi, which is technically the national language of India). This is not only the case with me but also with most Indian middle and upper class students. This preference of English thus, does not limit the use of English only to our academic books but often influences our daily conservations to the extent that sometimes we prefer having conversations in English rather than our common mother tongue. Why is this so? What encourages this situation? What are the repercussions of such behaviour?

As long as India is concerned the most common reason why Indians want to speak English rather than their mother tongue is because of the respect associated with it. It is often seen that upper middle class and upper class communities use English as their primary language; so being able able to speak English allows you into such communities. Hence, the lower class communities aspire or desire to speak English to obtain the respect associated with it. There is nothing wrong with desiring to speak English as long as you do not attach any kind of stigma to the use of any other languages (as is exactly the case in India). People who speak Indian languages are less respected as compared to those who use English in settings like Indian offices, restaurants, public transport etc.

Along with the lower classes' desire to speak English, the upper classes’ denial or shamefulness in using Indian languages amplifies this stigma. These mindsets are encouraged by mediums like educational institutions and social media. The growing number of English medium schools in India and the desire of parents to educate their child in English also adds to this stigma. One of the other major factors adding to this stigma is new technology and social media. Due to social media, the Indian youth and a large part of the elderly community also use English as it is an easy option while using social media.

Therefore, all this leads to the use of English over Indian languages. Well, the repercussions of this are quite dangerous. With such excessive use of English and a 10% of the Indian population speaking English with a rapid growth in numbers, the day is not far when all Indian languages will be endangered and we will have to accept English as our official language. This may as an exaggeration right now, but we have many examples of such countries around the world where this has already happened. So I believe we, as the youth should make an effort, if not naturally, to respect the use of Indian languages and also use them ourselves because these languages are an integral part of Indian culture.

---

Written by Shubhashree Hemant Sathe

Edited by Nandini Nalam