India is underdeveloped because of English

In this article, we shall discuss about how the absurd obsession that Indians have for English language, is responsible for the sheer poverty and lack of development in India and also lack of creativity among majority of Indians and how the eradication of India’s Black economy will help in solving this problem.

This article is about Linguistic slavery of India and Black money.

• The Politics Series
• 1. How is Black money responsible for Terrorism and crime
• 2. America is rich because of our money!
• 3. How English is a curse for India

Let’s begin by a conversation between you and me.

You: So what do you mean by linguistic slavery ? I am an Indian and I am free to use any language I desire. I am not a slave.

Me: Are you sure ?? In which language are you forced to do your BTech or MBA ?

You: Of course, English. But mind it. I am not forced to do that. I voluntarily have decided English as medium of instruction for my education because English is the international language and, come on, I need to develop, India needs to develop. We are a developing country and English is a pre-requisite for development.

Me: You are bluntly wrong. Let me first blast off the myth that English is necessary for development. On the contrary, let me state an empirical truth: “English is a big obstacle in the path of India’s development”.

You: Aan haan ?!! You have taken it too far. Still I am eager to know what you have to say.

Me: Sure, let’s have a glance at the languages used by the developed and developing countries around the world for higher education. Below I give details about some developing countries.

Country	Language of higher education	Colonizers
Angola	Portuguese	Portugal
Congo	French	France
Rwanda	English and French	England and France
Botswana	English	England
Mozambique	Portuguese	Portugal
Central African Republic	French	France
India	English	England
Pakistan	English	England

We see that the countries which have been using the language of their colonizers for higher education are still developing. This is just an indicative list. Just do some research on this and you will notice that not even a single country that uses a foreign language for higher education is developed except United States. But for United States, English is not a  foreign language. A majority of Americans are of British or Scotish origin with English already their native language. In the US, after its so-called independence, only some Spaniards and French people needed to learn English. French and Spanish languages are linguistically close to English and learning English is not a tough task for the French and the Spanish, just as learning Gujarati is not a tough task for a Hindi speaker. So English is really not a foreign language for US. Now let’s talk about the developed countries.

Country	Language of Higher education
Russia	Russian
Germany	German
Spain	Spanish
Greece	Greek
Finland	Finnish
Poland	Polish
Japan	Japanese

Again this is only an indicative list. Those countries which have pride over their native languages and use the native language for higher education are some of the most developed countries in the world. Note that Japan and Germany were completely devastated in the second world war and today they are much more developed than us. One reason for this is that they chose to educate their people in the native tongue! We see that only those countries use English, which were once a colony of England. 

In any case, it is highly obvious and common sense for me that those countries which use native language for education are bound to be more developed than those that use a foreign language. Let me illustrate why this is obvious, through an example.

If a typical German guy (who knows only German) wants to pursue a career in engineering, all he needs to do is start studying the appropriate subjects (books are available in German). If he wants to pursue a career in graphic designing, he needs to learn an image-editing tool, like Gimp (which is available in German language), if he wants to be a business manager, all he needs to do is undergo an MBA program (in the German language).

Now consider a guy who knows only Tamil, just as the German guy only knew German. In fact, all of us only know our native language before entering the anti-Indian education system created by the British. But if this guy wishes to pursue a career in engineering, he would first need to learn a foreign language (because in India, higher education is available only in English), if he wishes to pursue a career in graphic designing, first he needs to learn a foreign language (because Photoshop is available only in English), if he wishes to become a Business manager, first he needs to learn English (because MBA education is available only in English).

In fact, if any Indian wishes to pursue any career in any field other than manual labor and farming, he/she will be required to learn a foreign language! How unfair! More than 80% of Indians do not know English even after 150 years of forceful doses, hence 80% Indians can’t pursue an advanced career! That means there is a huge supply of manual labor available in India (because 80% people do not know English). Through a simple demand-and-supply analysis, we can infer that this huge supply of labor, which outstrips the demand for labor, reduces the price of labor (wages) of 80% of population (laborers and farmers), condemning them to poverty. This poverty then prevents them from accessing good health-care and quality education. This lack of education and money spent on costly medicines, sustains the poverty further and the majority of my countrymen get trapped in this vicious circle of poverty, diseases and ignorance because of English! The poverty then breeds crime and  naxalism..

