• emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      English is the lingua franca of India. If the signs were in Bengali, only people from West Bengal and nearby states would be able to read it.

    • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      When and why did the British first choose to invade India? - India Today

      The British first landed in India in Surat for the purpose of trade. Here’s how and why a simple trading company, the British East India Company, became one of the biggest challenges the subcontinent had ever dealt with.

      The British landed in India in Surat on August 24, 1608. While India has a rich and recorded history going back 4000 years to the Indus Valley Civilisation in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, Britain had no indigenous written language until the 9th century almost 3000 years after India. Then how was it possible for the British to start capturing this huge country and control it from 1757 to 1947?

    • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      India was a British colony for a long-ass time. English is the second most known language in India behind Hindi. More than 10% of the population speaks at least some English. English is also prominent among more educated fields because many indians study abroad in the US and UK. On an article written in English it is common to use photos that readers can understand. I assume there were/are also Hindi sign that just aren’t presented here.

      Hindi is spoken by about 40% of the population.

      • ѕєχυαℓ ρσℓутσρє@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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        4 months ago

        The reason for there not being many Hindi signs is that the protest is centered in Bengal. Bengalis don’t really have a good relationship with Hindi due to political reasons (even though they have linguistic similarities). In recent times, the central government has been trying to force Hindi on all Indians, which has made the situation worse.

              • ѕєχυαℓ ρσℓутσρє@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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                4 months ago

                I’m from near Kolkata. And yes, some do understand Hindi because it’s similar to Bangla, but people rarely speak it. And even if we do, we do it reluctantly. I speak in English with my non-Bengali friends, and it’s pretty common to do that in my cohort.

                • Stalins_Spoon@lemmygrad.ml
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                  4 months ago

                  In the city, they are used interchangeably, people often using both if they are speaking to people out of the state. Of the older population, people often know Bengali+Hindi bcz most Bollywood movies are in Hindi