We have accepted and relish Western food, for instance, Chinese, Italian. We have also adopted western clothing, for example, Jeans, coats- suits, as if they were always a part of our Indian culture itself. Why is it that we are still apprehensive about English speaking? We still feel hesitant, afraid, uncomfortable, less confident, when it comes to using this language in our day-to-day lives.

Usage of the English language in India is not so new. In 1835, Raja Ram Mohun Roy's idea of English education in India became an official policy, and the foundation of the kind of ‘New India’ was laid. Lord William Bentinck, the then Governor-General of British East India Company passed the legislative Act of the council of India- the English Education Act 1835. Under this act, financial support was given to the establishments teaching a western curriculum, with English as the language of instruction. Measures were taken to promote English as the language of administration and of the higher law Courts. This made English one of the languages of India, rather than simply the native language of its foreign rulers.