India is a vast country inhabited by people speaking different languages. As a language, English played an important role in the freedom struggle. It was believed that after the departure of the British regime from India, English would also be discarded. But in reality, English continued to play a vital role in the lives of people living in India.
Free India wants to grow into a powerful nation. We are trying to progress in all spheres. To keep pace in the volatile, unpredictable, complex and dynamic world, people need to upskill themselves in different knowledge areas of science and technology. English is the store house of science and technology and scientific knowledge. On the whole, there are 22 officially recognized languages and more than 1650 dialects and languages in India. The leaders and the administrators of the country cannot remain in contact with all these regions without a common language.
During the British rule, the Indian leaders tried to learn the English language to use it as an advantage for them. If we know English, we can feel at home in any corner of the country. English is the language best suited for maintaining national unity. It can also be used to crush the separatist tendencies arising in our country. English is our life-line of contact with the outside world.
From my point of view, a strategy should be formulated such that English is taught in schools and colleges but not at the cost of regional languages in India. We must be associated with our mother tongue at all costs and not ignore it at all, but we must also ensure that to achieve the greater heights it is important to learn English language.
This article is written by Sukriti Sinha who is an English teacher at Vidya Niketan Girls High School, Patna.