Newspaper English: Ignorance or Indianization?

In countries where English is used as a second or foreign language, English newspapers are looked upon as a resource in the learning of English.  While teachers of English insist that their students read at least one English newspaper regularly, even non-English-educated parents buy an English language newspaper hoping that reading the newspaper will help their children improve their English.  The average educated Indian assumes that newspaper English is a standard variety of English and even relies on it as an authority in matters of correctness.  To what extent is this assumption valid?

Not to a great extent, I should think.  By using – and overusing – several Indianisms which violate the basic rules of English grammar, our newspapers have given them the force of a standard.  Using postpositive adjectives in the attributive position is a common practice in Indian newspapers: instead of writing "authorities concerned" (which is what they actually mean), they write "concerned authorities".  When a news report talks about a "reputed" college or company, it means one with a good reputation, in which case "reputable" is the right word.  "Unique", an absolute adjective, is often misused in the sense of "rare" or "unusual".  The word "police", as in the sentence, "The police have not made any arrests", takes a plural verb and is preceded by "the", but newspapers often use a singular verb with it and omit the definite article.  "Have a soft corner", "avail an opportunity", "in the premises" and "in the campus" are a few other Indianisms which came to be 'fixed', thanks to our newspapers.

Indianization was at work even in my own newspaper writings -- in a weekly column I was writing for an English language newspaper: some of my own standard forms were Indianized by the editorial staff.  Thus, my "reputable college" became reputed college, "etched on my memory" became etched in my memory, "on the market" (in the sense of 'on sale') became in the market, " a university" became an university, and "an HRD consultant" became a HRD consultant.

"If you can't beat them, join them!" said my facetious husband, a professor of English, when I told him about the Indianization of my English in the column.  "And promote Indianisms", he added.  "Next time you can write about the most unique crime that has been committed by a famous celebrity of the town in the premises of one of the reputed colleges of an university, what the concerned authorities say about it, and how police is investigating the case."