Karen Klink asked Alka Joshi:

This reminds me of the way Native Americans were treated in the U.S. during the nineteenth century. Children were taken from their families and sent to schools to learn English, not allowed to speak their own language or know anything of their original culture. The horrible results of that are still with them today: drugs, alcohol abuse and family dysfunction. Does any of this appear in India?

Alka Joshi I appreciate your question, Karen, but the situation in India was different. Children weren't removed from homes. English merely became the language of educational instruction. And while the British left India in poverty (India's global market share was 23% before the British arrived; it had dwindled to -4% by the time they left), knowledge of English and emphasis on education did allow Indians a seat at the global table. Today, Indians are often the doctors, engineers, mathematicians and scientists of the communities they settle in around the world.

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