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Political developments
Most of the pre-twentieth-century commentators would have had
no difficulty giving a single, political answer to the question ‘Why
World English?’ They would simply have pointed to the growth
of the British Empire. Isaac Pitman, for example, justifying his cal-
culations about English as the language of the future (see p. 76),
simply observes: ‘The British Empire covers nearly a third of the
earth’s surface, and British subjects are nearly a fourth of the pop-
ulation of the world.’
11
It was considered self-evident that the
civilizing influence of Britain was a desirable goal, anywhere in
the world, and that the English language was an essential means
of achieving this end. (Similar opinions were of course being ex-
pressed by other cultures too, notably the French.)
The strength of feeling on this point has to be appreciated, for it
helps to explain the intensity with which the language came to be
introduced in many countries, during the period of Empire, and
the resources which were poured into it to guarantee the success
of its new role. Here is William Russel, writing in 1801:
12
if many schools were established in different parts of Asia and Africa to
instruct the natives, free of all expense, with various premiums [prizes]
of British manufacture to the most meritorious pupils, this would be the
best preparatory step that Englishmen could adopt for the general admis-
sion of their commerce, their opinions, their religion. This would tend
10
As this phrase, also used elsewhere in the book (pp. 10, 120), apparently
has a jingoistic ring to some people, it is perhaps necessary to draw
attention to its ironic tone. In using it, I intended to suggest, with a Welsh
tongue in cheek, that English has been fortunate indeed to do so well – just
as someone turning up at a bar ‘at the right time’ might end up being given
a free drink from the person buying a round. This brief excursus into us-
age would not be necessary if the phrase had not been cited (by Phillipson
1998/1999) as evidence of the supposed triumphalism of the first
edition.
11
Pitman (1873 : 290).
12
Russel (1801: 93).
78
Why English? The cultural foundation
to conquer the heart and its affections; which is a far more effectual con-
quest than that obtained by swords and cannons: and a thousand pounds
expended for tutors, books, and premiums would do more to subdue a
nation of savages than forty thousand expended for artillerymen, bullets,
and gunpowder.
The triumphalist attitude is unpalatable today, but it well illus-
trates the mood of the time. William White is even more explicit
about the role the English language can play, when it is intro-
duced into a new part of the world. Talking in 1872 about the
many languages of India, he comments:
13
As we link Calcutta with Bombay, and Bombay with Madras, and by
roads, railways, and telegraphs interlace province with province, we may
in process of time fuse India into unity, and the use and prevalence of
our language may be the register of the progress of that unity.
The register of the progress of that unity. That is the vision which is
repeatedly encountered as we trace the path of English around the
British Empire: the language as a guarantor, as well as a symbol, of
political unity. It is a vision, moreover, which continued to prove
compelling a century later, when the evidence of that Empire was
rapidly vanishing from the atlas. Many of the newly independent
multilingual countries, especially in Africa, chose English as their
official language to enable speakers of their indigenous communi-
ties to continue communicating with each other at a national level.
And the concept of language as a political symbol still emerges
every time people perceive the unity of their country to be threat-
ened by minority movements – as we shall see in chapter 5, in
relation to English in present-day USA.
In the context of colonialism, the desire for national linguistic
unity is the other side of the coin from the desire for international
linguistic unity. The language of a colonial power introduces a
new, unifying medium of communication within a colony, but at
the same time it reflects the bonds between that colony and the
home country. In the case of English, these bonds were of es-
pecial significance, because of the special nature of the historical
13
White (1872: 3).
79
ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE
period during which they were being formed. They brought im-
mediate access to a culture which more than any other had been
responsible for the Industrial Revolution.
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