Leader Article
“There are many benefits to learning English but it is neither a panacea for economic development nor a freebie.
There is no greater a myth than that English is important for the development of the economy. “
- Prashant Agrawal
(contact/email ?)
An ultimate article is published in 17th Nov Times of India issue. Read full story :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Myths_About_English/articleshow/2547029.cms
I know one thing, if computer and internet is available in Hindi (easily and broadly), my grandfather can also use and take advantage. I believe English is really making our progress very slow, more then 85% of Indian population can’t work in English and they are forced to do that. This is the reason government organizations are still not able to take benefit of technology. Simply, all police stations having deadly need of information network system but you will not find a computer in most of stations. The reason? Yes it’s in English and local policeman cant handle it.
Also I want to add some real facts here :
1. Hindi is worlds second largest language as primary language : ( http://www2.ignatius.edu
# Mandarin Chinese (836 million)
# Hindi (333 million)
# Spanish (332 million)
# English (322 million)
# Bengali (189 million)
2. China is not a single language country. It has too many flavors, so people in this forum stated that we have problem of because of multi-lingual country is totally illogical.
3. Development of country doesn’t comes with literature and words only, science, management, manufacturing, infrastructure is the part of country’s development and economic growth.
4. Why a illiterate farmer of USA is able to use internet/technology to sale there product ( or for many other things) ? because the system is in his mother tongue. Forget the computer, our farmers are not able to operate agricultural machineries without support.
5. Most offices(govt and many pvts) are still struggling and devoting most of time for learning language tools and actual work is getting delayed/pending. Only bank sector could stand up on this front, PF offices, hospitals, corporations, and many others having technology and network but its not fully utilized.
5. One more example, we have GPS system now available in India but in English only. How many of us (Indians) are using GPS now a days ? What do you think, truck and taxi drivers should first learn English ? GPS and tracking system is deadly need and govt is floating money like water, but its not worth because everything is in English and India’s most drivers don’t know English.
There are too many cases to discuss and too many things to say, I will publish on my blog soon ( http://satyadev.net )
कोई भी जो वर्तमान हिन्दी साहित्य से परिचित है, ऐसे मिथ्यापूर्ण भ्रमोक्तियों से अलग रहना चाहता है। भारतीय भाषाओं में लिखने वाले अपने यथार्थ से खूब परिचित हैं और जानते हैं कि भारतीय जीवंतता को कोई भी चुनौती नहीं दे सकता। अपनी भाषा में सोचने, बोलने का सुख इतना बलिष्ठ है कि अपनी ज़मीन पर तो इससे दूर हो ही नहीं सकता। हाँ, यदि हर व्यक्ति को अपने स्थान से विस्थापित कर दिया जए तब उस क्षेत्र की भाषा के विकास में किंचित परिवर्तन आ सकता है। आप सब से अनुरोध है कि अधिक से अधिक साहित्य पठन कीजिए — भले ही वो किसी दूसरी तीसरी भाषा का हो। साहित्यकार सत्य प्रकट करने में त्रुटि कर सकता है पर बेईमानी नहीं।