You: You seem to be making a point. Can you elaborate ?

Me: Of course. Let me show you how the biased attitude of Indians for English is responsible for their poverty. To understand this, you need to first understand a basic fact about an economy. That fact is: You get from the economy, what you give to the economy.

You: How is that ? And how is English related to this ?

Me: Yes. To understand why it is so, let’s first define poverty as the inability of the people to obtain even the threshold amount of goods and services required for a dignified and creative living. Examples of such goods and services are food, cloths, shelter, education, health-care etc. Then you need to understand the concept of circular flow of income. Put simply, the notion of circular flow of income states that Those who produce goods and services in an economy are collectively the same people who consume those goods and services. In other words, the goods and services required to live a prosperous life are not produced by some Allah sitting on 7th sky or some God sitting on 4th sky or some Vishnu sitting in Vaikuntha Loka, but by the same people who need those goods and services.

Circular flow of income, goods and services. Those who wish to consume goods and services are the same people who produce them either as laborers or entrepreneurs! In a nutshell, consumers are themselves the producers!

Let’s now granulate this principle to a micro-level and try applying it to an individual. In an economy, an individual provides goods and services. In exchange, he gets money equal in amount to the price of those goods and services (determined by their supply and demand). The individual then exchanges that money with some other goods and services that he finds necessary for a dignified living. Here, money is only a medium of exchange. The role of money is this whole process is akin to the role of the dummy variable x in the following pseudo-code. In this code, the two variables, a and b exchange their values.

=> a=3; b=5;     //a contains 3, b contains 5
=> int x;             //define a dummy variable x
=> x=a;              //put a‘s value into x
=> a=b;              //put b‘s value into a
=> b=x;              //put x‘s value into b
=> kill x;            //free the memory taken by x

In this code, a and b have exchanged their values and x only acted as a dummy variable and a medium of exchange. Because x has no relevant value, it can be killed at the end of the program. The role of money in an economy is analogous to the role of x in this program. The only difference is that x holds binary values while money holds economic value! Here is a sample economic program.

=> gshah=consultancy; vegetable vendor=vegetables
//gshah(that’s me) can provide consultancy services and vegetable vendor can provide  vegetables
=> print money;          //RBI creates a dummy good called money
=> money=gshah;      //gshah provides consultancy to the economy and gets  money in return
=> gshah=vegetable vendor;       //vegetable vendor provides vegetables to gshah and gets that money in return
=> vegetable vendor=money;      //vegetable vendor provides that money to the economy and gets consultancy services (not necessarily from gshah) to improve his business
=> kill money;            //money came from the economy and went back to the economy

In this economic program, gshah exchanged the consultancy services he can provide, with the vegetables which is a basic necessity for a dignified living. Money came from the economy and went back to the economy. All that effectively happened was the exchange of consultancy services with the vegetables. The greater the value (price) of consultancy services, the greater the money that gshah receives and hence greater will be the amount of vegetables that gshah can acquire in exchange for that money.

But suppose that gshah was not capable enough to provide consultancy and could provide only manual labor (because he does not know English). Since the value (price) of manual labor is much less than that of consultancy, this time gshah receives much less money from the economy in return for manual labor. With this little money, gshah could buy much less vegetables and possibly could not satisfy his hunger with them and hence can’t have a dignified living. That is, gshah is poor.

From this it is clear that, greater the value of goods and services an individual provides to the economy, greater the money he gets in return and greater the amount of goods and services he can buy from that money! This establishes the basic rule of economics that You get from the economy what you give to economy.

Because 80% Indians do not know English, in the current political and economic system, all they can give to the economy is manual labor and farming services. This causes a huge supply of manual labor and farming, compared to their demand. This drastically reduces the price of manual labor and farming and thus 80% Indians get little money from the economy in return for manual labor and farming. With this little money, they can get only limited amount of goods and services necessary for a dignified living, and hence they become poor! From our rule, because 80% Indians give little to the economy, they get little from the economy and hence they are poor!

