LET'S STOP SPEAKING IN TONGUES ABOUT ENGLISH

REVERSE SWING

- MADHAVAN NARAYANAN

HERE is a funny line in the BBC comedy series, To the Manor Born, when a feudal aristocrat fallen on difficult days sells her country mansion to a Czech-born tycoon. Speaking of the responsibility that comes with the English heritage, she says: "Noblesse oblige. I bet you have not heard of that—it's English."

Getting your French mixed up with English is understandable for Britons—the French-speaking Normans after all ruled the Anglo-Saxons for more than 150 years. But the English language has been enriched by so many foreign influences that you can have a conversation in pukka English peppered with words borrowed from Hindi, Malayalam or Tamil. There are whole lexicons dedicated to Indian English terms—from Hobson Jobson published in 1886 to Hanklyn-Janklin of 1992.

These things come to mind a week after the news that the lone Kannada-medium student in a Mysuru engineering college has dropped out because he was the only one in his class and there was a shortage of course material. His family and friends advised him to switch to an English-medium course.

The English have gained a lot from India. It's said "loot" was one of the earliest terms the Company-era Brits borrowed from India because that's what they were busy with. But if we are honest enough to separate colonial tyranny from the coincidental benefits of the Industrial Revolution and modern science, English makes a lot of sense.