WEF 2018: When PM Modi's chaste Hindi reverberated in Davos and Indian delegates broke into applause

One of the more peculiar obsessions in post-colonial India is our absolute slavish praise for anyone who speaks our former ruler’s tongue. The more clipped the accent, the higher we put said person on a pedestal. 70 years since Independence, our colonial hangover hasn’t gone away.

This classism has perfectly played out the other way where a greater premium is places on articulateness in the English language than any semblance of real knowledge about a subject.

On Tuesday, we saw the spirit of Bharatiya sanskriti emanating in a hall in Davos, Switzerland where PM Modi used Hindi and Sanskrit to send a strong message to the world. In a speech, that actually hit out at his US counterpart Donald Trump’s climate change denialism and protectionism, the PM pitched for an open world. 

He even had titbits explaining how far the world has come since 1997 (the year the WEF met) when no one had heard of Osama bin Laden or Harry Potter, and only birds ‘tweeted’. Speaking in Hindi with Sanskrit phrases thrown in, PM Modi spoke eloquently on a host of topic. He ended the speech with a phrase from Tagore's iconic Where The Mind is Without Fear as he paraphrased Tagore's dream of 'into the heaven my father let the world awake'.

Business honcho Anand Mahindra, who was one of those present in the audience, explained how the Indian delegation broke into applause when PM switched to Hindi.

He wrote: “Indian delegation breaks into applause as @PMOIndia chooses to speak in Hindi. He’s in his element & connects with the audience by making humorous comments on the changing times. Xi Jinping certainly didn’t do that..if you’re looking for differences between India & China! Last time an Indian PM came to #Davos was in 1997, when Deve Gowda ji had come. That time our GDP was little more than 400 billion dollars, now its more than six times.”

Indian delegation breaks into applause as @PMOIndia chooses to speak in Hindi. He’s in his element & connects with the audience by making humorous comments on the changing times. Xi Jinping certainly didn’t do that..if you’re looking for differences between India & China! pic.twitter.com/enkRliRxt0

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) January 23, 2018

Very astutely, @pmoindia breaks into English phrases when appropriate. ‘Reform, Perform, Transform’ is his slogan, he says. It’s what this global audience wants to hear... pic.twitter.com/d9ImjZA4dg

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) January 23, 2018

Who would have thought that hindi will reverberate in the halls of snowclad mountains in #Davos #Modi #WEF18

— Monica Bhatia (@MonicaBhatia22) January 23, 2018

Shashi Tharoor: I am going to kill it with my English
Modi: I am going to kill it with my Hindi. #ModiInDavos #OneUp

— Megha Mandavia (@MeghaMandaviaET) January 23, 2018

Modi is imposing Hindi on the world at Davos

— Sambit Nayak (@sambitlnt) January 23, 2018

@narendramodi speaks in Hindi at #Davos, #WorldEconomicForum. Glad that he chose hindi over English. #IndiaMeansBusiness #ModiInDavos #NarendraModi

— Megha Prasad (@MeghaSPrasad) January 23, 2018

However, as Mahindra noted, the PM wasn’t averse to switching to English for popular phrases like ‘Reform, Perform, Transform’, words that resonate with a global audience.

While some complained about the PM not speaking in English, which he is fluent in even if he doesn’t have an Oxbridge accent, most Twitter users also praised the PM for speaking in Hindi.

In a recent interview with Zee News, the PM had made it clear that the Davos was the ‘Mahapanchayat of Business’ and it was important for the mukhia (chief) to present his vision. Today, we heard it from the horse’s mouth and from being completely ignored in 1997 to getting a standing ovation, one thing is astutely clear - India means business. And you don't need to be proficient in English to tell the world that.