Use of "the" in Indian English

Question

The word "the" in Indian English seems to have a different function than in American English, and I'd like to understand it better. The first sentence of this article demonstrates what I mean:

Today in this article I would discuss about the Database Mail which is used to send the Email using SQL Server.

In American English, I'd write:

In today's article I will discuss Database Mail, which is used to send email using SQL Server.

Is that considered wrong or overly concise in Indian English?

What is the use of the additional "the"s in the original? Is this a typical pidgin construct or specific to Indian English? What rule of American English makes this sound awkward to my ears?

Answer 1

For most Indian people, English is not their first language so they have a tendency to translate words from their mother tongue on the fly, which leads to some funny examples like "passing out" of college or staying up till 2 AM to "work hardly" on a problem.

The first sentence that you gave can be very easily translated into Hindi (the most widely-spoken Indian language) while the second one cannot be translated as easily.

Answer 2

The two topics that I have found more difficult than others are THE USES OF THE and THE USES OF TENSES. Once, so many years ago, I tested people including Professors of English whom I know personally with the aim of knowing whether they are good at using THE correctly. Unfortunately, none of them passed the test. The English that we, Indians, use is different in several aspects from British and American English. We pronounce a large number of English words incorrectly, we make grammar and usage mistakes, we use words that are understood only by Indians. For example, instead of the American RESUME (and the British CURRICULUM VITAE), etc. Indians use BIODATA widely. Indians use LAKH to mean "one hundred thousand", and CRORE to mean "ten million". Indians usually do not mind the omission or insertion of THE in a sentence.

Answer 3

I disagree with @Xitij, both the sentences have the same meanings when (easily) translated in Hindi, with minor sentence structural difference.

Pinal Dave, the author of the OP's quoted article, is a USC graduate, (which means he cleared his GRE, which means he definitely understands the use of 'the' ). But, in-spite of knowing the correct usage, I feel his usage is influenced from the language of his ethnic group as pointed out by @Fr0zenFyr. And that would also be the ans to the OP.

And as in the wiki entry about First language being the language(s) a person starts learning from the very beginning, in India students learn it from the very first day they go to school (not counting the English they learn at home), along Hindi. Hence for most Indians Hindi and English are both their first languages. What you ( Xitij) are suggesting would be valid, if you differentiate word 'Mother Tongue' as one's ethnic group's language. This newspaper article tells us that India has the second largest English speaking population in the world (mostly due to the high population in itself).

And I did not highlight the minor structural difference at the end of the sentence.