Communication in Asia and its Influence

The use of English as a national medium proved to be an important aspect of India's rise to prominence in science and technology in the late twentieth century, particularly the development of computer software. Hindi and other Indian languages are poorly suited to communication of modern scientific ideas and terminology. The development of vernacular equivalents is still in its infancy, and so the widespread use of English in elite education, tertiary institutions, and the government-sponsored Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)—which turn out the majority of Indian information technology workers—has helped India to become an international powerhouse in software technology. English also functions as a marker of elite status in India and is seen as a sign of education and upward mobility among the middle classes. Despite this, according to government estimates, only 11 percent of Indians are fluent in English, and its use is mainly confined to the educated elite.

The use of English as an elite lingua franca has parallels to the position of Sanskrit in ancient and classical India. As with Latin in medieval Europe, Sanskrit was the language of philosophers, writers, and religious teachers, who used it to bridge the linguistic diversity of the subcontinent. The Vedas, the earliest sacred texts of Hinduism, were composed in Sanskrit, probably between 2000 and 400 B.C.E. Most of India's great classical literature, philosophy, and religious works were written in Sanskrit, and it functioned as a means for communicating ideas across the subcontinent for millennia. Despite the widespread use of writing, oral transmission has always been predominant. The main religious duty of the priestly caste of Brahmans is to memorize and transmit the Vedas to their descendants, a process that continues in the early 2000s.

The use of Sanskrit by the elite facilitated the communication of ideas within the areas that adopted it as the lingua franca. One example of its use in communication of ideas was the tradition of public philosophical debate (vadavidya) among rival philosophical factions. From at least the time of the Buddha (c. 563–c. 483 B.C.E.) and Mahavira (c. 599–527 B.C.E.) such debates were common. Reports of the time indicate that they were generally sponsored by rulers and often attracted large crowds. The stakes were quite high in these contests: the winners received financial rewards, government patronage, and increased status, but the losers had to publicly acknowledge their defeat and leave the area. Thus it is not surprising that underhanded techniques were commonly used to win debates, and by the first century C.E. there were several manuals outlining the rules and proper conduct for philosophical disputes. According to Akshapada, there are three types of debate: (1) honest debate (vada), in which both sides seek the truth and try to establish the correct view; (2) sneaky debate (jalpa), in which one tries to win by any means; and (3) destructive debate (vitanda), in which one side merely tries to demolish the opponent's position without putting forward an alternative. The most famous practitioner of the third type was the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna (fl. c. 150–250 C.E.). By all accounts, because the stakes were so high, the first type of debate generally was confined to members of the same philosophical school, and the primary objective in encounters with rival traditions was to defeat them and establish one's own school as dominant.

Some of the common concerns of oral philosophical debates were: What is the meaning or purpose of life? Should one pursue sensual pleasures, or does asceticism lead to better results? Is the world eternal? Is there an individual soul, and if so, is it eternal? In ancient India there was an enormous diversity of philosophical schools, and one of the key focal points of debate concerned what should function as valid means of knowledge (pramana). There were a number of commonly accepted pramanas, such as direct perception (pratyaksa), inference (anumana), verbal testimony (or scripture, sabda), and analogy (upamana). Some of the most vigorous intersectarian debates centered on issues of validity; some schools accepted all of the pramanas, some orthodox Brahmanical schools relied ultimately on scriptural testimony, and the Buddhists only accepted direct perception and inference. These philosophical debates were waged for millennia between rival philosophical factions, and the interchange of ideas they fostered led to significant developments within all major philosophical traditions.