Why is the term "isn't it?" so predominant in Indian English?

I apologize in advance if I am ignorantly and incorrectly assigning this to Indian English. When I was in medical school, I had a number of professors who were native to India.

Being a school predominantly made up of American English speakers we noticed that the Indian English speakers used the term "isn't it?" with a noticeable frequency. (I hesitated to put a ? at the end because it wasn't phrased as a question per se.)

In fact, for many of them it was practically a punctuation mark to every sentence. And, there did not seem to be any agreement of pluralization or tense. (e.g. "The students went to a party. Isn't it?")

Presumably, they use the phrase "isn't it?" in the same way that speaker of American English would use "you see" or "don't you agree?"

My question that has nagged me for years, why would this construct come to predominate in Indian English? It doesn't strike me as a particularly British English import. Is it a direct translation of a common phrasing in Hindi or one of the many languages of the sub-continent?

Solution 1:

Is it a direct translation of a common phrasing in Hindi or one of the many languages of the sub-continent?

You've hit the nail on the head. It's a direct translation of the phrase "hain na" which literally means "isn't it" or (confusingly) "right, no?" which can (even more confusingly) be simplified to just "right". Much like @Neeku already alluded to, it's very much like the British "innit", but somehow even more flexible than that.

Presumably, they use the phrase "isn't it?" in the same way that speaker of American English would use "you see" or "don't you agree?"

Right again! But while it can be used for both literally, it's mostly used more as "you see" and than "don't you agree?"

e.g. "The students went to a party. Isn't it?"

If I translate it back, the statement becomes: "The students went to a party, right?" Not really a question, more a statement.

Solution 2:

As an English speaker growing up in an area with a high number of Hindi speakers & going to school with Hindi & Urdu speakers, I noticed a constant switch between using "hai na" and "innit", the transitional "hainit" they drop H in "ai na" and the transitional drop H in "ai n'it" and the formal "isn't it" depending mostly on audience & accent.

To be honest, with a colloquial English accent, most of these variations blur together when spoken. I personally think that it is this aural similarity combined with the similarity of meaning that has driven this use of language.