In modern India, the language you speak is often treated as a "second skin", a visible marker of your education, your income, and your social standing.
While India is home to hundreds of rich regional languages, English has evolved into a "prestige dialect" that does more than just facilitate communication; it acts as a gatekeeper to the upper echelons of society.
The tendency to look down on regional languages is not a natural cultural shift, but a deeply embedded social hierarchy that has been centuries in the making.
The roots of this bias lie in the mid-19th century, specifically with Lord Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education (1835). The British colonial administration made a strategic decision to create a class of Indians who were Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. By making English the sole language of the courts, the administration, and higher education, the British successfully tied the language to authority.
Even after independence, this structure remained intact. English stayed the language of the ruler, and regional languages, despite their ancient literary histories, were relegated to the vernacular or the private sphere.
In 2026, the preference for English is driven by a very real economic reality often called the "English Premium." Data consistently shows that fluency in English can increase an individual's hourly wages by as much as 34% compared to those who speak no English.
In sectors like IT, corporate law, and global consulting, English is the functional language.
A degree from an English medium school is often perceived as inherently superior to one from a regional medium school, regardless of the actual quality of teaching.
For many in the lower-middle class, learning English is seen as the only escape velocity needed to move into the global middle class.
This economic divide has created a psychological phenomenon where English-speaking is conflated with "Intelligence."
In urban social settings, a person who struggles with English but is brilliant in their mother tongue is often unfairly judged as less sophisticated or unrefined. This leads to what sociologists call linguistic insecurity, where parents stop speaking their native languages to their children, fearing it will ruin their accent or hold them back.
As a result, many regional languages are being hollowed out; they are used for domestic chores or emotional venting, but rarely for intellectual or professional discourse.
The digital age has only accelerated this shift. While Indic internet (internet in regional languages) is growing, the high-value digital world, coding, AI development, and global thought leadership, remains English-centric.
Even the algorithms of social media platforms often favour English-language content for monetisation and global reach. This creates a digital language gap where regional speakers have access to entertainment, but English speakers have access to the operating system of the modern world.
The bias against regional languages is a form of internalised colonialism. We look down on our native tongues not because they are lesser, but because we have been conditioned to believe that the language of the global market is the only language of the mind.
Until our professional and legal systems truly value multilingualism, English will remain less of a language and more of a social filter, one that continues to exclude the elite from the regional in the eyes of society.
References:
- https://www.journals.uchicago.edu
- https://en.wikipedia.org
- https://www.creativeflight.in
- https://www.changeincontent.com
- https://journals.eltai.in