People found it easier to be hired if Eurasian, loosely defined often to include those whoused English as a primary language. So they spoke a pretend version when not schooled in it. Naturally, the scene changed with public hiring after 1947. Changes came more gradually with the private sector as foreign staffing of management faded.Heads rolled swiftly when Scottish engineering names were swallowed by marwaris.The Parsi and Christian fitters who built India over a hundred years soon belonged tohistory. Resentment was very apparent in the way both groups were portrayed andeven belittled on the emerging native screen. We did not read the handwriting on the wall as our young priests manned new schools in the countryside. The language was being downgraded and sidelined. Onegets poor service if the language is spoken in a store: I annoy banyas by using Konkaniin Bomoi. My relatives in Baroda converse in Gujerati, the ones in Calcutta,Delhi and Nagpurhave also nativised. My mother spoke pretend English, as do many others. Catholicparishes along the Kanara and Konkan, Mangalore included, have never adopted English. I was very pleased when Delhi announced the introduction of a vernacular languagecurriculum for early schooling, nationally.
