The anonymous writer who pleads for "More stress on Indian English" (March 28 letter) is correct to withhold his name. Such a premise ranks with jokes about "military Intelligence." He cites British colonization of India as the main basis of his plea, but let me remind him that America and Australia, as well as Singapore, were all British colonies too. The first two were settled by Anglo-Celts whose first language was, and remains, English -- certainly not the case in India unless they changed their constitution recently. Is there a note of racialism -- and I use this word with deliberation -- in his slur on "Singlish"?
We all know the caricature of the sing-song Indian accent, which is as much a stereotype as the Singaporean's rising inflection with the "la" suffix. And, in English-speaking countries, we are inflicted with call centers staffed by alleged, but unintelligible, English speakers. Let's hope the unknown writer merely wanted to impart a little laugh. Otherwise, his lack of historical knowledge is matched only by his utter lack of proportion.
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