a) Nandam Nilekani (Indian entrepreneur and businessman)
b) Julian Parry (British)
c) Maya Menon
The three interviewees discuss the role of the English language in India. On the one hand, we have Nandam Nilekani’s and Julian Parry’s positive view on the teaching of English in the Indian territory. Both of them consider the English language to be an effective means to make communication possible between people who do not speak the same language. Not to mention their concern with the urgence to learn English in a globalized world. Parry, in particular, assumes that individuals can use the English language to break barriers. Hence, rather than representing a threat to the English culture, the English language turns out to serve well the purpose of integrating people of different cultures.
Maya Menon, on the other hand, brings to discussion the impositions of the English language as to substitute children’s mother tongue. The interviewee states that children should be taught the mother tongue of their families before they learn English since cultural roots are constitutive of one’s identity.
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