"Do the needful" -- Why is it used instead of asking a question?

Update: (Originally this was a comment, but I thought it was worth sharing here at the top.) In the original question, I asked if there was a polite, socially-acceptable way to ask an Indian co-worker not to use the phrase "do the needful", as I didn't care for it. In the years since I asked this question I've asked many people about the phrase. To the Indians I've asked in-person, it's not rude in any way. To Americans I've asked it varies anywhere from "I don't like it, but I don't mind it" to "It's very rude and makes me angry when I see it". Through a long series of edits the question morphed and I wasn’t able to delete it because it had upvoted answers. The question, as it stands now, has no other answer. I guess, though, if you're non-Indian and you find it rude, or if you're Indian and you've never realized someone might find it rude, this post may still have merit. Hopefully it does. It certainly has gotten a lot of views. Best wishes, folks. End Update. See below for what's left of the actual question. "Do the needful." It's a phrase that I've only seen used in email, and I find it . . . presumptuous (maybe even rude). Regardless of prefacing with "please", one is commanding rather than asking for assistance. I've only seen it used by those of Indian origin, so I've simply not mentioned it at all rather than worry about any cross-cultural offense that may come of bringing it up. But still, I don't understand why it's used. Why not request rather than make two statements, one factual, one imperative? For example, why would one use:

1. I'm told you have Jane's email address. Please do the needful.

1. Would you send me Jane's email address?

You might mention that you've just found this Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_needful. :) Here is our ELL question that introduced me to that page: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/17278/….

re: "the question morphed and I wasn’t able to delete it" -- I encountered this phrase for the first time today and initially found it a mix of ungrammatical and presumptuous. I am glad this question was not deleted because it gave me (as an American English speaker) much-needed context for what I had read.

9 Answers 9

Do the needful is Indian English, which has been covered on ELU.

If you're only interacting with other speakers of Indian English then feel free to use it, but avoid it in any other contexts (most Americans and Brits will think it's quaint/uneducated).

In general, the "standard" form is do what[ever] is necessary, but in OP's specific context most likely nothing like that would be used anyway. If you've just asked for an email address, it goes without saying that you want the other person to do whatever is necessary to give you that information.

I may be wrong, but I have the impression that for many Indian English speakers, "Please do the needful" carries a subtext of "This problem is too complex for me to understand or resolve myself, but I have complete faith that you will be able to deal with it, because you are very skilled in such matters"

As I said, Brits and Americans wouldn't normally use any equivalent for such a trivial problem as finding someone's email address. But if the request was for something more challenging (and crucially, if it was from a manager to a more junior worker), "Do what[ever] [you think] is necessary [to solve this problem]" might be perfectly normal. The implication there is that the manager is authorising the junior to do things he might otherwise not be "permitted" to do (in effect, the junior is being temporarily "promoted" for the duration of the problem-solving).

In that context, it should be clear that (to Americans or Brits, at least) any such phrase would probably be considered offensive/cheeky if addressed to an equal in the workplace (if the person asking isn't senior enough to confer temporary authority on you, they shouldn't be speaking to you that way).

@Gabriel: If you're not already familiar with Indian English, why on earth would you want to learn when to use such an expression? Anyway, obviously I didn't explain my "impression" about the IE subtext very well. I think it would be an extremely bad idea to say that to your boss - what I meant was the office junior might feel flattered if his boss told/asked him to "do the needful". By association, he might therefore accept it from an "equal". I don't think anyone (IE or not) would be happy to hear it from a junior. Also, I'm sure it's not a "translation" - just a Raj hangover.

Actually, I'm happy to have learned when an Indian english speaker would find it appropriate to use as a mechanism for learning how I'm being thought of.

This is probably why when "do the needful" crops up in SE questions, as it does occasionally, users of Standard English might bridle a bit. The question is not merely not addressed to an equal, but addressed by someone who is asking for a solution to someone who is better-equipped to provide it.

