Situating English in the Language Politics of Assam (original) (raw)
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Indian Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2023
The state of Assam in India is the home to the people who speak Assamese, an Indo-Aryan language. Assamese is the native tongue of the people of Assam and the official language of the state of Assam. Based on linguistic standards and conventions, Assamese is a vital language for writing. However, when we attempt to see the language from the viewpoint of native speakers' attitudes towards the language, we find that the language is steadily deteriorating among the linguistic community. This deterioration is caused by Linguistic Imperialism. Linguistic Imperialism is a phenomenon in which a dominant language attempts to weaken other languages both socially and politically and in a theoretically founded way. The impact of the dominance is increasing day by day due to which a negative attitude has increased significantly among the native speakers of Assamese who considers English as superior to their mother tongue. Negative attitude is one of the reasons of language endangerment and we cannot deny the possibility of endangerment of the Assamese language in the far future if the dominance of English goes on increasing. History is evident that languages with a huge literature and population got extinct because of the reasons like negative attitude, dominance of other languages, decreasing rate of fluent native speakers, examples of such languages are Sanskrit, Hebrew, etc. This paper tries to analyse the negative attitude which is gradually increasing in the Assamese language and ways to strengthen it by reverting the dominance of Linguistic Imperialism by languages like English and Hindi.
The Politics of Language in Assam
The India Forum, 2021
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/politics-language-assam Language has been at the heart of political debate in Assam since the formation of the British colonial province of Assam in 1874, then through the turbulent decades leading to Independence, the separation of Sylhet during Partition, and into our times.
Scholar Critic Locating the Status of 'English' in the multilingual setting of Nagaland
2016
There is no denying the fact that English language occupies an important place in the national and international scenario. In the context of India, English has been seen as having a transformative power, of being the key to a better life and economic prosperity. The rapid growth of English medium schools and a variety of English coaching centres are a testimony to the importance of English in the country. At the same time there have always been debates and controversies regarding the place of English in education. The importance of mother-tongue based education may be viewed as an attempt to put English in its place, to weaken its imperialistic character. Within this backdrop, this paper attempts to explore the status of English language in the state of Nagaland, situated within the NorthEastern region of the country. It attempts to identify the roles that English play within the State while also presenting the general attitude towards English. The chief purpose of the paper is to h...
IMPACT OF LANGUAGE POLICY ON PRIMARY EDUCATION OF MISING AND TEA-TRIBES OF ASSAM
VEDA PUBLICATIONS, 2019
Linguistic diversity and multilingualism though diametrically opposite in context are the prevailing reality in India. Multilingualism is must in the meaningful participation in the socio-political and economic system of the country. Languages are related to the social status of the respective language groups. Minority languages have tended to be maintained over generations. Maintenance is the norms and shift is a deviation in India. Bilingualism / multilingualism are the result of the communities maintaining their languages by linguistic accommodation. Becoming bilingualism is an adaptive strategy for individuals and communities for stable relationships between individuals, communities and languages. Choice of medium of instruction is a major language problem in a multilingual nation. The state language and the several ethnic group languages in their predominant respective areas are the choices of medium of instructions in schools. The national policy of mother-tongue-medium education of India is encouraging to instruct students through their first languages. Implementation of a rational language policy is very important for effective education in the state. The situation of teaching-learning problems in the Assamese medium lower primary schools of two ethnic groups-the Mising and the tea-garden dominated areas of Assam is discussed in this paper. It focuses on the problems faced by both the teachers and the learners in their teaching-learning activities because of the medium of instruction. Bilingualism/Multilingualism, change of medium of instructions and training of the non-ethnic school teachers of these languages are the alternative and workable solutions to the problem. Primary data is collected through purposive sampling method by interview schedule from school teachers of Assamese language working in these ethnic minority areas of upper Assam.
English Medium Instruction in India: A Colonial Hangover?
Literary Explorer, 2022
Several language-related questions keep gnawing at the minds of some radicals in India. Some of them are: Why should Indians continue to use English as a medium of instruction from pre-kindergarten onwards even after 75 years of its political independence? Why couldn’t Hindi, the official language of the Union Government of India, be developed as the National language? How long should India continue without its own national language? Is it possible for the country to function in all the twenty two scheduled languages giving equal importance for communication purposes? Can’t India offer primary and secondary education in mother tongues when some of them are very ancient? The first and the last questions form the background of the study. Thirty eight final year postgraduate students of English who are to be certified as English teachers shortly were asked to reflect over them. The researcher also made use of NEP 2020 Report and the 11th volume of the Report of the Parliamentary Official Language and public reaction to them as additional inputs for investigation. This qualitative study establishes that almost all the participants failed to make a distinction between English as a language and English as a medium. They argue for English as a medium of instruction on the strength of English as an indispensable language in the modern world. Their response appears to be a result of the colonial hangover and their reasoning falls short of ‘begging the question.’ In Tamil Nadu, the public and political payoff of discussions on the said reports is the reaffirmation of bilingual policy of Tamil (mother tongue) and English and the preference for English medium to Hindi medium of instruction.
