Publications

Publication details [#62619]

Bharadwaj, Vasudha. 2017. Language of power or “fringe language”?: English in postcolonial India, 1946–1968. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2017 (247) : 13–32.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
De Gruyter

Annotation

India’s “official language controversy” extended over two decades from 1946 to 1967, during which the suggestion to substitute English with Hindi met with opposition from various quarters. This assay distinguishes a widespread perception, among supporters as well as critics of English in India at the time, that the “international”/“foreign” credentials of the language made it a tool of change across various regional, class, caste, religious, and ethnic communities. Maybe most startling, however, is the intricate role played by a “hybrid” minority constituency in public debate: the mixed race Anglo-Indian community, in disconnecting from the former “home” country of England re-defined itself and its relationship with the new republic, and finally served as a catalyst in reframing the language as not solely international or colonial, but as Indian.