The importance of being earnest

Time of India

23-05-2025

Times of India's Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day.
English serves India well in diplomacy & beyond
On a Sept night in 1983, the world almost came to an end. At a Soviet monitoring station 100km from Moscow, supercomputers flashed warnings about five incoming US ICBMs. It was a false alarm triggered by satellites misinterpreting reflected sunlight as missile flashes. But one man, Stanislov Petrov, kept his head and prevented MAD – mutually assured destruction. That incident, more than anything else, shows the dangers of misunderstandings.
While Petrov was up against code, misunderstandings can arise even among same-language speakers, as happened at the battle of Imjin River near Seoul in 1951. British Brigadier Tom Brodie reported, 'Things are a bit sticky, sir.' His American superior, Gen Robert H Soule, thought it was nothing serious and didn't send reinforcements. Over 500 of the 600 British troops were captured.
New Diplomacy | It's to avoid misunderstandings of any kind that India has formed delegations of experienced and articulate leaders from all parties for its post-Op Sindoor global outreach – GOI is earnest about this. The intent is to draw global attention to Pak-sponsored terrorism, and the first of these meetings happened in Japan and UAE on Thursday. Altogether 33 countries will be covered. After a display of India's new security doctrine, this is a glimpse of its new diplomacy.
Right Words | On a whirlwind tour of this magnitude, it's important to get the messaging right the first time. That's where the experience of delegates counts. What counts no less is the language employed. It has to be one with the least chance of being misunderstood globally. And while some Indian leaders will publicly disagree, everybody knows only English has that capacity – we must be earnest about promoting English. Modi himself switched to English in Madhubani, when he declared India's intent to punish the perpetrators of Pahalgam.
Lingua Franca | There's no disputing English's paramountcy. True, within Europe, it's only the sixth most common native language behind Russian, German, French, Turkish and Italian. Globally, it has 380mn native speakers – only 35mn more than Hindi. But 1.5bn people speak English worldwide, more than any other language. That means 1.1bn have made an effort to learn it as a second or third language. No other language comes close. Why? Because English's so useful. It's an official language in at least 55 countries; second placed French only in 29. It's the lingua franca of diplomacy and business.
Soft Power | But English's soft power extends beyond its speakers. At the recently concluded Eurovision, Austria's JJ won with an English song, Wasted Love. In the first 63 years of the contest, English songs won 46% of the time although a Briton has won only five times. Countries like Netherlands and Germany have very high English proficiency scores for a reason.
Time For Inglish | Per the 2011 Census, over 10% of Indians spoke English. Even if the percentage hasn't increased, that's 140mn English speakers – twice the British population. It's a strength we need to recognise, be proud of, and build further. By becoming a nation of confident English speakers, we won't become any less Indian, just as English-speaking Germans aren't less German. Language learning is not a zero-sum game. There's much to gain by learning English, and nothing to lose.
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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.