This analysis is not a mere speculation of mine. Here is some eye-opening data.

As of 2010, agricultural output of India is 16% of its GDP, but agricultural sector employs more than half of the population. That means, more than half of population provides only 16% of national goods and services to the economy and hence consequently (and as our rule also predicts) earn only 16% of national income! In other words, more than half of the people are poor!And let’s not talk of the unorganized labor sector, for that will give an even more gloomy picture. One of the major reasons for India’s poverty is that the British-designed education system has created a barrier which  filters out those who do not know a  foreign language called English, and condemns these filtered out people to low paying  jobs! This also means that more than 80% Indians can’t contribute to innovations in India’s biochemical industry, research and development, opto-electronic industry, semi-conductor industry and metallurgical industry. In fact, 80% Indians can’t contribute to any sector of India’s economy that requires even slightest education! In such a scenario, how will India produce world class entrepreneurs, scientists and Nobel laureates ?? It simply can’t. English is not a helper in development, rather, it is a big obstacle in development and economic prosperity. No wonder, India’s GDP was 27% of world GDP before the British brought English and today it is just around 5% ! That is, India was developed without English and is now developing with English! India has faced enormous amount of economic loss in the 65 years after independence, simply because of English! Interestingly, our spineless, myopic and corrupt leaders who studied economics from Harvard can’t see this simple phenomenon. And a so-called illiterate Baba Ramdev who studied from a gurukul, can see!

In US, everyone produces goods and services and everyone consumes those produced goods and services. In Japan, everyone produces goods and services and everyone consumes those goods and services. The problem with India is that only those who know English produce a majority of goods and services and hence also consume the majority of goods and services. Thus in the current political, economic and education system that is largely borrowed from the British, English language has become a passport to economic prosperity!

India has huge supply of manual labor, because majority do not know English!

You: You make a lot of sense. I agree that English has caused immense amount of economic loss to India, but there is no  solution to this problem. We did not make any discoveries in Science and Mathematics. Hence, Indian languages are not as developed as English. They are not suitable for studying Science. We have to use English. There is no other way.

Me: This is a stupid myth. Indian languages are much more advanced than English. The gem among Indian languages is Sanskrit and it has infinite vocabulary. When English can borrow more than 90% of it’s vocabulary from  other languages (like Latin, Greek, French, Dutch etc), then why can’t modern Indian languages take their vocabulary from Sanskrit ?? Most of them are anyways derived from Sanskrit. In fact, Indian languages (both north and south Indian) have 25% (urdu) to 70% (bengali) vocabulary directly taken from Sanskrit, then why can’t they borrow more words from the endless ocean called Sanskrit ? Lack of vocabulary is not a problem. English (powered  by words from other languages) has less vocabulary than Hindi (powered by words from Sanskrit). Moreover, our ancestors have made great number of discoveries in Mathematics and Science. Algebra, Calculus, Number theory, Trigonometry, Geometry, Astronomy, Linguistics, Phonetics, Economics, Medecine and Surgery have all originated in India! The decimal number system that the world uses today was invented by our ancestors! In fact, whatever mathematics we are taught till 12th standard in English, be it Binomial Theorem or Matrix algebra or Integral calculus, has actually been invented by our ancestors in Sanskrit. 2300 years ago, when विष्णुगुप्त शर्मा(chANakya) was teaching economics to the students at the university of Takshashila, the British did not even exist. Probably, they were uncivilized forest dwellers then. More than 2000 years ago when gArgI was debating with yAjnavalkya on political matters, in the court of king Janaka, the European philosophers thought that women do not have souls and are objects of sex. Moreover, we do not even know what other knowledge our ancestors had, because large portion of their knowledge must have been destroyed when the barbaric invaders burnt the libraries of Nalanda and Takshashila! Just as there can be no scientific and philosophical development in Afghanistan today because of constant political turmoil, there has been little scientific and philosophical development in India in the last 1000 years, because of the political turmoil caused by a series of invaders who were attracted towards India’s vibrant economy for their selfish economic ends. And because the British were the last among that series, they are alteast partly responsible for the lack of scientific development in India and Indian languages.

