Question

why was english considered a priceless commodity

Answer 1

There was a very less number of people with the knowledge of the language in the narrator's village and his community was highly influenced by the language. Hence, English was considered as a priceless commodity in those days.

Answer 2

The village accountant was the first one who had enough courage to send his son to Bangalore to study. Those days people didn’t speak in English in the village.

However, English was considered to be a ‘priceless commodity’. That was why Ranga’s home coming in the village was a great event. The people wanted to have a look of the boy who had gone to Bangalore to study English