Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #EnglishApartheid

Most recents (24)

If IAS officers are required to learn the language of the state where they are posted, why isn't judiciary?

It's a travesty that Bihar High Court does not allow Hindi in Patna because milords can't stoop to learn it. Can these lords ever provide justice to the common people?
Does the Court exist for the convenience of the judges or for the convenience of the people? Time of lords is over.

They either learn the language or get interpreters for themselves at State expense. Not force people to speak in the lord's language.

twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The untouchability due to #EnglishApartheid affects the common man today more.

State systematically denies access to higher education, courts and so many opportunities using this. It is legal apartheid, but no FCRA-NGOs will protest. Guess why not?

Read 9 tweets
I don't see a problem with students practising English-speaking skills. Try Chinese too.

The problem is in *denying* opportunities to those without English-speaking/writing skills. Government must end #EnglishApartheid in higher education and judiciary and level playing field.
The so-called "Dravidian" hate movement against #HindiImposition was never about Tamil. EVR called Tamil a barbarian language.

It was always about establishing English supremacy. Just like Hindu/Brahmin-hate ia a cover for #ChristoIslamic conversion.

Lol. "English-medium" is not needed for corporate jobs in China or Japan or Korea or Germany or France. Even for MNCs. Why is it *needed* in India?

Read 4 tweets
How about employers in India pay an #EnglishTax when they insist on conducting interviews in English where spoken English is not a clear job necessity?

#EnglishApartheid is entrenched via the English class in India.

The same MNCs don’t interview in English in Israel or China.
Absolutely. In Garuda, for technical positions, I found candidates express more naturally and easily in Hindi. I found them better hires than English-speaking ones.

Read 5 tweets
#EnglishClass in India has a meltdown on my #IndianLanguage advocacy, in English, because they can't dismiss me like they do those from Hindi/Kannada/Marathi lit background.

I've done all they dream of.😏 I'm blessed to speak for those left behind by #EnglishApartheid. 🙏
And here's the book. Spread the word.

grpr.in/emm
The narrative of India’s “English advantage” is tied with their story of India’s backwardness:

“India was backward. English came and civilized us. Taught us math and science. Our only advantage in the world is they taught us English.

Dismantles this:

Grpr.in/tis
Read 5 tweets
Lol. #EnglishIndians live in such bubbles with no idea how the world works.

1. Students across Europe do medical studies in their own language.
2. They can have reading level for English.
3. Most people don’t move. When they do they can acquire language skills as needed
Where is the evidence of this "advantage"? That some South Koreans or Japanese are learning English? Did you check how many times their GDP/capita is versus India?

You make up a mythical advantage while India is kept poor due to #EnglishApartheid.

Read 6 tweets
This is the biggest fraudulent narrative Congress perpetuated. No, @tehseenp India did not become an "IT power" because of #EnglishAdvantage. Rather, it lags other countries in GDP/capita because of #EnlgishLiability.

English-liability stops 90% of Indians from advancing.
Because successive govts kept up #EnglishApartheid in India.

This has to be dismantled to provide equal opportunity to all in their language rather than continuing a discriminatory system.

No major country has developed without mother-tongue education.

यह सोचते हैं कि १५० देशों का समविधान अंग्रेज़ी में लिखा है। 😆 इतनी अज्ञानता हमारे लोगों में कहाँ से आई?

Read 15 tweets
This is why I had coined the term #EnglishApartheid for the Indian State's policies towards #IndianLanguages that turns native language speakers into 3rd class citizens unable to even plead their case.

Unfortunately not much has changed.
"F**k you" said politely still means the same thing.

I don't care for politeness. I care for the problem to be fixed.

Don't blame the ministers. There is only one man (and his bureaucrats) who are making all the decisions. No one else is allowed to.

Read 5 tweets
The biggest discrimination in India is #EnglishApartheid. The State funds medical colleges, engineering colleges, MBA, High Courts, in English-medium *only*, excluding 90% of the population.

If you care about #SocialJustice why not #Reservation for Tamil-medium instead?
The fact is all the "Tamil pride" of the so-called "Dravidian" parties is for lip-service only. The agenda is English and Christianization. That's the #DravidianModel (itself a colonial construct). That's what the @PWilsonDMK et al fight for.
I thought they made them English medium, at least partially.

Read 4 tweets
I followed that IIT->grad->tech US path. My 2c:

1. Indians' domestic success is throttled by bureaucracy .
2. Indian quotas kill meritocracy. #Wokeism is a rounding error compared to quotas.
3. #EnglishApartheid ensures only a fraction of India's talent develops vs China eg.
Indians succeed, even in the US, not *because* of English, but despite it.

I thought I spoke great "convent school" English, but American students complained of my "weird accent" as TA. Immaterial.

