How language plays a crucial role in perpetuating modern forms of colonialism meanwhile maintaining the structures of power within a region? As a tool, language is used both as a means and a medium with one 's colonizers even beyond the context of colonialism by creating a caste system of hierarchy, and thus; perpetuating dominance through a region. In this essay, I will particularly highlight the case of India, as a powerful and equally strong nation in South Asia, while demonstrating how their historical roots and experience of colonialism—by the British imperialist hegemony—brought new forms colonialism and dominance of modern India as a nation, as opposed to its South Asian neighbors.
The objective of this essay is to examine the question: …show more content…
Although the caste system has been abandoned in India for a long time, the members of the higher classes still have the power to decide what structural devices are used. One of them is that the use of English language equates as a tool for either written or oral communication. Aula (2014) also notes that while English has become steadily used on a large scale in India, there is only little population—accounting for 125,000,000—who really understand the English language competently. In fact, in India there are only about 200,000 native English speakers. This means that while English has been the preferred language of the elite and the dominant ruling class, the majority of the population (about 70 to 80 per cent) is left without any knowledge of the English language. The effects of this spill over in everyday activities. This includes not being able to access important information and knowledge, especially in publications that use English as their main medium. Particularly, Aula (2014) mentions how many Indian nationals are unable to even understand anything about the medication that they are taking because the medium for this information is written in English. This then leads to a phenomenon of a large disparity between Indian nationals and members of the nation; also just because modern India still embraces the language of their colonizer, modern attempts of …show more content…
On the other hand, the use of English in India, in more extensive ways, when compared to other countries in the South Asian region, may also perpetuate some forms of Indian dominance over all other nations in South Asia (Aula, 2014; Syam, 2012). Finally, due to the fact that India is the biggest country, and perhaps the dominant force in the region, this nation-state has taken the lead to express its power over other states in the region, even if it means perpetuating many forms of neo-colonialism and promoting inequality among Indian subjects and citizens, by reinstating a “hidden caste system” as a class
The objective of this essay is to examine the question: …show more content…
Although the caste system has been abandoned in India for a long time, the members of the higher classes still have the power to decide what structural devices are used. One of them is that the use of English language equates as a tool for either written or oral communication. Aula (2014) also notes that while English has become steadily used on a large scale in India, there is only little population—accounting for 125,000,000—who really understand the English language competently. In fact, in India there are only about 200,000 native English speakers. This means that while English has been the preferred language of the elite and the dominant ruling class, the majority of the population (about 70 to 80 per cent) is left without any knowledge of the English language. The effects of this spill over in everyday activities. This includes not being able to access important information and knowledge, especially in publications that use English as their main medium. Particularly, Aula (2014) mentions how many Indian nationals are unable to even understand anything about the medication that they are taking because the medium for this information is written in English. This then leads to a phenomenon of a large disparity between Indian nationals and members of the nation; also just because modern India still embraces the language of their colonizer, modern attempts of …show more content…
On the other hand, the use of English in India, in more extensive ways, when compared to other countries in the South Asian region, may also perpetuate some forms of Indian dominance over all other nations in South Asia (Aula, 2014; Syam, 2012). Finally, due to the fact that India is the biggest country, and perhaps the dominant force in the region, this nation-state has taken the lead to express its power over other states in the region, even if it means perpetuating many forms of neo-colonialism and promoting inequality among Indian subjects and citizens, by reinstating a “hidden caste system” as a class