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Usually I am very skeptical of articles published on what could be called “article farms”. These are sites that allow writers to publish their posts and opinions, but what mainly counts for the authors the is link they have this article attached to. [No, I didn’t make a mistake. Sometimes you feel the article is attached to a link and not a link is attached to the article.] Nevertheless I happened to read the article about the “Importance of English Language in India” on EzinesArticles.com, written by Rajesh Mohan, an Indian Poet and Freelance Writer, who is he is affiliated with these websites/blogs Kerala Backwaters and Calicut University. And it was a pleasant surprise to read this well written article that gives a good introduction to the specific Indian situation.

We are all aware of the importance of English in fields like Business, Science and Politics. Rajesh Mohan brings to the point what turns English into such a crucial issue for India:
“Every nation must develop and encourage its own language. However, in India we have diversity in languages and it is not possible for many years ahead to have a common language like Hindi. Under such circumstances, we cannot wait for long, otherwise we will be left far behind. As such, till such time one language is developed, we must learn and teach English from the beginning itself.”

So what we experience on the international level as the trend to have English as the common ground for global communication, India is actually facing as a domestic policy issue.

Here are some links with further investigations of this situation:

• Language in India
• In India, Dreams Unfold in English - Washingtonpost.com
• The English Language in India - R. Narayanan
• Languages of India - Wikipedia

Enjoy reading,
Domenico

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Domenico Ruzzi is a freelance translator specializing in website translations, covering English to Italian and Italian to English. One of his latest jobs was translating and localizing the English Dictionary by Babylon for Italian users (see: Dizionario on line)
Domenico Ruzzi can be contacted by e-mail.