Two factors of Indians' success are selectivity ratio and Indian families.
In general, Indians enjoy strong family support. Their domestic relations are also generally more stable. This creates a greater platform for success.

Indian languages' logical structure is an asset in brain development; but we are losing this advantage.
Read 6 tweets
“Your kids” may grow up speaking English at home, have an environment to learn.

Most of these children won’t. They will sit uncomprehending in class, not understand math or language, won’t be in any position to compete with China.

How to destroy talent and civilization #101.
This is what will happen with this children @harshmadhusudan.

It is a formula to destroy the country and civilization. No major country has succeeded by converting the entire population to a foreign language. India won’t either.
The little bits of English they pick up won’t let them think or speak fluently. Those who win Nobel Prizes learn in primary in their mother tongue.

Of course, if Indians” highest aim is to be (bad) coolies, this may work. Till chatbots written by Chinese programmers replace them
Read 32 tweets
China focused on excellence in all fields.

India prioritized "English-medium" and "quotas."

The results are apparent in every field. From Artificial Intelligence patents to the Olympics.

"English Advantage"
No, there is practically no example of a country neglecting the mother tongue of the majority of people to impose a foreign language, and then becoming a technological leader.

English imposition and slavery is India's liability. We still don't get it.

Read 10 tweets
बहुत देर से इस बात का आग्रह कर रहा हूँ, शायद किसी के गले उतर ही गयी।

लेकिन @DrRPNishank जी इसे ठीक तरह लाना अवश्य है, आप चाहें तो इस पर मैं आपसे मिलकर सुझाव दे सकता हूँ।
But wait for the #EnglishApartheid system and the English media to launch massive spin and propaganda against this. The elite class won't give up their privilege easily. Already started.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education…
No, have to start at the top institutes. This is critical.

Read 4 tweets
Imagine an Indian education system geared to transmission of knowledge and natural apprenticeship-based learning.

This is an adaptation to State's #EnglishApartheid, where a child cannot learn to be a doctor in their language and serve their village.

I've been fighting for this for years, but the ones in power have turned a deaf year. Change can happen but the govt is itself obsessed with English. Even the #NEP has no focus on professional education in #IndianLanguages.

Instead what does our system do? It tell the child he or she cannot be a doctor using #IndianLanguages. To be a doctor one must go to medical school, which is only in English. One must spend lakhs and get "certified." And after that the doctor must charge lakhs to recover that.
Read 8 tweets
In their High Court, Supreme Court, English is imposed. No Tamil or Kannada or Hindi. In IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, English is imposed, no Tamil or Hindi.

What do they trend? #StopHindiImposition 🤣
Why? They don't about Tamil or Kannada. But are sepoys firing for #EnglishApartheid.
If you cared about your languages you'd realize that English, and not Hindi, is destroying them. You'd demand Engineering, Medicine, management, Courts, in your languages.

Instead you fight for #EnglishImposition to deny opportunity to 90% of people.

grpr.in/emm
My talk in IIT Madras on the English Medium Myth.

Read 5 tweets
A Hindi newspaper editor told me those who use erudite Sanskrit words in writing are derided as "ponga pandit." #IndianLanguages were infantilized, mainly due to being removed from higher ed. Even the PM pushes Hinglish.

Meanwhile, difficult words in English are "high culture."
Yes. In a Kingdom of Dreams show in Gurugram, the villains are blue-skinned and speak Hindi, the heroes are English-speaking and dressed in Western clothes. The script-writer is Christian. Media pushes these stereotypes.

I know @ShashiTharoor's tweet was in jest. But the point remain. In India's #EnglishApartheid, speaking difficult English is considered learned and erudite, while speaking learned Hindi or other #IndianLanguages is stuffy, obtuse and "backward."

Read 4 tweets
1947 was a transfer of power, not "independence." The British left, but installed their own stooge to continue the English system. Nothing changed, the Courts, the bureaucracy, the language used.

The entire system is based on British India Act of 1935.

If you look at South America, they celebrate Simón Bolívar as their "liberator" who led them to freedom. But freedom for whom? Certainly not the native people the Spanish had conquered. It was a transfer of power to the Spanish elite in South America, from the State in Spain. Image
1947 was a transfer of power from the British elite to their representatives in India. There were a lot of machinations to install "their guy" who was more English than Indian, and who had a distaste for the Hindu culture of the land. He ensured continuance of the British System. Image
Read 5 tweets
I have been asking for cross-country data on India's "English advantage" even in IT, but have yet to see anyone come up with it.

Perhaps this table will conclusively establish this "advantage."

Rank by country of programmers in different areas.
All these countries study programming and algorithms using their mother tongues. Almost none of these use English-medium.

houseofbots.com/news-detail/11…
Silicon Valley is not the world. And if India's "English advantage" is so great, where is the Silicon Valley and trillion $ market cap IT companies from India?

Imagine if you took per capita population numbers, how much further back India would be.

