A tragedy called “English”
![](https://kreately.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image-20151109-29321-1xynuif.jpg)
Out of India’s 100 crore eligible population only 12 crore can read, write and speak English, which means remaining 88 crores dont have access to global material, global knowledge. This also means India is not able to fully harness the mental power of 88 crores. Imagine out of these 88 crores how many might have become brilliant doctors, engineers, scientists, thinkers, historians, academicians, geo-strategists, archaeologists and what not. But what India did was put a hurdle in-between the full potential of India, called English, and said first learn English and then you get access to modern knowledge. Not just that, we raised English beyond a language, we made it a skill. Look at all the developed/ strong countries USA, Japan, Germany, Israel, France, Russia, China they all kept their own language as the main/official language and converted the knowledge/Information of world into their own language rather than asking their entire country to first learn English and then gain Information/Knowledge. We on the other hand soaked ourselves into elitism by copying the British and not thinking about the last citizen forget last citizen we did not think about more than 90% of people. This historical mistake will be and is paid dearly by Indians. Elite that plans and runs the country has developed a different identity and does not understand how these 88 crores live and think. This will cause problems even in future. If India is to become a superpower we must utilize the brain power of entire population. That’s only possible when all the world information/knowledge is available to even the remotest person in smallest villages of India.
Is it too late for that? Are the stakes too high for these 12 crores to let loose the English and language like Hindi, Tamil, Telagu, Gujrati, Punjabi, Marathi to take over? If you ask based on the will of 12 crore they won’t allow this. India’s only hope is technology that can bridge the gap. When AI with a click of button can convert every material video, audio, text into a local language and an average Indian starts understanding what is being discussed in the science journal across the world when he would understand the guys who are doing genetic studies on civilizations, when he would understand why Turkey attacked Greece, when he could understand the patent filed by the Japanese company for the battery technology, when he understands the world outside. Harnessing of full mental power is really important for India to succeed in this modern world. If you think English is not a tragedy on the 88 crore people and it is a level playing field for those 88 crore people, then I don’t know if we are supremacists or ignorant.
DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.