Many discoveries of quantum mechanics were made in German (remember Aufbau Principle ?), many advances in chemical engineering were made in Russian. Large portion of Science and Maths that is taught to us today in English is actually translated into English and not discovered in English! How stupid of us that we study science and maths by translating them in a foreign language called English but do not attempt to translate these subjects in Indian languages! And in the process we also make the country poor!

I remember, while studying for IIT JEE, one of the books I used was Problems in Physics by Erodov. The original book was in Russian. But we Indians are such big duffers that instead of translating the book from Russian to Tamil, Bangali and Hindi, we translated it from one foreign language (Russian) to another foreign language (English) and then learnt that foreign language to study Physics. How foolish!

Science and Technology has nothing to do with language. Any language is as good as any other. But if that is the case, then why use English – a foreign language ??

You: Ok! You make sense again. But Information Technology which is so much the part of good life today is not possible without English.

Me: Again a myth! Had internet been invented in the Soviet Union, the HTML, the JavaScript and other internet technologies today would have been in Russian! In fact, English is a lousy language from a linguistic perspective, without any proper structure or systematic grammar. A computer will always understand an organized language like Sanskrit, more easily than it understands English. Other languages deserve to be used for computing much more than English does. We should be ashamed that, in spite of Sanskrit being highly superior linguistically, we do not have programming languages in Sanskrit. But then, when 80% people of a country do not even know what programming is, how can we expect that country to create a programming language of its own !!

You: Ok! so English is not required for science and technology, development, computing, internet etc. In fact, according to you, English is not required for anything. Agreed. But, we still can’t afford not using English. Today, it forms a vital interface for India to communicate with rest of the world. We will be isolated from the world if we stop using English. Afterall, English is an international language!

Me: If English is international, so let it be international. Why make it intra-national ?? Why make English compulsory for MBA, BTech, MTech, MBBS etc ?? Those who need to speak to foreigners will take it as an optional subject and those who do not need it will not take it up. Why make it compulsory for even the basic requirements of life ?? When 95% people do not need to speak to foreigners then why are 100% people being forced to learn English ?? In spite of English being international, the Japanese do not educate their kids in English, and they are more developed than us! In France and Japan, for instance, MBA is done in French and Japanese languages, respectively. French and Japanese companies operate in French and Japanese languages, respectively. Not using English is not preventing them from being some of the most competent firms in the world. Language is never a barrier. But if that is the case, then why has English been made compulsory for MBA in India ?

Actually, to be honest with you, English is NOT an international language. That’s be..

You: You have been making sense so far, but I beg to disagree with your last sentence that “English is NOT an international language”.

Me: Let me explain you why I am saying so, then you will beg to agree.

You: Aah han ?!! Go ahead. Open your cards.

Me: I do not think that English is an international language because

1) UN does not define English as an international language. For UN, English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese and Arabic are all equal. There is no international government, nor an international Parliament to make international laws and democratically decide which language should be international. The rule in international politics is simple “जिसकी लाठी उसकी भैस ॥” (For the uninitiated, that means One who has power, is influential.) Today the laathi belongs to US and hence the bhains also belongs to US, hence the domination of English. Note that the laathi previously belonged to England, before that Turkey, before that Arabia and before that India. Since laathi will not belong to US in future, the bhains also wont belong to it in future, hence English won’t dominate the world in future (don’t know when but such time definitely will come).

2) a) If we go by number of speakers, Spanish and Chinese beat English. Spanish is more international than English.
b) If we go by number of countries with official status then English tops the list but Arabic, French and Spanish follow behind. French is an official language in 30 countries, English in 58 countries, Spanish in 20 countries, Arabic in 22 countries.
c) If we go by the land area on which a language is spoken, then Russian and English have approximately equal land area, followed by French and Spanish.

Since there is no clear criterion to define what constitutes an international language, calling English an international language is not recommended. Hence we see that UN has adopted 6 languages and not English alone.

