第二大語言英語在印度的矛盾地位

NEW DELHI — Please mark the answer that best represents the truth (as this is not to ascertain your ideology, but your aptitude for a job with great perks).

新德里——請標出最能代表事實的一個答案（這道題所要考察的並不是你的意識形態，而是你是否具有從事一項待遇超讚的工作所需的資質）。

English is a foreign language.

英語是一門外語。

A) True. It came from outside India.

A) 對。它來自印度之外。

B) False. The former prime minister Manmohan Singh and the former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani also came from elsewhere, but they are Indian now. A language belongs where it lives.

B) 錯。印度前總理曼莫漢·辛格(Manmohan Singh)和前副總理L·K·阿德瓦尼(L. K. Advani)也來自別的地方，但現在他們都是印度人。一門語言存在於哪裏就屬於哪裏。

C) True. English is foreign because it is not the mother tongue of the vast majority of Indians.

C) 對。英語是外語，因爲它並非絕大多數印度人的母語。

D) False. English is in fact India’s only national language, far more influential than even Hindi.

D) 錯。英語是印度的官方語言，其影響力甚至比印地語還大得多。

E) All of the above.

E) 以上皆對。

This question has yet to appear in any objective-type exam, but it has long bothered Indian society and is at the heart of a protest by hundreds of young Indians who are objecting to, among other things, the intrusion of English in one of India’s most prestigious tests — the civil services examination. To be precise, they are protesting one of the two screening tests that hundreds of thousands take every year to qualify for the “main” exams. Only a few hundred survive, to be inducted into a system that may eventually take them to the top levels of bureaucracy.

這個題目迄今尚未在任何客觀題考試中出現過，但它長期以來一直困擾着印度社會，現在還成了一場示威活動的中心議題。示威活動的發起者是數百名印度青年，他們正就英語對印度最富盛名的考試之一——公務員考試——的入侵以及其他一些事項提出抗議。確切地說，他們抗議的是每年都有數十萬人爲取得進入“主試”的資格而參加的兩場初試中的一場。只有數百名人能在公務員考試中倖存下來，進而被吸納進一個最終有可能會把他們帶到官僚體制頂端的體系。

Candidates have the option of taking the screening tests in English or Hindi, but even the Hindi version has passages in English to test their comprehension of that language. Hundreds of candidates who have taken the tests and failed, or aspire to take the tests, have hit the streets of the capital protesting the English passages, which they say put those who are not proficient in English at a disadvantage. They have thrown stones and burned buses. They have also, oddly, held up protest signs in English.

考生可以選擇以英語或者印地語參加初試，但爲了考察他們對英語的理解力，即便是印地語版本的試卷裏也有英語短文。數百名參加了初試但沒能考過或者有意參加初試的考生已走上首都街頭，就試卷裏的英語短文提出抗議，他們說這些短文讓他們這樣的對英語並不精通的人處於劣勢。除了扔石頭、燒汽車，他們還舉着以英語寫就的抗議標語——讓人感覺有點奇怪。

Any battle against English in India is at once a battle of the poor against the rich, the village against the city, tradition against modernity and the regional elite against a more cosmopolitan elite. On Monday, the government tried to placate the mobs by announcing that the English passages would be scrapped, but as the protesters have other demands, they have not ended their agitation.

在印度，任何反對英語的戰鬥都會立刻演變成窮人反對富人的戰鬥、農村反對城市的戰鬥、傳統反對現代的戰鬥，以及地方精英反對更爲國際化的精英羣體的戰鬥。週一，印度政府試圖通過宣佈將把英文短文從試卷中刪除的消息來安撫民心。但示威者還有其他訴求，騷動並未得到平息。

The general opinion among bureaucrats is that the protesters are a disgrace. Srivatsa Krishna, a civil servant, wrote in The Times of India that the government should study the video footage of the protesters, “identify the specific culprits and ban them for life” from taking the exams. He found it ridiculous that the exam’s candidates would protest a requirement to possess “English skills of 10th-class levels.”

印度官僚普遍認爲抗議者很丟臉。一個名叫施瑞瓦察·克里希納(Srivatsa Krishna)的公務員在《印度時報》(The Times of India)上撰文稱，政府應該研究一下示威者的錄像，“鎖定具體的犯事者，罰他們終身禁考”。他認爲，考生們要是反對一條要求其“英語能力達到10年級水平”的規定，那簡直太荒唐了。

In almost every state in India, the guardians of culture have tried to restrain the growth of English, but its power has only grown because of its promise of material and social benefits. Most of the cultural guardians themselves send their children to English-language schools. The medium of instruction for higher education in India is almost entirely English.

幾乎在印度的每一個邦，文化衛道士們都在竭力抵制英語的崛起，但這門語言的影響力反而不斷擴大，因爲它能帶來物質利益和社會效益。大多數文化衛道士本人也會把孩子送進英語學校學習。印度的高等教育學府所採用的教學語言幾乎全都是英語。

A politician, Yogendra Yadav, lamented in The Indian Express that “the entire system of higher education that controls white-collar jobs” is loaded against students who did not attend English-language schools. But then, that is the reality of the nation. The dominance of English dims the prospects of students who are too poor to attend an English-language school. But the government, for various reasons, including cultural prejudice, has not done enough to take English to its poorest. Most of its free or cheap schools do not have English as the medium of instruction.

政治學家約根德拉·亞達夫(Yogendra Yadav)曾在《印度快報》(The Indian Express)上感慨：“培養未來白領的整個高等教育體系”讓沒上過英語學校的學生處於劣勢。但這就是這個國家的現實。英語的主導地位讓因爲太窮而無法在英語學校就讀的學生前途無“亮”。然而，出於各種各樣的原因——其中包括文化偏見，在讓最爲貧困的學生接觸到英語這件事上，印度政府做得還不夠。該國大多數免費或者費用便宜的學校所採用的教學語言都不是英語。

In South India, there have been no protests against the English passages. Historically, that region has protested against the supremacy of Hindi. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his first public speech in the south after assuming office, he spoke in English.

印度南部並未發生針對英語短文的抗議活動。從歷史上看，該地區一直在抗議印地語的一家獨大。納倫德拉·莫迪(Narendra Modi)總理上任後首次在南部地區發表公開演講時，說的是英語。

English is indisputably Indian now, and the most useful language in India. But it is not the most beloved, nor the medium of abuse during road rage. That special place Indians will always grant only to their mother tongues.

英語現在是印度人的語言，同時也是印度國內最實用的語言，這一點毫無爭議。但它並不是最受喜愛的語言；路怒症發作時，人們也不會用英語罵人。在這種特別的情境下，印度人永遠只會說母語。

So the correct answer is “E.”

所以，正確答案應該是“E”。