The Cambridge History of the English Language Volume 5 Part 9 ppsx

Braj B. Kachru c! j s > \ 4 < r 1 /••-' f Kabul' ^ _y A FGH AN 1 STAh^^ "I ._•<">-•' L, V ! PAK1 STAN ^ v~^ v _Karachi C.^ r* a Bombay. Arabian S&a. ., • MALDIVES •• ;—~ A/' tore- , _ • / "i »• ••poona I \ \ JMadras \ J Colombo) V 1 M T> t L 1 »\ A. \ VSR.1I ) C 'Katniandi. 0 0 H I BHUTAN K1M 1 > > V S. "1 Calcutta*'! ^M\ r / JV.NKA. C £AN N ./ i E D 0 Q 0 0 c < / > u \ I A. Vi R.M A. y rv, A L \ 9 Se>a o • V It Map 10.1 South Asia In linguistic terms there are four major language families: Indo-Aryan, used by the majority of the population, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Munda (see table 10.1). It is not only that the language families are shared across the continent; there is also considerable linguistic convergence {Sprachbund) due to areal proximity and contact between typologically distinct languages, such as Dravidian and Indo-Aryan. This convergence is additionally the result of shared cultural and political history, shared literary and folk traditions, and all-pervasive substrata of Sanskrit, Persian and English, in that chronological order (Hock 1986: 494-512). All the major South Asian countries have a long tradition of societal 498 Table 10.1. The main languages of South Asia Bangladesh Indo- Aryan Bengali Bhutan Tibeto- Burman Dzongkha Dravidian Tamil Tulu Telugu Malayalam Kannada India Indo- Aryan Assamese Bengali Gujarati Hindi Kashmiri Marathi Oriya Punjabi Sindhi Urdu Tibeto- Burman Bodo Naga Maldives Indo- Munda Aryan Mundari Divehi Santhali Indo- Aryan Nepali Nepal Tibeto- Burman i Newari Pakistan Indo- Dravidian Aryan Brahui Gujarati Punjabi Sindhi Urdu Indo- Iranian Baluchi Pushto Sri Lanka Indo- Dravidian Aryan Tamil Sinhala Braj B. Kachru multilingualism, and several language areas include diglossic situations: using a learned variety of language in formal contexts and its colloquial variety in non-formal contexts (e.g. Tamil in Sri Lanka and India, Bengali in Bangladesh and India, Telugu in India, Nepali in Nepal and India). It is for these reasons that South Asia has been considered a linguistic area (Emeneau 1955,1956; Masica 1976) and a sociolinguistic area (Pandit 1972; D'souza 1987). A number of these shared linguistic characteristics are transferred to South Asian English (hereafter SAE) and result in the South Asianness in this variety of English. 10.2 English in the South Asian linguistic repertoire The formal introduction of English in South Asia has passed through several stages. What started as an educational debate in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries culminated in Lord Macaulay's much- maligned Minute of 2 February 1835, which initiated planned activity for introducing the English language into South Asian education. Earlier, each Indian state had its own agenda for language in education and the political divisions did not foster a national language policy. In India, the largest country in the region, at least four languages had roles as languages of wider communication, or as bazaar languages: Hindi-Urdu (or varieties of Hindi and Hindustani), Sanskrit and Persian. The Hindus generally sent their children topaths'alas (traditional Hindu school primarily for scriptural education) for the study of religious scriptures and for basic knowledge of the sastras (Sanskrit instructional texts, and treatises). The Muslims sent their children to traditional maktab (schools for Koranic instruction). A number of denominational schools {vidyalaya) provided liberal arts curricula in Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi, Arabic or in the dominant language of the region. The policy for determining language in education, if there was one (see Kachru 1982: 60—85), was primarily an 'inward' policy; this education was secular only in a marginal sense. The Nalanda University (visvavidydlaya, fifth century AD, in what is now the state of Bihar) was much closer to our present concept of a university; it was a Buddhist monastery established for scientific, theological and humanistic edu- cation and deliberation. Nalanda attracted students from neighbouring regions including Southeast Asia. Two other such universities were Vikramshila in Bihar and Takshashila in the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan. There were also the matha (Hindu monasteries), which undertook the role of theological education, and this function of 500 English in South Asia the matha continues even now. In Sri Lanka, this purpose was served by pirivenas (indigenous monastic institutes). Only a small segment of the population could avail themselves of such opportunities. Thus there was no national language-in-education policy as we understand the term now. As Britain slowly gained administrative control of a large part of South Asia, attempts were made to develop a language-in-education policy. However, the new policy could not change the linguistic, cultural and religious diversity of the region. The educational Minute of 1835 did, however, provide for the first time a blueprint of a national language policy for the subcontinent, which sought to challenge tradition in initiating an 'outward-looking' policy. And now, over 150 years later, it is clear that after the Minute was passed, the subcontinent was not the same, linguistically and edu- cationally. And the diffusion of English has continued unabated in spite of sporadic efforts to arrest its spread. The roots of English are much deeper now than they were in 