3) I think that a language which is being called international should be an official language in atleast 75% of the world nations. English misses this criterion by miles. There are 200 nations in the world and I could call English international when atleast 150 countries in the world had English as an official language, which is not the case.

Arabic became an international language in just 100 years!

4) The answer to the question Which language is international ? is very volatile. A glaring example is that of Arabic. Before 7th century, Arabic was spoken by nomads of the Arabian desert and no where else. In just 100 years from then, it became the language of Science, Art, Literature, Politics, Religion and Philosophy in the nations spanning from modern Portugal to Afghanistan! Similarly, English, which was once spoken only by the barbarians of the island of UK, spread to its current proportions in 400 years. Historians hypothesize that there was a language (which they call Proto Indo European) that was once spoken all over modern Europe, Middle-East and Indian Sub-Continent. That language does not exist today. Probably, this language was none other than our Vedic Sanskrit. The point I am trying to drive home is that within a few centuries (or may be even decades, remember the expansion of Arabic?), English won’t remain the international language even if you consider it to be international today. Then why not prepare our nation (and languages) till then to dominate the world once an appropriate opportunity comes ?

From this it can be concluded that calling English international is not recommended. And even if we do so, there is no point in making English compulsory in education. English can very well be treated as an optional subject taught only to the level that a person may be able to do basic communication in English. But today we treat English with utmost respect and neglect our languages. Treating English with respect is acceptable, but neglecting our own languages can’t be accepted. Today, we bother if we are spelling English words correctly (which anyways have no logic), we bother whether ‘tortoise’ is the correct pronounciation or is it ‘tortis’. We have made such an education system where a person who learns a foreign language becomes an Engineer and a person who learns Hindi or Marathi becomes a chaparaasi. We also bother whether ‘would’ forms the correct usage in a sentence or ‘could’. We are so much particular and choosy about such silly things which were anyways developed from someone’s whims and fancies and have no logical framework behind them. It is this attitude towards English and our languages that annoys me the most. I don’t wish to end English. All I want is an exchange of attitudes that we have for English and Indian Languages.

Not even a single country which was NOT a colony of the British, makes English a pre-requisite for higher education! Indians use English, not because it is helpful in development, but because India was once a colony of British. There is no other reason. But should that be the reason why we promote English at the expense of our languages ??

You: Your concerns and gestures are genuine. I agree now that English should not be a bottleneck for higher education. But how do we achive that ? I mean, India has atleast 22 languages and the education system has to be in one language. For example, there has to be a single medium of instruction at IIT Bombay. For, the students taking up higher education at IIT Bombay come from different states and have different native tongues. We are forced to have a common language there and that language has to be English and not Hindi, as Tamils would oppose education in Hindi. Hindi and Tamil anyways belong to separate language families and are not related, so Hindi does not even have the  familiarity advantage with Tamils.

Me: You are right. But the linguistic diversity of India is actually not a problem. But before understanding why it is not a problem, let me show you some new perspectives about India.

You: Hmmm. I am interested to know. Go on.

The land area of original India is greater than that of European Union!

Me: Do you know why is India called a sub-continent ? That’s because it is really a continent! Let’s talk of land area of India. Rajasthan is of the size of Japan, Kerela is of the size of Israel, Andhra Pradesh is atleast twice the size of Greece, Madhya Pradesh can accommodate atleast 2 Netherlands and 3 Belgiums! In fact, the land-area of Republic of India is 76% of the land area of European Union. And if we talk of the undivided India (अखण्ड भारत) – those regions which were once a part of Vedic culture and had Sanskrit as their lingua franca viz. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Maldives and Republic of India – the land area of undivided India is 15% greater than that of European Union! Republic of India is really not a single country but a union of 20 countries! Saying that India is diverse is like saying that European Union is diverse. Of course, a group of 20 countries is bound to be diverse!

You: You are talking interesting facts. But if India is really so huge, why does it appear so small on a map ??

