There is one old and large country in South Asia such as India. It is a very multicultural country with a multi-ethnic society, where Hindi and English come along together as the official languages. The languages that are in fact very distinctive, both belong to different language families - Hindi is an Indic language, meanwhile English is a Germanic one.
How can these absolutely different languages coexist in one country? And how did English come to India, this ancient place with a religious diversity and outstanding culture? Find that out in this blog post!
FIRST ENGLISH ARRIVAL IN INDIA
The second half of the XVI century was full of voyages and overseas explorations. One of the most notable explorers and sea captains was Francis Drake who sailed in the Pacific Ocean in 1579 and then travelled to the East Indies where he discovered a rather interesting place - the Moluccas or the Spice Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia. There Drake exchanged gold and silver for some exotic and unique spices, about which the English knew almost nothing.
Later on, some London merchants, who wanted to end up completely the Spanish and Portuguese trade monopoly in the Indian Ocean, also got inspired with the idea of sailing to that area. They achieved a great success in that and captured many ships with jewels, gold, spices, cloth, etc.
In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I approved another travel project on trade in the East Indies which got the name of "Governor and Compony of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies".
ENGLISH EXPANSION IN INDIA
In 1611, the East India Company (EIC) established its first Indian factory, after two years - another one. By 1647, the compony had 23 factories!
By the middle of the XVII century, the British East India Compony had grown a lot which even led to the conflict the Dutch East India Trade Compony - there were four Anglo-Dutch Wars.
The mentioned above Spice Islands were of a high value since such spices as nutmeg and cloves could be found only there and could later bring a lot of profits.
All the tradesmen of the EIC became so rich that they were able to allow themselves to return to Britain, obtain more businesses, estates and even political power, which some of them did. With time, the British began to spread not only its trading power in India, but also military and political... In the middle of the XIX century, the British were more or less controlling almost the whole territory of India, which then became known as British India, the most valuable part of the British Empire.
WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE?
As you can imagine, the population in India increased a lot against that backdrop! Many British families of middle and high classes were coming to India, then Anglo-Indian families began to emerge. How was their life? Did they interact with Indians? And, which is very important, what language did they speak?
When a British man was sent to India as a soldier or went there on his own will, his wife would, of course, go with him, later they would have children and that's how a British family was formed in British India.
It was children who often suffered the most - Indian summer heat would cause different diseases, parents were usually away busy at work, and children were left alone with Indian servants, who usually didn't know a word in English. In general, British children in India were very weak and suffered from many diseases. There were also a lot of cases when children were sent back to Britain in hope to make their health better. That's how all family connections were often lost because travelling from India back to England to see their children was quite expensive or else parents just died in India because of cholera or other reasons.
There is a book called "The Secret Garden" written by Frances Hodgson Burnett which tells us about a neglected and unloved 10-year-old girl born in British India in a wealthy family of English merchants. She is looked after by Indian servants who do everything she asks for which later makes her a spoiled and bad-mannered girl. The book is really interesting to read and look at the life of the British in India and how Indian servants were treated.
Some pages from "The Secret Garden" of the Black Cat publisher:
As for Indians, it was even worse. While English children were surrounded by servants and could make any orders they wished, Indians were working very hard. Economy depended a lot on child labour at that time. Diseases, poverty, malnutrition and exploitation should be added to that. The British would often behave in a highly unkind way with their Indian servants who had to carry out all orders unquestioningly.
However, there was a big division in the Indian society itself. Meanwhile poor Indians were serving wealthy British merchants and clerks, Indians of higher classes didn't mind that much the British rule in their country, which had a name of the British Raj. Rich Indians were able to educate their children in English schools, could work in the civil services, etc.
This fact is often claimed to be the explanation to why and how Britain was able to control such a large and populous territory as India - Indian society was divided and many people approved the British Raj on their land.
EDUCATION
The British rule in India remains a debated subject among historians, many of whom claim that it brought some of the worst famines, epidemic and poverty to India, meanwhile others try to draw attention to the improvement of education, economy and railway system in India.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, a British historian, was one of those who tried to change the Indian educational system completely by introducing a Western-style educational system in India.
In 1857, universities in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were established, which later made the education level in India skyrocket. Many people became lawyers, others began to work in public administration. By the way, English by that time had already become an official language of administration and education, therefore, the level of literacy grew up as well, but it happened mostly in the circles of middle- and high-class Indians. The situation among the poor didn't change that much.
By 1939, the number of universities in India had come to over 300! The education placed great emphasis on English literature and history of Europe.
INDEPENDENCE AND NOWADAYS
However, the end of British Raj in India came to an end in 1947. One of the most important and difficult questions aroused almost immediately- should the government deprive English a status of the official language or not?
While the Indian Constitution was being made, it was hard to choose only one official language of the nation since India has a lot of distinct languages and different dialects of Hindi, which was chosen first to represent the official language of the country. But then many members of the assembly claimed that making Hindi the main language would be unfair for the non-Hindi speaking population - without having Hindi background, they would face many problems concerning education and employment.
There were other assembly members who talked about the possibility of making other regional languages official ones too, along with Hindi; others were hoping to make Sanskrit become the official language due to its rich history and uniqueness.
In the end, it was decided to make Hindi in Devanagari script the official language alongside with English being allowed to be used in the Indian government.
It is interesting to note that the Constitution of India doesn't give a status of a national language to neither of them. Therefore, India has no national language.
Nowadays, English remains to be a very important language in India, especially in higher education and government.
Hindi has the largest number of first-language speakers in India and is often considered to be a lingua franca between North and Central India. In eastern and northeastern parts of the country there is quite a significant number of Bengali speakers. Bengali is the second most spoken language in India, meanwhile in South-Western regions they mostly speak Marathi, the third most spoken language.
CONCLUSION
India is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. The fact of not having its own and single national language tells a lot about this country. In the north they prefer Hindi, to the east they speak Bengali, while in the southern parts they use Marathi and many more other languages and dialects.
But that doesn't make the usage and importance of English less popular! Maybe the opposite. English, even 60 years after the end of the British rule over India, continues to be a significant part of Indian society and culture, which is also noticeable in Britain! Indian cuisine and many Indian words in English are just some of the examples... But it's already another topic for discussion!
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