1947, when a new era of anti-English policies was expected to be introduced. A detailed and cohesive history of the introduction and diffusion of bilingualism in English in South Asia has yet to be written. Whatever information is available is gleaned from the following types of studies: official reports concerning education, educational reforms and edu- cational notifications (e.g. Sharp 1920), histories of education in South Asia (e.g. Law 1915; Nurullah & Naik 1951; Ruberu 1962), and from studies of histories of missionary activities, particularly those related to the introduction of literacy and education (e.g. Sherring 1884; Richter 1908; Neill 1984,1985). The survey presented in this section is primarily based on the above sources. The diffusion of English in South Asia is closely linked with the control of the region by the British, and its eventual colonisation for over two hundred years. The first South Asian contact with a speaker of English possibly dates to AD 882. It is claimed that the first English- speaking visitor to India may have been an emissary of Alfred the Great. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred's ambassador went to the subcontinent with gifts to be offered at the tomb of St Thomas. The next recorded attempts at contact started around the sixteenth century, and by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the political domination by the British was almost complete. As the British political power increased, so did the currency of the English language in various important functional domains. However, for understandable reasons, the earlier uses of English were restricted to a very small group of 501 Braj B. Kachru people: those who had to deal with the affairs of the British East India Company, and later those of the Raj. In retrospect we see that the introduction of English into the language policies of the region has primarily gone through four stages. First, exploration; second, implementation; third, diffusion; and finally, instit- utionalisation. These four stages broadly capture the slow but goal- orientated efforts to bring to culmination the underlying policy of providing a secure place for English in South Asian education. The foundation for the eventual introduction of English in the subcontinent was laid on 31 December 1600, when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a few merchants of the city of London, giving them the monopoly of trade with the east, primarily with the Dutch East Indies. The East India Company was essentially a small company of adventurous and enterprising merchants which had originally been conceived in 1599. A few trading 'factories' were established by the company in Surat (1612), Madras (1639-40), Bombay (1674) and Calcutta (1690). These 'factories' covered the major trade routes to the subcontinent. During the period of Charles II the Company became politically ambitious and consolidated its power as 'a state within the state'. It did not become a political power in the subcontinent until two favourable events took place: the victory of Lord Clive (1725-74) in the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the land grant (diwanl) of three regions, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa by Emperor Shah Alam to the company in 1765. And, finally, when William Pitt's (1759-1806) India Act was passed in 1784, the Company gained joint responsibility for Indian affairs with the British Crown. However, the earlier attempts for the introduction of English cannot be attributed to one single group or agency, for the situation was much more complex than that. There were several groups working towards this goal, often with distinctly different motivations and interests. During the phase of exploration, the role of the missionaries had been quite vital. At the beginning, the educational efforts of the Europeans had an ulterior purpose, viz. the propagation of the Gospel. Moreover, they were directed purely to religious education - the objects being the instillation of Christian doctrines into the minds of the people through their native language which the Europeans tried to master, as also the spread of Western education among the Indians in order to enable them to appreciate better the Christian doctrines. (Law 1915: 6-7) 5 O2 English in South Asia Not all such schools used the native language for imparting education. There were several schools where English was used, for example, St Mary's Charity School, Madras (1715), the Charity Schools established at Bombay (1719) and Calcutta (1720-31), Lady Campbell's Female Orphan Asylum (1787) and the Male Asylum in Madras (1787), and the English Charity Schools in the South of India, Tanjore (1772), Ramnad (1785) and Sivaganga (1785). The period of exploration is well documented in several studies (for India, Sherring 1884, Richter 1908, Law 1915; for Sri Lanka Ruberu 1962). The initial efforts of the missionaries started in 1614 and became more prominent after 1659. This was the time when the missionaries were permitted to use the ships of the East India Company. The 'missionary clause' was added to the charter of the East India Company at the time of the renewal in 1698 (see Sharp 1920: 3). This clause lasted for about sixty-seven years; in 1765, the policy changed, when support and encouragement of the missionary activities was abandoned. The missionaries' reaction to this new policy was rather violent; the Clapham sect initiated agitation for continuation of missionary activities in