Me: Genuine question. The small appearance of India on a map is actually a geometrical illusion. Because Earth is actually a sphere, but a map is a plane, the regions close to equator appear smaller on a map than they actually are and the regions farther from the equator appear expanded than they actually are! Hence, India looks smaller and Russia and Europe look bigger on a map!

You: Amazing! So how does this answer my concern that We cannot do without English because India is linguistically diverse ?

Me: To understand that, let’s first compare India and Japan. Below I give that comparison.

	Japan	India
Population Density	337	368
Cultivable land	12% (imports rice and wheat)	57% (grains rot in rains because of lack of infrastructure and corruption)
Above surface natural resources	Not many natural resources. Volcanos and earthquakes keep destroying infrastructure. Completely destroyed in world war 2 by atom bombs. No fast flowing rivers or mountains to generate electricity, little flat agricultural land, no forests.	Has huge mountains, fast flowing rivers, perrenial rivers, large agricultural land, more than 15% forests, also has rain forests. No volcanos. Small desert only. India has much more above land natural resources than Japan.
Major Industries	Electronics, Automobiles, Robotics, semiconductor, optoelectronics, biochemistry	No RnD, No electronics industry, small auto mobiles industry, we export our natural resources like coal, iron ore to Japan, they sell back finished products.
Imports/Exports	Imports raw materials from other countries like India. Exports electronics and automobiles.	Exports raw materials,  software and pharmaceuticals. Imports finished goods of electronics, automobiles etc.
Land Area	Slightly greater than Rajasthan	20 times bigger than Japan

Japan which has much less natural resources than India, more catastrophes like volcanos and earthquakes than India and which is 20 times smaller than India has GDP approximately equal to that of India. (And Japan does NOT use English in any field or sector of economy!)

	Japan	India
GDP	$4.395 trillion	$4.457 trillion
GDP per capita	$33,805	$3,693

It is Rajasthan whose GDP should have been of the size of the GDP of Japan, but we shamefully have the GDP of the whole India of the size of Japan’s GDP. Why is it that the Rajasthan, which is better than Japan in terms of natural resources, cultivable land, natural catastrophes and population density, has 20 times less GDP than Japan ??

You: Why ?!!

Me: You know the answer. It is again the absurd obsession that the Marwaris and Rajasthanis have for English! Let me show this to you by an example. When I was in Vadodara, I went to an ATM center to withdraw money. As I entered the ATM center, I found a man speaking in gujarati-accented Hindi, requesting me to withdraw Rs 2000 for him from his account. The problem was that he could read only Gujarati but the ATM machine could be operated only in English or Hindi. He had to rely on a stranger for the trivial job of withdrawing money, simply because the bank did not provide its services in a language which more than 95% of the people of Gujarat knew. Imagine the amount of battering that the confidence of a person takes, if he has to rely on others even for trivial activities like withdrawing money, opening a bank account, filling the school admission form of his child, creating a word document, reading an address, sending an email, understand what the judges in a TV reality show are saying, understand what their favorite actor just said in the movie, read the name of a shop…… the list is endless. When a person can’t even perform such silly activities which are trivial for one who knows a foreign language called English, won’t he/she develop an inferiority complex ?? Won’t it hurt his/her confidence and self-respect ?? Because of this inferiority complex, 80% Indians do not even try to think out of the box (and we say that Indians are less creative ??), they think that studying Science and Computing is a job much above their capabilities. How can the GDP of Rajasthan be similar to that of Japan when 80% rajasthanis  live under a constant inferiority complex and think that it is an achievement to perform even those tasks which are actually trivial! More than  80% Indians do not realize their full potential simply because of English, drastically reducing the human empowerment of Indians! When someone believes that I cannot do this or this lies beyond my abilities even for trivial jobs, then how can such a person try innovative stuff, take risks and be an entrepreneur ?? No wonder, India produces few entrepreneurs and with less entrepreneurs, there is less economic activity and with less economic activity there is less GDP and more poverty! The moment one believes I cannot accomplish this his capabilities reduce a hundred times and the moment one starts believing that I can easily achieve this, his capabilities increase a hundred times. Majority of Indians have lost confidence and creativity because of English! It is ironic that those who support and nourish this british created anti-indian system and consequently have caused immense damage to the confidence and empowerment of majority of Indians, are the same people who administer the country and make laws in English for the empowerment of Indians! These so-called secular English supporters are even bigger hypocrites than religious bigots.

