In 2010 the activist Chandra Bhan Prasad started a private school and built a temple dedicated to a new deity, ‘Dalit Goddess English’. His supposition was that Dalits, being socially and educationally excluded, should learn English so as to advance. The bronze image of ‘Dalit |Goddess English’ held a pen in one hand and a book in the other, and the mantra chanted at her dedication ceremony was ‘A-B-C-D’. Prasad believed that only by deifying the English language via the goddess would he be able to persuade low-caste parents to send their children to the new school. (p.278)

Comment: This quote is taken from India : A Portrait by Patrick French pub. Allen Lane 2011
India has over 300 languages. By educating Dalits in English, he enabled them to go beyond their caste world and communicate at both a national and international level. In 1965, fifteen years are the Constitution came into being, Hindi was set to become the official language of the Indian union, but the protests by Tamils were so intense with epople immolating themselves against this perceived northern dominance, that the planws abandoned and english continued as a parallel language…..This opposition a national languagewas felt not only in Tamil Nadu, but across different parts of the country, in places like Punjab and West Bengal, where a strong feeling remained against the ‘imposition’ of Hindi. (p.371-2)