Bringing English into the 21st century: A view from India

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Published: Jan 1, 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/ijltic.13
Rukmini Bhaya Nair
Indian Institute of Technology
Abstract

English in India has had an extended and elite colonial history. It was the dominant language of governance in the 19th and 20th centuries till India became independent and a new set of language policies came into being. This paper traces the narrative of English on the Indian subcontinent from its genesis as a foreign and imperial tongue to its acceptance and ‘democratization’ as one amongst the many languages of India. It is emphasized that English in India has always existed in a vibrant multilingual environment and that the emergence of Indian English as a ‘world’ variety owes much to this fact. A detailed analysis of the lexicon, grammar and pragmatics of the English spoken today in urban India especially by India’s youth who comprise over 65% of India’s population is undertaken in the paper with a view to demonstrating that radical and striking shifts in attitudes toward English in India have occurred over the last few decades of economic liberalization and technological growth. Yet, the timeline created in this paper also shows that many of the paradoxes and dilemmas that attended English from its inception in India have not quite been banished. Rather, they have taken on new, acutely self-reflexive and challenging forms that will require a radical reassessment in the 21st century.

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Author Biography
Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Indian Institute of Technology

Rukmini Bhaya Nair is Professor of Linguistics and English at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and has since taught at universities ranging from Singapore to Stanford and delivered plenary addresses worldwide. Awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Antwerp in 2006, Nair’s books include Poetry in a Time of Terror (Oxford University Press, New Delhi and New York, 2009), Narrative Gravity: Conversation, Cognition, Culture (Routledge, London and New York, 2003), Lying on the Postcolonial Couch (Oxford and Minnesota University Presses, 2002); Translation, Text and Theory: the Paradigm of India (ed. Sage, New Delhi and Thousand Oaks, USA 2002) and Technobrat: Culture in a Cybernetic Classroom (Harper Collins, India, 1997). Regarded as one of India’s leading poets, Nair has published three full length poetry collections with Penguin.