Is English really that important?

So my father is a journalist, pretty well off and we belong to a tier 2 city. He do not have any english background but made me study in an english medium school. So recently he visited Gurgaon for work meetings and stayed in a 5 star hotel. It was not his first time staying in a 5 star hotel. He said all the staff there used to first talk to him in english and even after insisting that he is more comfortable in hindi the staff still used english phrases between the conversation which my father didnt like. He said everyone arround stared at him during all that time whenever he spoke in hindi. I dont understand why its a big deal when we are in north india and hindi is the language major population speaks.