Why India must embrace Hindi and English to preserve its heritage and lead the world through unity and progress
When the Vedic Empire fell with the death of King Mandhata (Rig 10.134) of the Solar Dynasty in or around 4500 BCE, its greatest legacy was not its monuments or its rituals, but its Vedic language and grammar. From its linguistic womb were born nearly all Indian and European tongues. Sanskrit, the refined echo of that Vedic past, seeded civilizations with the words through which knowledge, faith, and governance flourished. Languages are the most enduring empires—when power collapses, they alone survive.
Centuries later, Spanish, the fourth most spoken language in the world, stands as another example of this truth. Nearly 400 million people, mostly across Latin America, continue to speak it. The Spanish Empire rose in the early 1500s and reached its zenith with the conquest of the Caribbean and the Americas. By the time the empire faded in the mid-1800s, Spanish had become the official language in more than twenty nations. Yet, even within its triumph, transformation was inevitable: Spanish outside Spain evolved. In the Caribbean, idioms froze in time, preserving phrases that even Spaniards now consider ancient, while English words seeped into daily speech—a contamination the Real Academia Española still battles.
The French, too, extended their empire not only across oceans but within continental Europe. Today, twenty-one nations outside Europe and four within claim French as an official tongue. Once, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, French reigned as the language of science, diplomacy, and culture—the very code of exact refinement. But now, the French must accept that “le weekend,” “le shopping,” and “le parking” have invaded their vocabulary, despite the resistance of the Académie Française. In Kinshasa, Brazzaville, and Montreal, French has diverged from its Parisian roots, yet its echo of elegance remains.
Portuguese followed a similar path of imperial diffusion. It was born with the empire and spread across the oceans. Today, seven nations, from Brazil to Mozambique, call it their own. With 250 million speakers, Portuguese ranks seventh in global usage and second in South America. Its empire, contemporaneous with the Spanish, declined early in the 1700s when the Dutch dismantled its dominance in the Indian Ocean. Still, its linguistic footprint endures—another testimony to the immortality of language.
Not all linguistic empires spread by conquest. Some expand by commerce. China, through its economic ascent, has turned Mandarin into the second most learned language in the world, spoken by over 850 million people. Yet, English remains the global standard—the language of ambition, democracy, and diplomacy. Even as Mandarin’s reach grows, English continues to dominate the vocabulary of science, technology, and governance, followed distantly by Hindustani with its 490 million speakers.
The British, perhaps the most methodical colonizers, built an empire that covered a quarter of the planet by the early 1900s. From the 13 American colonies, English spread across the continent. When the empire itself dissolved after the Second World War, the language did not retreat—it expanded, buoyed by America’s rise. The United States, though it avoids the term “empire,” exercises a subtler imperialism through culture and language. American English is now everywhere—on menus, in music, in science, in dreams. The spread of English was not achieved by swords but by cinema, technology, and diplomacy.
Ironically, while English conquered the globe, Americans remained largely monolingual. The U.S. State Department classifies languages by difficulty: 600 hours suffice for Latin or Germanic tongues; 1,100 for Slavic, Turkic, Persian, or Hindi; and over 2,200 for Arabic, Japanese, or Chinese. Fewer than 9% of Americans are bilingual—a paradox in a world where language is currency. But even in monolingualism, the prestige of English endures, for no other language opens as many doors or commands such universal respect.
Polylingualism may appear democratic, but in truth, languages are hierarchical. Some confer privilege, others diminish influence. English, the universal tongue of science and progress, now holds the highest prestige. It is the language in which democracy debates itself and diplomacy finds its voice. When American president Barack Obama entered global consciousness, his mastery of English—of “Globish,” as it evolved—restored to it a moral elegance. Jean-Paul Nerrière coined “Globish” in 1995, defining it as a simplified, global English of 1,500 words for international exchange. Like a river swelling with tributaries, Globish grew, becoming a universal bridge among peoples. It inherited from pidgin English the capacity to unify the divided.
Globish ignores accent and celebrates clarity. It values communication over perfection, understanding over purity. Even China, in its self-strengthening, embraced English under the slogan, “Conquer English to make China stronger.” Once China truly masters it, English will indeed be the world’s lingua franca. Yet it is India—its intellectual energy, its digital economy, its cinema—that is the second great engine driving English forward. In Bangalore’s laboratories and Bollywood’s scripts, English has become not foreign, but familiar—a natural second skin of modern India.
And yet, India remains fractured by linguistic multiplicity. Over a thousand languages compete for recognition, creating a babel that confuses its own citizens. A civilization of 1.4 billion cannot afford linguistic disunity. It must honor its ancient roots while embracing the demands of a modern, globalized world. The solution lies not in abolishing India’s linguistic diversity, but in organizing it—uniting under two pillars: Hindi and English. Hindi, descended from Sanskrit, anchors identity and emotion. English, the language of science and diplomacy, connects India to the world. Together, they can elevate national coherence without erasing cultural heritage.
The Vedic and Sanskrit legacy cannot be denied, but clinging to excessive linguistic fragmentation weakens the nation’s collective voice. Just as Latin birthed Europe’s languages and yet gave unity to its knowledge, so too can India’s ancient linguistic spirit live on through Hindi, harmonized by English.
Empires crumble, economies falter, but languages that unite minds endure. English, the language of democracy and diplomacy, has transcended empire to become humanity’s shared expression. India, heir to the world’s oldest linguistic civilization, must now lead with its two most potent instruments—Hindi and English—melding ancient wisdom with modern eloquence. Only through this linguistic unity can India speak as one nation to itself, and as one civilization to the world.
Advocateatnmoy
6th October 2025
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