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I was a bit surprised by the fact that all of the judges' opinions, which are embedded in the article, were in English. But it turns out that English is the of
by jawns 9y ago
I was a bit surprised by the fact that all of the judges' opinions, which are embedded in the article, were in English.
But it turns out that English is the official language of the Indian Supreme Court, and the court has even gone so far as to rule that it need not provide a Hindi translation of its rulings:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/court-language-is-english-says-supreme-court/articleshow/50080870.cms http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation...
It seems kind of bizarre to me that as an American English speaker half way across the world, I'm in a better position to read and comprehend the Indian Supreme Court's rulings than a great number of non-English-speaking Indians.
- michalskop 9y agoThere are many languages in India, not just Hindi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India
- pavanky 9y agoMost of the time the only common language between all the judges of the Indian supreme court is English. Writing the opinion in any other language would mean it reaches even fewer people than English would (except may be Hindi, but I don't know how many of the judges are fluent in Hindi to write opinions in that language).
- orsenthil 9y agoWell, English is the inherited language for the majority of Indians. If we were to speak/read/write in vernacular, then we will need the article many languages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status_in_India#List https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status...). And the language I speak at home is not in that list too.
- anuraj 9y agoIndia has 22 official languages of which English is the one that works across the country.
- jogjayr 9y agoLanguage is political in India and I don't claim to understand half of it. Probably since the establishment of the republic after attaining independence there's been a tension between Hindi-speakers (who were the plurality of the population) and others. English was a "neutral" language and it helped that a lot of the administration, bureaucracy, and law carried over from the British already used it. Not to mention that the most influential leaders of the independence movement (Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel) were lawyers educated in England.