the subcontinent. The efforts of Charles Grant (1746-1823) are particularly noteworthy in this context. Grant's concern was specifically about the 'morals, and the means of improving them' (Morris 1904). In Grant's view, the missionary activities were desirable for the moral uplift of the people, since it was the moral decay which was the main cause for the upheaval in the subcontinent. In his view,' The true curse of darkness is the introduction of light. The Hindoos err, because they are ignorant and their errors have never fairly been laid before them. The communication of our light and knowledge to them, would prove the best remedy for their disorders' (Grant 1831-2: 60-1). By 1813, the efforts of Charles Grant and his supporters, for example William Wilberforce, the Foreign Secretary, and Lord Castlereagh, bore fruit, and the House of Commons, in its thirteenth Resolution, resolved that: it is the opinion of this Committee that it is the duty of this country to promote the interest and happiness of the native inhabitants of the British dominations in India, and that measures ought to be introduced as may tend to the introduction among them of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral improvement. That in furtherance of the above objects sufficient facilities shall be afforded by law to persons desirous of going to, or remaining in, India. 503 Braj B. Kachru It was in 1813 that William Wilberforce told Parliament to 'exchange its [India's] dark and bloody superstition for the genial influence of Christian light and truth'. The official sanction not only revitalised the missionary activities, but also gave a stimulus to the teaching of English, since initially English was one of the major languages used in the missionary schools (see for references, Kanungo 1962: 11-14). The story of Ceylon, renamed Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972, is not much different: the island was declared a Crown Colony in 1802. However, before this declaration, in 1799, the Reverend James Cordiner went as a chaplain to the garrison in Colombo. He took over as principal of all schools in the settlement. The initial efforts to introduce English in Sri Lanka were again made by the missionaries; the government did not start imparting English education until 1831. By this time, Sri Lanka already had 235 protestant mission schools, and only ninety of them were under the direct control of the government. By the time the government in Sri Lanka involved itself in imparting English education, the 'Christian Institution' was already there; its foundation was laid in 1827 by Sir Edward Barnes. The aim of the Institution was: ' to give a superior education to a number of young persons who from their ability, piety and good conduct were likely to prove fit persons in communicating a knowledge of Christianity to their countrymen' (Barnes 1932: 43; see also Ruberu 1962). The Report of the Special Committee of Education (1943) in Sri Lanka makes it clear that in that country, until 1886, a large number of schools were Christian. The first British Governor, Frederick North, initiated far-reaching educational schemes and 'the Colebrooke- Cameron reforms of 1832 made explicit the position of English in Ceylon' (Fernando 1972: 73). It was in 1832 that English schools were established in five cities, Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Chilaw and Jaffna. Only sixteen years later, in 1848, the number of such schools had increased to sixty with 2,714 students (Mendis 1952: 76). While the controversy concerning the role of English in India's education was going on, there was a small but influential group of Indians who were impressed by western thought and culture and its scientific and technological superiority. The English language was, therefore, preferable in their view to Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, as it was a valuable linguistic tool for access to such knowledge. The most articulate spokesman of this group was Rammohan Roy (1772-1833). His letter, dated 11 December 1823, is often quoted as evidence for such 504 English in South Asia local demand for English. The following excerpts from Roy's important letter are worth noting: Humbly reluctant as the natives of India are to obtrude upon the notice of Government the sentiments they entertain on any public measure, there are circumstances when silence would be carrying this respectful feeling to culpable excess. The present Rulers of India, coming from a distance of many thousand miles to govern a people whose language, literature, manners, customs and ideas are almost entirely new and strange to them, cannot easily become so intimately acquainted with their real circumstances as the natives of the country are themselves. We should therefore be guilty of ourselves, and afford our Rulers just ground of complaint at our apathy, did we omit on occasions of importance like the present to supply them with such accurate information as might enable them to devise and adopt measures calculated to be beneficial to the country, and thus second by our local knowledge and experience, their declared benevolent intentions for its improvement When this Seminary of learning [a Sanskrit school in Calcutta] was proposed, we understand that the Government of England had ordered a considerable sum of money to be annually devoted to the instruction of its Indian subjects. We were filled with sanguine hopes that this sum would be laid out in employing European gentlemen of talents