India’s natural wealth knowledge arts and crafts have attracted foreigners throughout its long history. It has had continuous cultural contact and trade with other countries and in all this India has been exposed to many foreign languages such as Arabic Bactrian Chinese Dutch English French Greek Hebrew Latin Persian Portuguese Turkish and in a certain sense Sanskrit. Each of these languages went through a cycle rising to the position of power and prestige and eventually declining and yielding place to yet another language. In this process all these languages interacted with the native languages of India and exchanged sounds words sentences idioms and expressions sometimes even giving birth to new languages. Foreigners and Foreign Languages in India: A Sociolinguistic History tells the story of this long and continuous history of the advent learning use demise and debris of some foreign languages in India.

1. Introduction ; 2. Greek Hebrew and Sanskrit ; 3. Arabic Persian and Turkish ; 4. Armenian Portuguese Dutch and French ; 5. East India Company and The Indian Languages ; 6. East India Company and The English Language ; 7. Conclusion ; index ; List of Tables ; Race and Religion of Aurangzeb’s Nobility ; European Population in Lucknow ; Christian Mission Institutions in India in 1851 ; Sale of Books in 1834 ; Popularity of Some Languages in a School Curriculum ; Growth of English Schools and Colleges in India ; Population of Calcutta in August 1822 ; Schools and Colleges in India under the imperial Govt. ; Newspapers in India 1865 – 75 ; Medium of Examination for Candidates Writing JEE ; India’s Top Ten Newspapers ; Number of Speakers of English as Mother Tongue ; The Relative Attractiveness of Countries for BPO ;; List of Annexes; 1. Evolution of Indo-European Script; 2. An Ashokan Edict in Bactrian Language; 3. Examples of Magadhi in Kalidasa; 4. A Specimen of Babar’s Poetry; 5. Extract from Halhead’s Translation of Dara Shikoh’s Preface to the Upanishad; 6. Extracts from Mazm-u1-Babrain and Samudra Sangamah; 7. Dara Shikoh’s Sanskrit Verse in Praise of Rudra; 8. A Bengali Prayer Book Prepared by the Portuguese; 9. Example of Portuguese Creole; 10. Extracts from Wood’s Despatch; 11. Charter Act of 1813; 12. Raja Rammohun Roy’s Letter to Lord Amherst; 13. Macaulay’s Minute on Education for India; 14. William Bentinck’s Resolution for Provision for English Education; 15. Growth of English Schools and Colleges in India; 16. Population of Calcutta on 8 August 1822;