For India the 3 languages – 3 scripts formula has proved non-workable. A better proposal would be a Two script – Four language formula. It is there fore proposed that ENGLISH (India) or ‘INGLISH’ be recognized as our Official language and HINDUSTANI with the same Roman script recognized as our Link language. With the Mother Tongue/Local Language recognized as the Working Language with its own script and SANSKRIT recognized as our National language with the same phonetic script of the Mother Tongue/Local language. Thus, with two scripts we could easily speak and deal with four languages. Perhaps thus even be able to better understand more Global as well as more Local spoken languages while still keeping our mother tongue and script and National/ Ancient language alive and developing.

Specialist language courses could be conducted for other languages as demanded. The script could be common, based on the English alphabet or the phonetic script of the Mother Tongue/Local language, to allow easy learning of other languages later on, as may be needed for migrants or inter-state employees.

Action Plan

In order to address all these issues effectively and satisfactorily, it is proposed as follows:

1. Recognize English or rather ‘INGLISH’ (Indian English) with the Roman Script, as the OFFICIAL language of lndia.
2. Recognize Hindustani (not Hindi), that today, is the popular Bollywood version that is prevalent across our Country, with the ROMAN script as the Link language of India.
3. Recognize the Mother Tongue/Local Language with its own Phonetic script as the Working Language across each State.
OFFICIAL language – English (Indian) or ‘1NGLISH’ with Roman script – LINK language – Hindustani with Roman script WORKING language – Mother Tongue/Local Language with its own script-NATIONAL language-SANSKRIT with the same script as that of the LOCAL language.
4. Recognize SANSKRIT as the NATIONAL language of lndia using the same script as that of the LOCAL language. This is how it was in the old days, when spoken Sanskrit was the same but the written script was different from location to location. Sanskrit, traditionally. an oral language, even in shorthand, even though in the written form it may lose some of the clarity of the multiple meanings of the words which depend on the pronunciation and emphasis.. The script for Sanskrit is really more an aide memoire.

Learning languages must start with speaking, and the idiom and grammar picked up during play from the earliest age. Reading and writing can be learnt thereafter. Also, perhaps each day of the week at School could be nominated for one language, and a token prize or recognition be awarded to those who are recognized by their peers/ classmates as having done so.

1. The almost majoritarian recognition that English, which we having re-made with many distinctive regional variants and should therefore perhaps call as ENGLISH (Indian) or even as ‘INGLISH’, is the link Language of the Country and those who know it have many an advantage within and outside our Country. Especially as it has a vocabulary of about one million words which is easily at least 8 to 12 times greater than that of any Indian Language, except Sanskrit, and therefore it would be ridiculous and practically impossible to try and generate that many new words.

We need feel no aversion to English as belonging only to England, because it originated with German roots, which itself had Sanskrit roots. There it grew from the Shakespearean time vocabulary of less than One Lakh words to a vocabulary of about ten Lakh words, mainly by absorbing words from most other languages from all over the world. The earlier ‘Chaucerian’ time English, the actual mother tongue of England, is today almost a foreign language even in England and hence, we need have no hesitation in accepting English (Indian) or ‘INGLISH’ as our language. Even the script is not native to England, it is Roman/ Latin. There are today many more ‘INGLISH’ speakers in India than English speakers in any other country in the world.

Such an advantage, especially when it allows us an edge in these days of globalization, is to be further enhanced and exploited by encouraging the spread of the Language.

Nandan Nilekani in ‘Imagining India’ writes – “Dalits also, came to support English as an emancipatory language that enabled communication across linguistic regions, giving (them) a nationwide solidarity and enabling their voices to be heard in the public sphere. . . the importance of English as a neutral player in India’s Language debate cannot be exaggerated.”

He also, draws our attention to the difference of prosperity in Singapore, which chose English, and of sectarian strife in Sri Lanka which in similar multi language circumstances chose its majority language Sinhalese as its official language.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy had said – “So long as the English language is universal, it will remain Indian’:

Also, as Shri C. Rajagopalachari, wrote –”English was Saraswati’s gift to India”. This was not because he thought it was a great language, but because he recognized that it would allow us to learn about the colonizers culture and philosophy and thus be able to better deal with them.

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