* As Andhra buys into English medium education, the language has become a symbol of progress in uncertain times
* While there is a resistance to the imposition of Hindi in the south, English is embraced as it is less threatening with regard to racial and ethnic dominance, and more promising of an economic future
The English language has been a great survivor in India. From being labelled as a scheming, rootless tongue of the oppressor, and served a termination notice after independence, the language has not merely survived over 70 years of the republic, but has, quite strangely, come to acquire an emancipation role.
English is now like the levitating “great Indian rope trick" that not only unites the nation when Hindi faces rancour, but has also become for millions an aspirational symbol and an omnipotent tool to achieve the egalitarian promise of the Constitution: of modernity and economic prosperity.
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