Indian English and ‘Vernacular’ India examines the uneasy relationship of English with Indian languages by tracing its lineage in India and reassessing its character in the age of globalization. Rather than arguing for the precedence of Indian languages, this volume examines the position and impact of English vis-à-vis the contexts of culture and society, and identifies translation and Indian English as open channels of communication between English and the Indian languages.
In an increasingly globalized world, knowledge of the English language has given India immense leverage over other developing nations. As a result, English has become, even more so than before, a vehicle of empowerment and upward mobility for Indians. Thus, from being a language of the elite, English has now become a language of business, international trade and commerce. The objective of the essays in this book is to promote a symbiotic multilingualism that would enable the consolidated presence of English and Indian languages in the world’s largest democracy.
With its coverage of the finer details of India’s tryst with the English language, threaded with the extensive documentation of the India’s rich literary history, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students of literature, language resource studies, Indian writing in English, media studies, culture studies and sociolinguistics.
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