Author: N Krishnaswamy
Archana S Burde/
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 204
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195669797
Description
The story of English in India is inextricably entangled in the politics of empire and the struggle for identity, but flourishes in the modern world of mass communications and globalization.
In this fascinating and lively study, Krishnaswamy and Burde examine how the language has changed-and is still changing -over the last two centuries. Using sociolinguistic theories, first hand research and a wide variety of different examples, the authors challenge hegemonic constructions of both proper English as well as Indian English. The book includes examples of Indian English, from newspaper advertisements and official letters to fiction and poetry, which are examined in the wide context of the politics of language. It will be invaluable for students of language and linguistics in South Asia.
REVIEW
Crisp and well-planned, the book tells, the compelling story of the Janus-faced nature of English in India. It is a story of power and resistance, of invasion and of absorption. An archival construction of samples of Indians English, over three hundred years, lends this story authenticity.
-Indian Review of Books
Contents
ENGLISH IN INDIA: PROBLEMATICS OF PERCEPTION
English in India: Between the Cow and the Crown
The English Empire and the Politics of World Englishes
A Few Facts about English in India
Reverence/Abhorrence: Intertwined Attitudes
English in Pakistan
Need for Reading Myths and Redefining Concepts
INDIAN ENGLISH: COMPLEXITIES APLENTY
Research on Indian English
The Alien Insiders
Our English
The Doublespeak
Only the Written Variety
The Kachru Catch
Data-Based Attempts
Indian English as Interlanguage - An Ethnocentric View
English as India's Auntie Tongue
The Degree-Yielding Variety
Miscellany-Notions-Conglomerate and the Rashomon Effect
Prator's Prejudice
De-prejudicing the Outlook
THE TEHNOLGOY OF POWER AND THE POWER OF THE WEAK
The Technology of Power
The West and the Rest: Some Contemplations
The Power of the Weak
The Masks of Nationalism
Print-Capitalism in the Indian Context
The Native-Speaker Myth
One for Transaction and One for Contemplation
INDIANS ENGLISH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONTEMPLATION
Five Phases of the History of English in India
An Investigation of the Written Mode
Summary: Restricted Domains and English Sustained Features
INDIANS ENGLISH: A MODULECT
Is there a Case for Indian English?
English as a Module in India
Nomenclature: Indians English and Inglish
Appendix
Bibliography
Index