“In this country, those who speak English will soon feel ashamed, the creation of such a society is not far away.” - Home Minister Amit Shah, June 19, 2025.
121 languages. 19,500 dialects. In a country as vast and diverse as India, English is not only a language, it is a unifier. For the lakhs of Indians who have been forced to live their lives on the fringes, English is a tool. A tool that promises access, exposure and upward mobility. To dismiss English and its potential as an equaliser, is to dismiss the struggles and aspirations of those Indians who have historically been invisibilised. To view it singularly as a colonial imposition, is to be ignorant of the world order, and what it takes to destabilise the powers that be. English is no longer perceived, viewed, or accepted as a language thrust on the colonised by the British; it is the global language that connects and enables people to collaborate.
Across our history, English has been a functional ally used as a tool to fight colonialism, build institutions, and connect India to the world. This view isn't recent or elitist. It is grounded in the thought of those who built the nation. To shame people for speaking English is to ignore history, undermine progress, and deepen divisions.
India doesn't need less English. It needs more multilingualism, more access, and more confidence in its ability to speak in many tongues without shame or fear. English doesn't make anyone less Indian. Rather, it makes Indians more prepared and more connected in a globalised world. The challenge before us is not the language we speak, but whether we allow ideology to limit access to opportunity. We aren't speaking in the master's tongue. If anything, we are speaking back to the master bygone.
You have heard the views of the Home Minister. You have read some of my views. What did others think about English. Did they agree with Amit Shah? We present the counter view. From Mahatma Gandhi, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, C Rajapolachari, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr S Radhakrishnan, Savitribai Phule, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Frank Anthony and others. You, the reader, can then decide on whose side you are on.
Dr. B R Ambedkar: “English is the milk of a lioness, only those who drink it will roar.”
Mahatma Gandhi: “Towards the end of my second year in England I came across two Theosophists, brothers, and both unmarried. They talked to me about the Gita, they were reading Sir Edwin Arnold's translation – The Song Celestial – and they invited me to read the original with them. I felt ashamed, as I had read the divine poem neither in Sanskrit nor in Gujarati. I was constrained to tell them that I had not read the Gita, but that I would gladly read it with them, and that though my knowledge of Sanskrit was meagre, still I hoped to be able to understand the original to the extent of telling where the translation failed to bring out the meaning. I began reading the Gita with them.”
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: “English was a foreign language. We were greatly handicapped by having it as our medium of instruction. But we were also greatly benefited in one way that all the educated people in the country thought and expressed themselves in the same language. It cemented national unity. It was such a great boon to us that I should have advocated its retention as the medium of instruction, had it not been fundamentally wrong to impart education through a foreign language.”
Savitri Phule: “In such a dismal time of ours / Come Mother English, this is your hour. / Throw off the yoke of redundant belief / Break open the door, walk out in relief.”
Dr. S Radhakrishnan: “English is the only means of preventing our isolation from the world. If we give up English because of sentimental urges, we would cut ourselves from the living stream of ever-growing knowledge.”
C. Rajagopalachari: “English is the gift of goddess Saraswati.”
Atal Bihari Vajpayee: “However, our English is also good and the country is proud of it. We are very fast in learning a language. That's why our people are doing so well in the area of technology whereas China has to send their people abroad to learn the language.”
Frank Anthony: “The English language is one of the few good things that the British incidentally, perhaps unthinkingly, gave to this country, and so opened up a treasure house of literature, thought and culture which a knowledge of the English language has given to the Indian people.”
Some fans of the Home Minister can quickly dismiss the multiple quotes this columnist has cited with the argument that “History Is Bunk”. To them, we would say, this is only the first instalment of a two-part column around the English language. More coming up, exactly a fortnight from now. Watch this space.
(Additional research credit: Amit Ghosh, Chahat Mangtani, Varnika Mishra)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