"If you're not already familiar with Indian English, why on earth would you want to learn when to use such an expression?" For the same reason someone working in a US-dominated environment may want to learn to use AmE idiom in order to more clearly communicate with their colleagues? Why would someone not want to learn the idiom employed by their working environment? When I worked with Indian colleagues for a while, I did my best to pick up on the use of things like as per you request, do the needful, thrice and the idiosyncratic InE usage of until.

@oerkelens: My understanding is that Indian English has relatively low status, even in India. The syntactic differences that commonly occur don't normally present any problem with comprehension for native Anglophones, but they are noticeable. If an Indian (or any other nationality, come to that) doesn't already speak "standard" English, I don't think they'd normally want to deliberately learn IE in contexts where they've no obvious way of knowing which elements are peculiar to that "dialect".

These are not excerpts but complete examples:

"My webserver is not working customers can not complete tasks. Please do the needful"
"The generated report is incorrect, please do the needful."
"We can not access our email. Some computer tasks work but our other office has not. Please do the needful."

To directly answer the OP's question, it is exceptionally rude. It is presumptuous in telling rather than asking, and carries a condescending tone. "My time is more valuable than yours. I'm so high above this task, I won't bother explaining it. Just do the needful!" Early on I considered it no less abrasive than than seeing "ASAP" in the subject line. Today I just shake my head, roll my eyes, and move to the next email.

Root Problem: What really exacerbates this, per the OP's example: usually one is lacking any (coherent) problem description, context, steps to reproduce, solutions already tried, or desired outcome/end-goal. There are never clearly defined action items and no question asked! If I don't know what the needful is, I probably won't do it. This is what I would explain to your friend.

for many Indian English speakers, "Please do the needful" carries a subtext of "This problem is too complex for me to understand or resolve myself, but I have complete faith that you will be able to deal with it, because you are very skilled in such matters"

@FumbleFingers nails it! That's what we presume was intended; actually this is an overly formal conclusion sentence, as written. Unfortunately, without surrounding details this can easily be re-interpreted as "I'm too ignorant to understand, to learn, or to learn to ask in English." In IT, and Professional Services Support, I have often seen this from customers. I've even received it as the answer to my follow-up questions, or in response to support requests I've opened. I apologize to the OP if this response seems harsh but it is a blunt honest answer to the question asked.

An 'IE' speaker here, and I actually made an account just to share my views about this topic.

Over the 2 past years, I have worked at a multinational audit firm and also a reputed research institution in India where I have seen common use of the phrase "Please do the needful". It is usually a good closing sentence after explanation of the context has been given in the rest of the mail, and is honestly just a polite request. I was genuinely surprised to find that people seemed to have a problem with the phrase and that it is labelled as an 'Indian-English' term. Initially I thought that there might be something wrong with the word 'needful', but when I looked it up, I got the usual meaning 'necessary/requisite'. There are no grammatical errors with the phrase in question, and really, no indication of arrogance at all! I see people suggesting the usage of "Please do what is necessary", and I don't see any difference between the two phrases. So is the problem with the word 'needful'? Is it not used often enough by English language speakers abroad? Also, if the same was used as part of a question like "Could you please do the needful?", would it still seem rude/commanding to you? In business emails, people try to be as concise as possible, no one has time to write elaborately worded emails or read them; succinct responses are appreciated, and this is probably the most succinct way to communicate the thought! So I quote R Clews here, "If it isn't 'broken', why try and 'fix' it?". Different doesn't always mean wrong does it?

To answer your question, if you find the phrase 'rude', then you can be straightforward and tell them that it isn't a phrase you are comfortable/familiar with, and would prefer an alternate phrase (although such a request could possibly make you seem arrogant/rude depending on how you phrase it). There's no real reason for your friend to be offended, it is certainly a commonly used phrase, but not something that an Indian would be offended about if they are requested not to use it because the other person does not appreciate it. But I still do not understand why its usage seems to be such an issue.