and education to instruct the natives of India in mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy, and other useful sciences, which the natives of Europe have carried to a degree of perfection that has raised them above the inhabitants of other parts of the world We now find that the Government are establishing a Sanskrit school under Hindoo Pundits to impart such knowledge as is clearly current in India. And, then, Roy adds arguments against spending government money on Sanskrit studies: If it had been intended to keep the English nation in ignorance of real knowledge the Baconian philosophy would not have been allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the best calculated to keep the country in darkness, if such had been the policy of the British legislature. (see Roy 1823: 99-101; see also Wadia 1954: 1-13) It is on the basis of pleas such as Roy's that Chaudhuri (1976: 89) ridicules the idea that English 'was imposed on a subject people by a set of foreign rulers for the sake of carrying on their alien government'. However, Chaudhuri is only partially right. The phase of implemen- 505 Braj B. Kachru tation of English had to wait until the educational Minute of 1835 was passed. That Minute made English a constituent part of the language policy of South Asia. The passing of this epoch-making Minute was not without extensive debate, which resulted in what has been labelled the Oriental and Occidental (Anglicist) controversy. The argument was about the indigenous system of education (the Oriental) as opposed to the western system of education (the Occidental), their merits and demerits, their relevance for the British interests and the interests and needs of the subcontinent. The debate began soon after 1765, when the East India Company was finally able to stabilise its authority in the subcontinent. The main concern was to determine an official policy about the role and appropriateness of English in Indian education. The Orientalists proposed the nativist theory and the Occidentalists the transplant theory. Proponents for each side included administrators of the Empire, both in India and in Britain. The Orientalists included H. T. Prinsep (1792-1878), who acted as the spokesman of the group and who presented a dissenting view in a note dated 15 February 1835. Prinsep was supported by, among others, Houghton Hodgson, who worked for the Company, and John Wilson, a missionary scholar. The Oc- cidentalists included Charles Grant (1746-1823), Lord Moira (1754-1826) and T. B. Macaulay (1800-59). The Minute had the support of the powerful government lobby and was a classic example of using language as a vehicle for destabilising a subjugate culture with the aim of creating a subculture. As Macaulay says, this subculture in India would consist of 'a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect' (Sharp 1920: 116). These words have frequently been quoted with various interpret- ations by researchers on Indian education and language policies. In Macaulay's view, this subculture could not be created using ' poor and rude' Indian vernaculars, and he believed that the learning of the East was ' a little hocus-pocus about the use of cusa-grass and the modes of absorption into the Deity' (Bryant 1932: 56-7). The answer to the debate, therefore, was to teach English. On 2 February 1835, he presented to the Supreme Council of India a Minute 'embodying his views and announcing his intention of resigning if they were not accepted' (Bryant 1932: 56). The Minute finally received a Seal of Approval from Lord William 506 English in South Asia Ben tick (1774-1839) on 7 March 1835 and an official declaration endorsing Macaulay's resolution was passed soon thereafter. This vital resolution for the introduction and diffusion of English in the subcontinent reads as follows: First. His Lordship in Council is of opinion that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India; and that all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best employed on English education alone. Second. But it is not the intention of His Lordship to abolish any College or School of native learning; while the native population shall appear to be inclined to avail themselves of the advantages which it affords, and His Lordship in Council directs that all the existing professors and students at all the institutions under the super- intendence of the Committee shall continue to receive their stipends. But His Lordship in Council decidedly objects to the practice which has hitherto prevailed of supporting the students during the period of education. He conceives that the only effect of such a system can be to give artificial encouragement to branches of learning which, in the natural course of things, would be superseded by more useful studies; and he directs that no stipend shall be given to any student that may hereafter enter at any of these institutions; and that when any Professor of Oriental learning shall vacate his situation, the Committee shall report to the Government the number and state of the class in order that the Government may be able to decide upon the expediency of appointing a successor. Third. It has come to the knowledge of the Governor-General-in- Council that a large sum has been expended by the Committee on the printing of Oriental works; His Lordship in Council directs that no portion of the funds shall hereafter be employed. Fourth. His Lordship in Council directs that all the funds which these reforms will leave at the disposal of the Committee be henceforth employed in imparting to the native population a knowledge of English literature and science through the medium of the English language; and His Lordship in Council requests the Committee to submit to Government, with all expedition, a plan for the ac- complishment of this purpose. (Sharp 1920:130-1) With this declaration and approval of the Minute, yet another external language was added to the multilingual repertoire of South Asia. The implication of this imposition was that by 1882 over 60 per cent of primary schools were imparting education through the English medium. Macaulay's dream had, at last, been realised. In 1857, three 507 [...]