Shashi Tharoor argues Britain must pay India for its colonial rule damages

[jeans]

Re: Shashi Tharoor argues Britain must pay India for its colonial rule damages

@OYMWA

If English is overrated, try demoting it as an official language in India and see what happens. Even if you don’t think much of English, you must admit, it is a language that is holding India together. And its importance in international trade, business, commerce, diplomacy, etc cannot be underestimated. Take any other language, see how far you get in the world. While I did not imply it in my original post, but this is the result of British imperialism, which was far more successful than that of other European powers.

I will leave you with one other thought. All the leaders in the fight for freedom for India/Pakistan were educated in Britain. And that education was key to the success of the freedom movement. Don’t think they were getting introduced to these ideas of that education in hindi, urdu or sanskrit.

IOymwa…If I had a chance …I would have done that…

as for rest o ur post:-Its not a language that’s holding India together..the stuff that held it together would be would be the Bengali and maratha poetsat that time…and now the morning chants in school that says(man ka vishwas kamjor ho na..hum chalein nek raste pr humse bhool kr bhi Koi bhool ho na…if u want to it listen its title is “itni shakti humein dena data” where data is neutral word for the giver in which ever forms one worship), uske alawa prasar bharti programs like discovery of India…radio programs ,saying thatbIndia is united bcz of English trashes their efforts..
Yes…it may be important that English is needed in international trade and diplomacy…but still as for Britishers charging for teaching is a totally (fill a word acc. To choice),bcz if they hadn’t India would have still learnt it if necessary…like we learnt Chinese… And freedom movement would have been much more stronger if they were taught in Hindi… Making everyone understand what is at stake..bcz half the subcontinent didn’t participate bcz they didn’t got English Ideas…in English rather spreading them in Hindi or other regional language would have been more effective…
Hindi if promoted as it should have been…(read hindi /regional languages for each Time I use hindi word) then the masses of India would have helped a lot in generating services and products..who now lie dormant bcz they just got caught in the Angrezpana … And their skills can’t be utilized… So I don’t thank them on teaching us English cause its just a language generated out of Sanskrit wouldn’t have been that hard to master without being exploited for 200 years.. And yes Hindi/regional languages would have promoted India beyond belief ..that’s idiocy of Indian people that they judge their fellowman for not knowing English..and they lack in opportunities..

So exploitation of 200 years for “so called mainstreaming” of a country which already had foreign ties seems overpay to me..