NEW YEAR

  WISH YOU HAPPY 2019  -  J.K. SIVAN

Again one more January 1 in my life.I have come across 80 so far..  Everyone will be as usual, as is customary, talk in English wishing each other HAPPY  NEW YEAR..!!  I am yet to find in the last  80 years the so called happiness everyone wished me.  It was like any other day..except in all houses, a new sheet of calendar was hung, some planned for the future, some felt an year old, and for many it was a holiday with no work, to roam about to movie theatres, clubs and partying..It was none of these in our homes. Routine work was followed.

January 1 under the Julian calendar  was not the new year until  45 B.C., Julius Caesar the Roman emperor decided it as they  followed Lunar calendar with variations in dates inconsistent with regularity. Julius Caesar  entrusted the designing of New Year calendar  tp Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who advised him to do away with the lunar cycle entirely and follow the solar year, as did the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 45 B.C., making 46 B.C. begin on January 1, rather than in March. He also decreed that every four years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step. Shortly before his assassination in 44 B.C., he changed the name of the month Quintilis to Julius (July) after himself. Later, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) after his successor.  Now do you know how January 1 came and we began using  July and August ! Is it of any importance to us except that we use it  with there being no other option now.

Celebration of New Year’s Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, and even those who strictly adhered to the Julian calendar did not observe the New Year exactly on January 1. The reason for the latter was that Caesar and Sosigenes failed to calculate the correct value for the solar year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days. Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10 days by the mid-15th century.   The powerful Roman church thought over this. In 1570s Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius to correct errors and design a  new calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented, omitting 10 days for that year and fixed the  difference with one of every four centennial years  to be  a leap year.  January 1 became  first day of a New Year  and every year thereafdter being remembered.!  So do we remember it on 1.1.2019!!  a  'New Year'.

I was thinking about when English came into our lives. The  English traders  arrived in early 1600  in India, as East India Company because they landed at Calcutta and Chennai on the eastern coast.  Naturally along with them came their mother tongue, English language. They needed local support and assistance and introduced the English to their servants and employees. It was out of necessity to manage their trading and fulfilment of wants.  Indians by nature are tolerant to anything new, and English language co existed with the regional languages.  Slowly English language began spreading faster to various zones and regions in India and people found it easy to communicate with a common language to communicate.  The English from trading activities gradually took over administration of the country and made their English compulsory for higher education from elementary level.  If not practically the first language it is almost certainly the most popular second language in this country.

By 1765 the East India Company’s influence and power had grown to such an extent that the British were effectively controlling most parts of  India.  History proves this. Trading has given way to British Raj or British rule in India until 15.8.1947.

Primarily English was only taught to the local population through the work of Christian missionaries — there were no official attempts to force the language on the masses. But by the 1700s, English  became established itselfl the medium of  Administration, for Rules, Acts, Laws and governance of public life.  Indians considered themselves educated, and qualified with Degrees, Diplomas and Doctorate in various Arts and Science in Education,  for  social advancement. By 1857 universities had opened in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras  English winning everyone in India as their accepted  language of government, of the social elite, and of the national press.

English thus came to rule us only in the last  300 years. Before that ? Were we not advanced, educated, qualified,
well administered, knowledgeable in Arts and Science.  Did they not exist before English?   How our life would have been if English had not invaded and ruled us and influenced us with their language.  How many centuries we lived in this country. Were we barbarians without knowing English?   Is not Japan, Germany and some other countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, independent of English and did they not succeed in life?  May be the civilisation and improvement and advancement in life as we gauge it today would have been totally different. Our ancient culture and tradition, discipline, Faith and Religious practices  etc., have been corroded and corupted  with the external influence and invasion of aliens.

After Independence, India became a free nation of many states. English still exists as the language of  administration and education because there is no effective language to bind and unite all of us. With  no simple solution as to which language should replace it, English continues with its sway Hindi being being the appreciable next best to replace English. It took English 300+years and Hindi cannot expect overnight to replace it and has to wait until all the people in India find it acceptable as a substitute.  English were able to  govern us with strict control and Regional Governments have their own way of controlling their citizens which differ from state to State the the centre being a mixture of all these with no unanimity. We are not lesser in number now than what we were in 1600  we are more than  1k million now with  numerous, thousands of languages being  spoken by the people of India.

It is difficult to choose a single national language, as many have different mother tongues and wish to give it prominence and predominance.Time will decide until which  English ofcourse  remains at the heart of Indian society being the widely spoken media, in Higher Education and government.  It is to be observed that most of the countries in the world today accept English as a language to communicate and express and exchange their thoughts, among the united nations.

All said and done. we continue to wish Happy New Year to each other until in the years to come, may be after a few generations some other greeting is expressed to hear which we may not be available.