India Turns 60

Yesterday, August 15th, marked sixty years since India gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Three of the six people on my team at work grew up in India, and working in the technology sector that seems fairly close to standard. One of the things that's struck me talking to my co-workers is that unlike my own immigrant ancestors who came over from Mexico and Ireland and England with no intention of ever going back, most of them fully intend to head back to India within five to ten years in order to continue pursuing their careers there. Spending some time working in the US or UK has apparently become a pretty standard part of the Indian middle-class career path.

Given that India has a population of a bit over a billion people, and English is one of the standard languages that everyone learns in school there (plus their education system is quite good, especially compared to the creaking edifice of the US public schools) India is likely to become increasingly visible to the rest of us in the English-speaking world.