India to Modernize Its English
REUTER - An expert in "Plain English" travels to India on a mission to eradicate the wordy, convoluted Victorian English used there.
Martin Cutts, a director of Britain's Independent Plain Languages Commission, will start a three-week series of workshops and lectures to stamp out the antiquated English left over since the days of the empire.
He has been invited by the Federation of Consumer Organizations of Tamil Nadu, who are keen to cut out long winded English in business forms, letters and contracts.
As examples of archaic phrases in letter, Cutts cited, "I humbly crave yours opinion" and "I beg your esteemed perusal of this letter."
"There's a lot of old-style English used... You read in the newspapers about the 'miscreant absconding' rather than running away," said Neil Gilroy-Scott, head of literature at the British Council, which is backing the trip.
But L.K. Shama, The Times of India's London correspondent, said many Indians believe colonial English had a unique charm.
"Whenever British people I know come back from India, they always say how much they appreciate hearing English spoken properly over there," he told the Sunday telegraph.