As R K Agnihotri -- an expert who had come to the British Council on Monday at the launch of Encarta World English dictionary -- pointed out, since the sixteenth century, the language police has always made an effort to keep its provinces `pure' and Jonathan Swift even presented a proposal to form a committee to correct and improve the language, and prevent its abuse.

Agnihotri, from the Linguistics department of the Delhi University, to a helping hand from Nic Humphries of the educational services of the British Council, at the talk titled ``English as the world language of the new millennium.'' Humphries added that the committee was fortunately not formed.

Giving the instance of Sanskrit and Latin, Agnihotri said a language is headed for doom when it is identified with the elite, and whenever those inpower use it to distance themselves from the common man. Encarta dictionary is being marketed as one which defines words and phrases from a ``global perspective,'' so as to reflect the contemporary usage of English as the language that unites the world.

``The future of English is in maintenance and not in the extinction of other languages,'' said Agnihotri. He noted English itself traced its origin to the pidgInisation and creolisation of various languages, were spoken by immigrants to English around 1450 AD.

Giving instances from the compilation, Agnihotri said the word ``salwar'' had been included and is given as much respect as ``salvation.'' Same for words like ``bhindi,'' ``bhangra'' and ``korma,'' although why words like ``baraat'' and ``mundan'' had been excluded, he couldn't say. Similar contributions have been made from over 20 regions as diverse as America, India and the Caribbean.

Such a topic was bound to receive interesting responses from the audience.

A lady, as a litmus test, wanted toknow if the phrase ``black money'' was included in all its connotations; another inquired if the dictionary gave the roots of the word ``mulligatawny'' which he said came from Tamil. They were both satisfied.

There had to be some doubts: A gentleman protested that the dictionary was a breach of language and led to its dilution. Agnihotri did not hesitate, saying the question of right and wrong only came when one set standards, and fixing standards was more about politics than linguistic.

``If members of a community were communicating successfully, then who can call it impure?'' he wondered. Grammar and standards, he went on, make languages stagnant whereas evolution was necessary.