Impact of British Rule in the way We Speak English

Angrez chale gaye….2 shabd – THANK YOU aur SORRY peechay chhod gaye!!!

This statement is something that I have heard from people since my childhood. But now, I wonder, are these the ONLY two words we have taken as a forced inheritance from Britishers?

Is there no Return Gift We gave them? Well, the answer is a big NO! There’s a lot more to the saga than what’s known to us – the English-fearing people.

As wicked as I may sound…...we didn’t let them leave without doling them out several Hindi words, which were later adopted by English Dictionaries, worldwide.

The demarcation between the two languages had long been blurred by us, although inadvertently.

There are so many Hindi words, which now are a part of Angrezon ki bhasha – English!!!

As we celebrate our 74^th Independence Day this year, I’m forced to retrospect the convergence of the two languages during the tyranny of ‘British Raj’.

Words from ‘Shampoo, Jungle, Thug, Pajamas, Veranda, Pundit, Loot, Punch, Cushy, Khaki etc. are a few words that I remember, top of my head.

The words we misunderstood & so-called inherited (distorted will be a better word) from Englishmen are:-

Botal from Bottle

Kaptaan from Captain
Aspataal from Hospital
Rail from Railways
Kanastar from Canister
Santri from Sentry
Baira from bearer (a word for waiter (?)
Takniki from technical
Doctory (MBBS degree) from doctor.
Astabal from stable
Motor gaadi from motor
Memsahib from madam
Afsar from officer

Paltan from platoon

My purpose of writing this blog is to wane-out the fear of English that has engulfed Indians at large. English is just another ‘foreign’ language that needs to be definitely treated with respect & learnt (rather than be scared of), but not at the cost of shaming a person who doesn’t know English.

Let’s not make this ‘Globally Spoken’ language a reason for suffering, poor self-esteem for those who are not well-versed with it. Let’s refrain from making English the main parameter for judging people’s abilities or potential they possess.

Let’s embrace Hindi just the way we have lapped up English. Let us take the initiative of encouraging people to hone their talent & skills, without being dependent on English alone.

JAI HIND…….JAI BHARAT

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Impact of British Rule in the way We Speak English