US-India partnership: How language studies can promote better collaboration between two largest democracies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi capped his June 2022 visit to the United States not only with a State Dinner but also with his second address before a Joint Session of Congress. Indians should be proud. Modi joins an elite club of foreign leaders —Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and South African President Nelson Mandela—who have twice received the honour. Only British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has spoken before the entire Congress more. President Joe Biden was right when, standing beside the prime minister, he described the “thoroughly bipartisan support that exists all across the United States for the friendship and partnership between India and the United States,” and the bilateral partnership as “among the most consequential in the world, that is stronger, closer, and more dynamic than any time in history.” While some analysts and academics used Modi’s presence to criticise aspects of his administration or express concern about India’s democratic trajectory, such complaints were irrelevant to the bigger picture. Modi’s visit and the reception he received were less about Modi as a person and more about India itself. The cooperation and trust that today characterise US-India ties were unimaginable a quarter century ago. The partnership could grow exponentially over the next quarter century. While there is no shortage of ambition to grow and tighten ties so long as they remain symbiotic and do not infringe on the sovereignty and national interest of either country, neither Washington nor New Delhi are investing in a key foundation of future ties. Ensuring that there is a nucleus among the next generation of Americans with the cultural and linguistic abilities to invest ably and operate effectively across the Indian subcontinent. English may be an official language of India, but it is not the only one. To reach the entire Indian market and communicate effectively requires mastering not only Hindi, but many regional languages as well. Certainly, American provincialism is at fault. American schools have long given foreign language study short shrift. Only half of American middle (upper primary) schools actually teach a foreign language. Those that do most often offer only French and Spanish, or perhaps German. More affluent school districts and prestigious private schools might also offer Chinese. A greater proportion of American high school students study language, but non-European offerings are limited. The Advanced Placement exam, an optional national exam to provide American high school students an opportunity to demonstrate mastery and earn college credit, offers seven language tests. Chinese and Japanese are the only non-European options. The problem is not just language proficiency but also cultural fluency. Consider American students studying abroad. In academic year 2015/16, the last year for which data is available , just over 325,000 Americans studied abroad. Of the top ten destinations, the top five were all European countries. China was number six, and Japan 10. Only 4,181 American students studied in India , or a mere 1.3 percent of the total. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, that number plummeted further. It also stands in stark contrast to India’s world-ranked universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, the Indian Institute of Science in Karnataka, or Jadavpur University in West Bengal. The paltry Indian language and study abroad options in American schools contrast sharply with the previous growth of Japanese and Chinese offerings. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many Americans studied Japanese believing Japan’s economic expansion would continue. Americans scrambled to learn Japanese assuming it would give them a leg up in international commerce. Japanese automobile manufacturers, for example, opened plants across the United States and needed American managers who could communicate both on the assembly line and to headquarters. Japan’s largely demographic-driven economic slowdown juxtaposed with China’s economy going into overdrive as it capitalised on its demographic dividend . While some of the prominence of Chinese language and culture in both secondary schools and universities across America was organic, either Chinese-American community demands or proxies for the People’s Republic of China itself seeded much of it. The Chinese government sought to grease the wheels by funding various programs and seeding Confucius Institutes to promote (Communist) Chinese culture, and used its financial influence to try to shape a new generation of Americans to be less distrustful and more accommodating of Communist China’s perspectives toward Tibet, Taiwan, and perhaps even Aksai Chin. Indeed, studying Chinese seemed a good investment for Americans seeking to enter a more competitive, tighter job market given China’s status as the world’s largest country and its economic engine. China however in the 2020s increasingly appears like Japan in the 1980s. In April 2023, the United Nations announced that India’s population would likely surpass China’s 1.4 billion people. The estimate made headlines around the globe, but many newspapers and websites missed a more important component of the UN calculations: China’s population will continue to fall as India’s rises. By 2100, China’s population could fall below 800 million, while India’s population is likely to be almost double that. Both Americans and Indians appear enthusiastic at the potential for greater economic and trade ties. President Xi Jinping’s bellicosity and erraticism have led bankers to abandon Hong Kong and Shanghai for Singapore. Western economies likewise look to transplant their supply chains from China to India. Apple’s recent success appears to be the first raindrop in the coming monsoon. To reach that potential, however, it is time for both Indians and Americans to think strategically. Americans preparing for the second half of the 21st century should be studying Hindi instead of Mandarin and Bengali instead of Cantonese. American universities should reflect that more people speak Marathi or Telugu than Italian, a language for which Americans can earn Advanced Placement credit. Indian universities should encourage Americans of all ethnicities to study abroad in Indian universities, and establish two-way secondary school exchange programs. Hindu and Indian lobby groups in the United States should agitate for high school Hindi programs and seek an Advanced Placement exam in the language. Prestigious American universities should have India and South Asia programs as robust and well-funded as China and East Asian departments. Any investment by philanthropists, foundations, or corporations in this linguistic and academic infrastructure will pay dividends for generations to come. Bilateral ties have had enough rhetoric and declarations of intent. It is time to build the foundation for a rock solid future. The author is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. 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