Now imagine an India where the GDP of Rajasthan is of the size of the GDP of Japan, GDP of Kerela is of the size of Israel’s GDP, the GDP of Assam is of the size of Belgium’s GDP. Such an India would effectively mean that the Rajasthanis need not go to IIT Bombay for basic needs like higher education (because higher education is available in Rajasthan itself in Marwari/Rajasthani, just as it is available in Japan in Japanese), the Biharis need not go to Mumbai for a basic need like employment because their is so much economic activity in Bihar itself that everyone can get a decent job in Bihar and the Punjabis need not go to Delhi for health-care because the health-care services in Punjab are so good. Ideally, when we compare India’s statistics with those of other small countries, we realize that what we call the states in India under a highly powerful central government, are actually countries in their own right, whether you talk in terms of land area, population or culture. Each of these country-states could operate in their native language and Hindi could be used for inter-state communication and in central services. Just imagine clubbing 20 European countries under a powerful central administration that operates in a non-european language. In such a Europe, you will find all the problems that you find in today’s India! The Greeks who had gone to London in search for employment  might possibly be beaten by extremist English groups, just as Biharis are today beaten up in Mumbai by extremist Marathi groups!

You: Ok. My concern that We can’t do away with English because India is linguistically diverse, will be invalid if the GDP of India had been 20 times that of Japan. Though it should have been that way, in reality, it is not the case. I also realize now that we see a group of 20 countries as a single country not because it is a single country but because of its low GDP and a powerful central government. But then what is the solution to this problem of low GDP ?? And if this problem is not solved, then it would be difficult to remove English as a language of higher education.

Me: This problem can be solved. There is no reason why the GDP of India should be so low, when India meets all the necessary conditions for a booming economy. A vibrant economy requires five inputs. Land, labor, capital, technology and raw materials. Our land is as populated as that of Japan (similar population densities), so land is not a problem. We have no scarcity of labor and raw-materials. We foolishly sell our raw-materials to Japanese, American and European firms instead of using those raw materials in generating economic activity among ourselves. We have a great deficit of capital because capital comes from investment by entrepreneurs and government. And we do not have money to invest because our (black) money is being invested by developed countries to generate capital in their own countries. We have outdated technologies because technology comes from research and we are not good at research because majority of Indians live under an inferiority complex and greatly underestimate themselves nor do they have scientific temper because of lack of quality education.

We see that out of the 5 requirements for a vibrant economy, India possess 3 viz. land, labor, raw-materials and does not possess 2 viz. capital and technology. Capital will come from investment and investment will not remain a problem if we recover our black money, which is today fueling illegal activities in India and economic growth abroad, and invest that money into generating capital for India’s economy. Technology won’t remain a problem, if we invest our recovered black money in education and research. And when India will possess all the requirements for a vibrant economy, that day we will have an India with a GDP of 20 times that of Japan! And that day we will also be able to harvest all the advantages that a native language provides! This will also revert the process of extinction of Indian languages that was initiated by the British by eradicating the Indian education system that was created by our rishis and imposing an English-based education system that was designed by a drug-addict!

Moreover, as I showed the last time we met, that the developed countries would go into severest recession ever if we are able to eradicate India’s black economy. They will no longer be in a position to either provide employment to us (in English) nor in a position to provide FDI. When India’s economy becomes 20 times that of Japan, then we will be providing FDI and employment for the collapsing American and European economies and we will provide this employment in Hindi so that Americans need to learn Hindi if they wish to get employed! Ending India’s black economy will not only prevent the extinction of India’s languages, but also revert the roles played by India and the west. Even Africa may become prosperous by taking inspiration from us!

You: What you are saying is really intriguing. You have given me great food for thought.

