A Brief History of English in India:
English came to India with the British. Since the English had come here for the purpose of trade, in the beginning, they focused their attention only on trade and did not bother to encourage the teaching of English, but with them had come some missionaries who started schools where English was taught as one of the subjects (Bose, 1989:99). The traders found the mselves in the position of rulers. In order to have full command over the people whom they had begun to govern they decide to open educational institutions. Two such institutions were Calcutta Madrassa started in 1781 and Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791. They were the institutions of classical learning, but they also made a provision for the teaching of English. In this way, the teaching of English in India was started by the British rulers. The importance of English went on increasing with the passage of time. A great demand for the spread of English education had begun in the different parts of the country. To meet this demand Raja Ram Mohan Roy established the Hindu College in 1817. Soon, thereafter the missionaries opened a number of schools and colleges in which the teaching of English was given utmost importance. In 1835, Macaulay, in his famous minute, strongly recommends that the spread of western learning could only be possible through the medium of English language. Macaulay argued that, ‘English is better worth knowing than Sanskrit and Arabic’ and ‘the natives are desirous to be taught English’ and that ‘it is possible to make natives of this country through good English scholars’. Macaulay’s recommendation gave an impetus to the study of English as a result of which the study of the regional languages got marginalized. By 1837, the missionaries had begun to provide a significant part of the facilities for teaching English. Not very long thereafter, English became the language of administration and judiciary in India even as the vernaculars continued to be used in several instances. Almost simultaneously subordinate level positions in the judicial and administrative institutions were thrown open to Indians by a government resolution (Bose,
1989). In 1853, the year when the Company’s charter was renewed once more, under the pressure of government personnel to manage the widening domain of its, “India activities” the company decided to open up its highest Civil Service appointments to Indians by allowing them to appear for a competitive examination set up for this purpose. As a follow up of the Wood’s Despatch of 1854, the first formalized and formulated education policy statement of the East India Company three universities were established in 1857 at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras respectively. However, the Indian Education Commission (1882) expressed its dissatisfaction at the exclusive use of English as the medium of education. The Indian Universities Commission (1902) also raised its voice against the neglect of regional languages. The Calcutta University Commission (1917-1919) tried to strike a balance by observing that, ‘The educated classes in the various provinces of India will wish to be bilingual, to use their mother tongue for those dear and intimate things which form part of life and to use English as a means of inter-communication necessary for the maintenance of the unity of India, and of touch with other countries.’
Present Position and Use of English in Assam:
In modern Assamese society, English plays an important role in several spheres of life. Most official work in Assam is now done in English. The language of the court is English. The professional education like medical or engineering is all most invariably conducted through the medium of English. The importance of English has further increased with the proliferation of the use of computers and the internet which primarily use the medium of English. As in the rest of the India, English is today generally viewed as the language of opportunity and upward mobility in Assam. There has been concern about the poor performance in English in media and what exactly ails English Education in Assam. The Editor of The Assam Tribune, pointed out that the lack of practical command of the non-literary and non-technical English has created obstacles to good communicative skill of the Assamese students at school stage. Further he states: ‘The few who have done well in their examinations also fail to get good jobs as lack of the knowledge of English or lack of the skill of communication through English stands as the main obstacle on their way. As a result of this, the number of unemployed youths has been increasing. The present world is fast-forwarding in science, technology, computer and other such advanced studies, and to keep pace with it, knowledge of English and ability to communicate well in English has become the primary need’ (Bordoloi ,2001). English medium schools seem to be an ever-rolling judgment with an increasing number of followers not only in Assam, but all over in India. (Das, 2001) .Also, the immense importance has been attached to the Spoken English Course in Assam to develop speaking skills. There are regular advertisements for this in local dailies as well as discussion about these in newspapers articles (Lais, 2005:39-40).
Major Scheduled Language Speakers in Assam:
According to the census of 1901, English speaker in Assam were 2234, out of them 1635 were male and 599 were female and 20549 returned themselves as being literate in English (Allen, 1989:93). In 1991 census of India, the total numbers of speakers of English as a second language are 64,602,299 and that of speaker of English as a third language are 25,440,188. According to the brochure, distribution of languages in India in and union territories were based on the analysis of the 1961 census data. It indicates that out of total 6784271 language speakers, only 2080 were pure English speakers in Assam. Gradually, according to 2001 Census, there has been increase in the number of English speakers.
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