As many of you are probably aware, English teaching in India got a boost with Thomas Macaulay's Minute on Feb. 2, 1835. It was to create a class of Indians "who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern.. Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect." He declared that "a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia." This created "babu" English, with use of Indian terms, which was also known as Hobson-Jobson, from the dictionary published with the same name in 1886. English is now India's second language, and is spoken, by at least 70 million people, which, according to one article, is more than in UK. A British writer, noting that the Indian PM Inder Kumar Gujral, on the occasion of India's 50th anniversary, was speaking in English said. "It seemed bizarre. Here was a national celebrating its freedom from 300 years of foreign domination and yet, at this moment of celebration, the nation was addressed in the old imperialist tonque. Itwa pragmatic of course: English, no matter how many sectors of society may complain, and no matter how little in impinges on the hundreds of millions of peasants who form the backbone of society, has been the language of administration and of business for well over a century and a half. It is a convenient alternative to the mutual incomprehensibilites of, say, Urdu and Tamil, and used as such." I think it was in 1988 that West Bengal had problems with English teaching. English was removed from teaching at the primary stage without complaints from the public. Bengal was well known for its Bengali-Hindi fight, just as the South hated Hindi. To find a balance, English was given the status of a "link" language in Bengal. Regarding Bengali-Hindi, Nirad Chaudhuri compared it to a Hindu marriage where spouss fight but stay together for social status. It was in 1999 that India claimed 65 per literacy rate, which drew criticism from experts on how it the survey was conducted. The National Sample Survery Organisation statistics showed a jump in literacy rates from 52 per cent to over 62 per cent in six years (91-97). In a 1996 article, it was noted that "there are now 211 universities and about 7000 colleges with 3.5 million reachers who cate to an enrolment of 120 million students through a network of 650,000 educational institutions. When the British left, there were "1,72,661 primary schools, 12,843 middle scholls, 5,297 secondary schools, 636 colleges and 17 universities. The percentage of literacy was jut 14 and the total educational expenditure was 570 million rupees which was less than one percent of national income."
Eugene Correia __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################