... characteristics of a single language (see e.g Hindustani English, Pandey 198 0; Kannada English, Murthy 198 1; Maithili English, Chaudhary 198 9 and Sadanandan 198 1; Marathi English, Rubdy 19 75 and Gokhale 197 8; Pakistani English, Rahman 199 0; 50 8 English in South Asia Punjabi English, Sethi 197 6 and 198 0; Rajasthani English, Dhamija 197 6; Tamil English, Vijayakrishnan 197 8 and Upendran 198 0; Telugu English, ... sociolinguistic context of any other institutionalised variety of English The parameters determining variation include the following The first is the users' proficiency in English in terms of language acquisition and years of instruction in the language The second is the region of South Asia to which the user belongs and the impact of the dominant language of that region on English The dominant language may reflect... self-labelling of the variety of their English Identity-marker % American English British English Indian English 'Mixture' of all three Don't know 'Good English' 2 -58 29- 11 55 -64 2 -99 8 -97 0-27 Source: Kachru 197 6 of American English through films, television programmes, the Voice of America, newspapers and literature The earlier British linguistic connection has become much more fragile, and 'RP and the British... 198 6a: 168-71; see also Kachru 198 6b, Y Kachru 199 2 and Fernando 197 6, 198 9, particularly the section on 'styles for narrative, descriptive and serious discourse') 10.7 Contact and impact: Englishisation Englishisation, the impact of the English language and English literature on South Asian languages and literatures, is one of the more lasting legacies of the British period The prolonged contact of. .. another (see Mukherjee 197 1; Kachru 198 6a) Indian English poetry dates back to the nineteenth century The earlier poets include Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1 95 0 ), Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (18 09- 31), Manmohan Ghose (18 69- 192 4), Toru Dutt (1 857 -77) and Sarojini Naidu (18 79- 194 9) The modern period began in the 1 95 0 s and shows considerable influence from T S Eliot (1888- 19 65) , W H Auden ( 190 7-73) and other... be of partly European descent and is used in the same sense as "half-caste" and "Eurasian" in India proper' (Yule & Burnell 1886 [ 190 3]: 130; see also Fernando 197 2: particularly 73 5) Thus there is a dine of proficiency in English The two ends of the spectrum are marked by educated South Asian English at one end and by Broken English at the other There are other functionally determined varieties of. .. habits of the far greater part of the members of the House, has a tendency to disgust them with all sorts of inquiry concerning this subject They are fatigued into such a despair of ever obtaining a competent knowledge of the transactions in India, that they are easily persuaded to remand them to obscurity (quoted in Rao 1 95 4 : 5) 6 During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the register of administration... American English British English Indian English Don't know 3-07 66-66 26-66 14- 35 13-33 25- 64 5- 12 25- 64 1 -53 11- 79 Table 10.3 Indian graduate students' attitude towards various models of English and ranking of models according to preferences Preference Model I 11 III American English British English Indian English Don't know 'Good English' 5- 17 67-6 22-72 13 19 9- 65 17- 85 5-03 1-08 21-08 1-08 10-74... Indian English stress, attempts have been made 51 6 English in South Asia to show that there is a regular predictable pattern in Indian English stress (see e.g Vijayakrishnan 197 8; Pandey 198 0, 19 85; Sadanandan 198 1; Chaudhary 198 9) Chaudhary ( 198 9: iii) claims that there is 'a very great deal of similarity and systematicity in the English spoken by educated speakers from nine different parts of India... Fernando 198 9 for Sri Lankan English) 10 .5 Models of English in South Asia In South Asia, as in other parts of the world, there is a difference between linguistic behaviour and an idealised linguistic norm Traditionally, for historical reasons, southern British English has been the norm presented to the South Asians through the BBC, a small percentage of the English administrators and some teachers In the . Chaudhary 198 9 and Sadanandan 198 1; Marathi English, Rubdy 19 75 and Gokhale 197 8; Pakistani English, Rahman 199 0; 50 8 English in South Asia Punjabi English, Sethi 197 6 and 198 0; Rajasthani English, . users' proficiency in English in terms of language acquisition and years of instruction in the language. The second is the region of South Asia to which the user belongs and the impact of the dominant. about the use of cusa-grass and the modes of absorption into the Deity' (Bryant 193 2: 56 -7). The answer to the debate, therefore, was to teach English. On 2 February 18 35, he presented to the