Read 24 tweets
More I read #NEP, more it appears like an utter disaster.

It has practically no move forward for #IndianLanguages, no earmarked resources, no clear plan.

But it has entire sections on "SEDG" including "minorities" to have the entire system serve that. #NaiManzil on steroids. ImageImage
Absolutely. It offers homilies to "Indian culture" but the details are geared around identity-based SJW "social disadvantage."

BJP is unique. It's far left of the West's "Left" in policies, yet gets itself branded "RW." Worst of both worlds. 😏

It has #indianLanguages in gana bajana, music and arts, poetry and literature, the stereotypical areas they've been relegated to. But when it comes to engineering or medicine or management, there is no mention of it. So #EnglishApartheid is preserved in high-paying professions.
Read 6 tweets
They keep talking about "structural discrimination." (Of course as copy cats of Western theory.)

But they are mum about the biggest state-based structural discrimination. Where by LAW, a non-English speaker can't plead in High Courts, SC, study in IIM, IIT, AIIMS, be a doctor...
It's a fraudulent argument to preserve English hegemony.

How does saying non-English speakers must be able to plead in Higher Courts, be able to study to be a doctor, engineer deny anyone? It is about creating access.

They don't want that access.

People don't *want* English medium. They want good jobs, they want access to technology, to Courts, to competitive exams. The govt denies them this.

The elite don't want them to rise. So instead of access, they say "let them learn English." That preserves English supremacy.
Read 6 tweets
EU is effectively a country in comparison to India. India inter-state migration for work is comparable to EU’s inter-country.

EU is a great model for India to emulate for language policy. India has 1.5 x the population, can easily support 22 official languages. @narendramodi
Check EU website. All languages are equally available. All countries have higher education and technical education in their mother tongues.

India needs to do the same. Central govt must support all 22 languages equally, states Higher Education in MT.

europa.eu/european-union…
Learning English as a 2nd or 3rd language is fine. Problem happens when it is made into the *medium* and then forced by the government for High Courts, SC, IIT, IIM, AIIMS, CAT etc with NO choice.

Read 5 tweets
English is yesterday’s skill. China is putting huge emphasis on Chinese. All countries are promoting their languages,
Investing in them.

The world of tomorrow will constitute a skilled technical elite who studied in their own languages and communicate via machine-translation:
In this world Indians will become coolies for others with no language of their own. Even in the US I see social services forms with 20 different languages but no Indian language.

Major civilizations are neither moving to English, nor destroying their languages. Only India.
The correct understanding is that English is the biggest *barrier* to socio-economic empowerment of the masses. The #EnglishApartheid system prevents their rise since all major national institutes are in English.

@Abhina_Prakash

Read 4 tweets
Without end-to-end thinking it will fail @rahuldewan.

To revive #IndianLanguages need to tackle entire structure of discrimination and #EnglishApartheid created by the government—competitive exams, courts, IIT, IIMs, AIIMS, job interviews, patents, not just primary education. 1/
All of my language advocacy has been about increasing choice. Today the govt of India *forces* English, gives no choice at Supreme Court, most High Courts, most govt services, income tax, GST, national institutes. All are English. Increasing choice here will create demand lower.
Problem with *forcing* #IndianLanguages in primary is parents will rebel, there will be an outrage, courts will weigh in. I also oppose it because I feel that govt should have much less regulation of education (why I oppose RTE) than more.

Govt needs to work on demand-side.
Read 11 tweets
Just did an interview of a student who did her BCA (Bachelor of Computer Applications) from a govt college in Gurgaon. It is a sad reflection of how the Indian State has actively worked to destroy Indian talent & education.

3 years of college—and she never learnt to program. 1/
I asked her what projects she did, what code she wrote. The answer was "nothing." She said the teacher just taught "theory", they did not get students to code; actual coding was not required for any class.

So programming was a taught from a book, evaluated by paper "exams." 2/
So she could recite what a Database was but could not write SQL. She had never worked on an actual database. To her credit, she was able to write a little bit of C++. But she had actually never written any useful program in her entire 3 years of "computer" education. 3/
Read 28 tweets
I have an chapter in the new edition of my book debunking myth that English medium is a “boon” for the poor and SC/ST.

#EnglishApartheid is their curse, if you want to lift them give professional education in their language, watch them scale new heights. newindianexpress.com/states/andhra-…
Telangana study—children who studied in Telugu outscored English medium kids in math and science scores, which indicates better brain development.

English medium won’t get them “ready for the global competition” but will destroy their ability to compete.

google.com/amp/s/www.theh…
Except for Indian dunderheads, English is a dead story. The world is advancing rapidly with children studying in their mother tongues, auto translation will bridge communication. English is yesterday’s news. Brain dead politicians are destroying India’. Look at China, Japan.
Read 3 tweets

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