Is English a foreign language in India? | Spotlight podcast

The Supreme Court discussed linguistics this month while also hearing challenges to the CBSE’s three-language formula, which mandates that two of the three must be native Indian languages, a category that does not include English. The Bench debates whether English should be considered a foreign language in India, given its long history in the country and its role as a connecting language in governance and higher education.

We discuss the same question this week on Parley with Apoorvanand, a professor of Hindi at Delhi University, and Ganesh Devy, a former professor of English and the man behind the People’s Linguistic Survey of India project.

Guest: Priscilla Jebaraj

Producer: Jude Weston

Read excerpts from the interview

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Published – 27 Aug 2026 20:16 IST