Well I have often heard people say that “do the needful” is a typical phrase in South Asian English. Well I was born, brought up in and live in Pakistan, and I can’t say I have ever head it. What I have heard people say is “please take all necessary steps” or “take all appropriate measures”, but never “do the needful” except ironically.
So how did this become a staple of what South Asians are supposed to say?
I don’t know about “a staple of what South Asians are supposed to say”, but I have worked with many Indians in IT and I could have taken early retirement if I’d had a pound sterling for every time I’d seen the phrase “kindly do the needful” in email.
Never heard of it. I’m in Chicago if that matters.
Based on other experiences with unusual phrasing in certain ethnic groups, I’d guess that it comes from the languages used in that area. Does “Do the needful” make more sense in the various South Asian languages?
No, it doesn’t come from the languages of India. It’s an old-fashioned expression in English that died out in other dialects but remains in Indian English:
Like all dialects, Indian English sometimes keeps linguistic elements (word, grammatical structures, pronunciations, etc.) that have died out in other dialects.
I often encounter it in the imperative: “You will kindly do the needful and oblige”. This is in the context of requests for information on a message board, not a command from a superior.
I once had gently to ask my assistant, recently arrived from Delhi, kindly to do the needful by stopping kindly asking people by email to do the needful.
Now, a few years later we’re friends rather than colleagues, and she laughs about the whole thing, though I know at the time she was quite embarrassed when I pointed out that it a) in a UK context “the needful” appears archaic, and b) in the same context, the word “kindly” looked sarcastic.
Maybe it’s an Indian, rather than a Pakistani, thing?
I’ve never heard of it either and my boss is Malaysian. Of course, I haven’t been working for her all that long and I’m in central Texas.
Well, I’m Northern Irish and Mum has used the phrase for as long as I can remember.
‘Do the needful’ sounds like a physiological imperative.
I regularly travel to Malaysia, where the expression is common, if odd to my ear.
It seems like perfectly good, idiomatic, but slightly old fashioned English to me. It has never occurred to me that it was particularly associated with south Asians (and I lived for many years in an area in England with a high south Asian population).
AK84, if you were born, brought up in and live in Pakistan, and have never heard it used there, who is telling you that it is a typical south Asian expression?
Pretty much every book on S Asian languages, or colleagues and clients overseas, I deal with a lot of them due to the nature of my work.
I use lots of terms and phrases which are different, archaic or have another meaning and am thus careful when I am dealing with people from N America or the British Isles (never dealt with Aussies and New Zealanders, but suspect will be the same. Someone mentioned “kindly”, yes I have had to check myself from using that, but I haven never in 25 years ever used or encountered anyone who used the expression “do the needful”.
Here’s a thread from a couple years ago:
Please do the needful?
I’ve gotten it from Indians who either were in India or had just arrived from there.
I get a lot of international correspondence and I always assumed it was the result of feeding a letter through an automatic translator.
OMG this is hilarious! Where I come from “doing the needful” refers to using the bathroom. I’m absolutely rolling at the thought of an e-mail asking me to “do the needful.” Bwaaa ha ha haaaaaaa!
Excuse me while I go reapply my mascara!
ETA: If that comes across as mocking, it’s not meant to be. I just absolutely love a good pun.
I have only heard it in Stephen King novels. I was under the impression that it was common in New England (although I never heard my grandparents, who were from Cape Cod, use it).
FWIW,
Rob