Opinion The emergence of English
West Bengal govt has done its best to replace English with Bengali,but at the all-India level,English has replaced Bengali.
-
Share -
-
-
This is odd. West Bengal’s Left Front government has done its best to replace English with Bengali,but at the all-India level,English has replaced Bengali.
There is always a problem with data on languages spoken. Typically,such data are only collected for mother tongue or first language. Thus,Chinese is estimated to be the most widely spoken language in the world,with 845 million native speakers. English is third (after Spanish) with 328 million.
How many people speak English as first language in India? Very few,around 225,000. However,English is widely spoken as a second language and arguments about India’s English-speaking advantage are based on this. 132 million Indians are estimated to speak English as second language and 100 million as third,leading to a total of almost 235 million.
Not everyone in the US speaks English,around 250 million do. Therefore,India produces the largest number of English-language speakers in the world after the US. And Nigeria,in third place,is a long distance behind.
But all these numbers are based on speculation and guesses. It is only now that we have some firm figures,based on the 2001 Census. The mother tongue data were published earlier. It is only now that bilingualism and trilingualism figures have surfaced.
So we know 235,000 Indians speak English as a primary language,but 86 million list it as second language and 39 million speak it as third language. The total number of English language speakers is 125 million,far short of the 235 million figure that used to float around. Incidentally,Hindi (primary,secondary,tertiary) is spoken the most,with 551 million,and Bengali comes in third with 91 million.
Some imponderables remain. India is a multilingual country. Should the census collect data only on three languages (as it does) or more,and would that affect results? With a premium on speaking English,even among poor,should one automatically assume that children under 5 only speak the mother tongue? We are in 2010 and surely,demand for English has exploded since 2001. Oxford schools of English flourish in the remotest of villages and studies show English language capability increases wages for low-skill workers by 25%,everything else remaining constant.
Based on census results,projections have appeared that India will boast of most English language speakers and overtake the US by around 2020. Before the census figures,there was an assumption that this overtaking would happen sooner. Because of the time lag,one suspects 125 million is an under-estimate.
-
Share
-
-
-
Share
