For a section of the Indian population, English is just a language, a tool that they use for performing their dealings with people around them, be it family, friends, colleagues or clients. If you are reading this article on Linkedin or another similar social media platform, then it is quite likely that you too belong to this group. For them, English has little significance beyond this. But for a vast majority of their compatriots hailing from the so-called ‘Bharat’, English is not just a language. For young Indians from ‘Bharat’, English is a constant theme, woven so deeply into their socio-cultural fabric, that its possession or the lack of it becomes an anchor of the person’s self-worth and identity. Every single individual from this segment of close to a billion strong population has emotionally intense experiences related to their trysts with the English language in various facets of their lives. So powerful is the grip and reach of this language in their social context that it controls the access to opportunities, positions, people and even access to one’s internal sense of self-esteem.
