The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during th: As decolonisation proceeded throughout the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s, former colonies often did not reject English but rather continued to use it as independent countries setting their own language policies.[56][57][111] For example, the view of the English language among many Indians has gone from associating it with colonialism to associating it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India.[112] English is also widely used in media and literature, and the number of English language books published annually in India is the third largest in the world after the US and UK.[113] However, English is rarely spoken as a first language, numbering only around a couple hundred-thousand people, and less than 5% of the population speak fluent English in India.[114][115] David Crystal claimed in 2004 that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world,[116] but the number of English speakers in India is uncertain, with most scholars concluding that the United States still has more speakers of English than India.[117]