Language reflects “soft power”
India has been putting effort in raising the position of Hindi, which is firstly related to her dream of “superpower”. It is commonly accepted that language is a kind of soft power, exhibiting its huge influence imperceptibly. The Permanent Five all place importance on the functions of languages, India, with no exception, wants to do the same. Secondly, an ethnic language is indispensable to a prominent image on the international stage. It is somehow embarrassing to use others’ languages. Thirdly, it is due to the need for India to open to the world to a greater extent. In a bid to let outsiders better understanding herself, it is a must for others to know her language.
Although India has been proud of knowing English, those who can truly master English amount to less than 5% of her total population only, adding up those who know a little about English amount to just 15%. If one does not know the ethnic Indian language, it is not possible to deeply understand India or even grasp the pulse and soul of the nation. In accord to the latest survey results, there is no English newspaper among the top ten popular newspapers in India. India Times, being the best-performing English newspaper, has 7.5 million readers in the country, among which 57% come from the three biggest cities – New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Hindi is not dominant inside India
Although there have been achievements in promoting Hindi, it is still a long way to go for Hindi to become a working language of the United Nations. It is mainly because the dominance of Hindi in India has not yet been established. The dominance here does not refer to the absolute population using the language, but its influence.
In India, the population mastering English, though is small, constitutes the elite class who are leading the society as they are used to using English as a working language. According to the Indian constitution, both Hindi and English are official languages, but in reality, Hindi is only a foil in the official environment. Most of the Indian officials and professionals can use Hindi to chat but not in discussing work and deeply probing into some questions.