With the Britishers parting away from India in 1947 the line of thinking of the Indians, in general, was that the importance of English as a language would diminish. On the contrary, English as a language has gained momentum and has by now even almost become the ‘Lingua Franca’ of the common man. ‘Broken Images’ by Dr. Girish Karnad has raised the storm of debate about ‘the politics of language in Indian literary culture’ once again.
Through the Protagonist, Manjula, Dr. Karnad has tried to portray the reality of the Indian mindset. According to the playwright’s observations, English in India is felt to have been having the free walking space of the higher echelons of society. His picturization of Malini who could express herself in English fluently and had English speaking friends yet, Manjula lacking in such skills brings forth the revolution that the language English is making in the society. Infact, this one language, English is having such a strong and aggressive character that it has been even able to make inroads into the family lives of Indian people creating jealousy amongst sisters and bringing up class struggle almost like the haves and the have-nots. The masculinity of the language, English has always scored over all Indian languages and as if willingly or unwillingly it has played the role of being the patriarch of all literary languages in India. Dr. Girish Karnad’s ‘Broken Images’ vividly brings forth the perceived notions about English vis-a-vis other Indian languages in the Indian literary cultural sphere.