Me: Yes. I urge you to contemplate on this linguistic and economic issue. But all this change is not possible without a visionary leadership in the government which I am sure does not exist in any established political party. This is only possible if some visionary people like Baba Ramdev form a political party and that party wins a majority in Lok Sabha.

You: Yes, I agree. But I am perplexed. If English has so many disadvantages, then why are common people so much obsessed for it ?

Me: The reason for this is propaganda. Just after independence, there was an opportunity of replacing English with Indian languages. But every political change causes doom for those who were flourishing before that change. And those are the people who do not wish that change should occur. When the British left, they left behind a hybrid class of individuals who were Indians by body but British in ideology and attitude. This English speaking elite was the major beneficiary of the British-made political system. They had a monopoly on all the intellectual sectors of the economy. Those who did not belong to this English-speaking elite were either farmers or laborers. The removal of English would have drastically  increased competition for them in all walks of life which could challenge their elite status! So to retain the British-made system, they started issuing false ideas through media that English is necessary for development, English is linguistically superior, English is the language of Science and technology. Gullible people started believing in this propaganda because they had lost confidence and creativity and original thinking because of 150 years of British rule. Instead of revolting against this anti-indian system they started taking it as a bitter medicine thinking that it is for their benefit.  One of the first persons who encouraged me to learn English was my mother. She was not trying do this as a part of an organized propaganda, but she genuinely believed that English is necessary for development. In fact, this propaganda has now become so much ingrained in a typical Indian’s psyche, that one cannot even differentiate between the original shrewd propagandists (the english-speaking elite left by the British) and their unsuspecting victims (like my mother) !

The condition of most Indians is today similar to the brain-washed terrorists. Just as the terrorists do not see anything unethical in killing strangers for no reason at all, because they have been brainwashed, similarly most Indians can’t see anything awkward in their foolish obsession for English, because they have been brain-washed since childhood by the English speaking elite and their parents (the innocent victims) !

You: Hmm Ok. But if you are so much concerned, you should have written this blog in Hindi  to promote Hindi. Afterall, charity begins at home.

Me: I have not written this blog in Hindi because writing in Hindi on a computer is inconvenient, not because the Hindi script is clumsy, but because the ubiquitous qwerty keyboard was never designed to type in Hindi! We are such big idiots that we have not even developed keyboards and operating systems suitable for our languages. Had I written this article in Hindi, it would have consumed 5 folds more energy and time. Moreover, Hindi looks ugly on a computer. This is not because the Hindi script is ugly – in fact, I find it very beautiful  – but because there is no Hindi font industry. No one develops beautiful looking Hindi fonts because there is no demand for Hindi fonts. That is because, only those who know English use computers, while those who know only Hindi are so poor that they care about their next meal instead of demanding Hindi fonts. In any case, Hindi will not be promoted by my writing this blog in Hindi, just as it is not promoted when the government writes प्रसाधन on a railway station toilet. Writing in Hindi on a blog or on सुलभ शौचालय, thinking that it will promote Hindi is a mere distraction from the real issue. What promotes a language is its use in judicial, economic, political and education systems of a country and not simply writing in that language on a blog or at the entrance of the Chemical engineering department of IIT Bombay.

Baba Ramdev has been touring the country and to the remotest locations since 2010, creating awareness among the poor regarding the causes of their poverty. It is a great achievement that a rishi has successfully made the biggest and once ignored problem of India (Black money), a central issue in Indian politics. Those who want to serve as cheap laborers and cheap researchers for American and European firms would do well to not support Baba Ramdev’s mission, while those who want to hire Americans and Europeans as cheap laborers should support him.

Last year when Baba Ramdev fasted with a demand to establish educational infrastructure for providing higher education in Indian languages, the so-called honest economist who is supposed to be India’s PM was calling Baba Ramdev impractical. By doing that, he actually acted against the interest of the people. Instead of running initiatives to eradicate this destructive obsession among Indians for English, the government seems to be promoting this unnatural obsession by making English compulsory everywhere!

There are numerous serious issues before the country and I am glad that finally a rishi called Baba Ramdev is raising some vital issues and making the people aware. Hope the best for the country. Bye.