Language of power or “fringe language”?: English in postcolonial India, 1946–1968

Abstract

India’s “official language controversy” spanned over two decades from 1946 to 1967, during which the proposal to replace English with Hindi met with resistance from various quarters. However, the inter-regional ethno-linguistic politics of India came together with the developmental vision for an industrialized postcolonial democracy to ensure its validation and continuance in as a co-official language of the republic. My analysis identifies a widespread perception, among supporters as well as detractors of English in India at the time, that the “international”/“foreign” credentials of the language made it an instrument of change across various regional, religious, caste, class, and ethnic communities. The language came to be reframed during this period due to the coming together of India’s colonial past and its distinct regional and community histories with the views of leading public figures. Perhaps most surprising, however, is the complex part played by a “hybrid” minority constituency in public debate: the mixed race Anglo-Indian community, in dissociating from the former “home” country of England re-defined itself and its relationship with the new republic, and ultimately served as a catalyst in reframing the language as not merely international or colonial, but as Indian.

South Asian Language Practices: Mother Tongue, Medium, and Media

“…English has long been associated with power and inequality in South Asia (Bharadwaj 2017, Ramanathan 2005. British colonizers contributed to creating class hierarchies by providing a small elite with access to English-medium schools so they could occupy civil service jobs (Kumar 2005, Seth 2007, Viswanathan 1989).…”

“…Works on English in South Asia have investigated its colonial and postcolonial history and its complex role in social life (Auddy 2019, Bharadwaj 2017, Chatterjee & Schluter 2020, Dasgupta 1993, Orsini 2015. Chandra (2012) underscores sexuality and power by showing how English was molded in colonial India through the sexual experiences of Indians and their attempts to create a normative sexual subject.…”