SOCIOLINGUISTIC QUESTIONS

BAKULA at delphi.com BAKULA at delphi.com
Sat Jan 14 21:03:57 UTC 1995


Answer to your first questions is acknowledging one's
Indianness. Since in India, visually, one cannot distinguish
between, say, person from north and person from south.
Therefore in a place of business even if you are speaking
purely in English it is customary to pay homage to one's
Indianness in salutation. One salutes the other by common
Indian fashion, either by action- putting palms together in
prayerful mode or saying 'Namaste' or 'Namaskar'. This has also
creeped into official salutation line of a business letter or
correspondence. English form 'Dear Sir' is vanishing fast. Even
though proper English terminology is used it is Indianized,
viz; 'Doctorji', 'Inspectorji', 'Masterji' etc. This trend has
been the greatest corrupting factor in the usage of English
language in India. If an American picks up a newspaper or
magazine printed in India he will find it extremely difficult
to follow the subject matter.

The answer to your third question is "very badly".

Sid Harth
 






More information about the INDOLOGY mailing list