isara solutions, 2020
With the consolidation of British rule in Assam, they required English-educated persons not only to serve as a link between the British rulers and the natives but also to manage the lower-level works. People from Bengal came to Assam for these administrative posts. Since Bengal came under the British sway nearly seventy years before Assam, it was easy for the Bengali intelligentsia to master the English language and this was how they came to Assam after British occupation and occupied influential positions as well. To meet the problems at the administrative level in Assam, imparting English education was felt necessary by the British rulers. David Scott, the Governor General of the North East Frontier, though in favour of imparting indigenous education had a plan to set up one English school at Guwahati so that the Assamese products from the schools could at least be absorbed as clerks in the administrative services. But his sudden demise led to the postponement of the plan. Captain Jenkins, who succeeded David Scott, also advocated the establishment of English schools in Sadar stations. By this time a section of English-educated Assamese supported the establishment of English schools in Assam. Anandaram Dhekial Phukan started an English School at his residence and appointed a teacher to teach English to some pupils. Sri Gangaram Phookan an opulent and very cultured was also a great supporter of the establishment of the English school in Assam. All these events led the officers of the Company stationed in Assam to decide in favour of starting an English school at Guwahati. Thereafter, The Guwahati Government Seminary, the first English school was established in Assam in 1835 with a European Headmaster. From 1840 to 1856 English schools were started in Sylhet, Guwahati and Sibsagar. But the natives were not enough enthusiastic to receive education in these schools. Some people grew suspicious of the real intention of the rulers and they cherished a fear that the society will be polluted by imparting instruction to the children of the soil in English in these schools. The General Report of Public Instruction in Assam 1881-82 also confirms the lack of willingness on the part of the people toward the new English education. It states that "British officials stationed in Assam took a keen personal interest in the spread of English education in Assam. But they found that the only stimulus to learning was the hope of getting employment and the higher and the respectable section of the Assamese society kept themselves aloof from educational activities". (The General Report of Public Instruction in Assam 1881-82, Appendix B.P. quoted in Development of Secondary Education in Assam by Lakshahira Das, p.9) Then there started controversy as regards the medium of instruction. In 1836, the British government, under the pressure from the Bengali intelligentsia, who by the time had occupied a
Language and Nationalism: Comprehending the Dynamics in Nineteenth-century Assam
After 10 years of the annexation of most part of the present day Assam into British India, the Missionaries have arrived in Assam in 1836. In April same year Bengali was introduced as the court language in Assam and the service of Bengalis became indispensible in education system which ensured Bengali to be the medium of instruction in Assam. Bengali continued to enjoy court language status until Assamese replaced Bengali in 1873. While nearly four decades of Bengali supremacy over Assamese in courts and schools in Assam worked adversely towards a sustained development of Assamese language, it eventually created a conducive atmosphere to develop linguistic nationalism in Assam, and with the help of missionaries, Assamese Language and literature entered into its Modern Age (1826-Present) during this period. This paper will attempt to trace the emergence of 'little nationalism' in Assamese vernacular history in such a linguistic revivalism. While this paper explores the contribution of informed Assamese youth and also missionaries in reinstating Assamese to its full glory replacing Bengali in 1873, it also opens up the complexities involved in Assamese 'little nationalism' in the context of post colonial Assam.
How English Came to India: Language Education Policies in Colonial India
Journal of English Language Teaching 62(5), 2020
In an increasingly globalized world, English has emerged as one of the primary languages of global communication. The influence and dominance of English are evident in the realms of popular culture, media, science and technology, and commerce, to name a few. In this context, India is considered to have an English advantage over countries such as Japan, China, and even parts of Europe, as it has 125 million speakers of the English language as a first, second, or third language (Krishnaswamy & Krishnaswamy, 2006; Times News Network, 2010). How did a country which is defined by multilingualism and linguistic diversity come to speak a language that does not originate in the Indian subcontinent? This paper attempts to understand the answer to this question by conducting a historical analysis of the introduction of English language education in India during the colonial period and the language policies in the education system of India at the time.
Pangsau: Re-articulating India's North- East, 2018
It is a blog post originally published in Pangsau: Rearticulating India's North- East (March 7, 2018). It has got republished again in indian Cultural Forum (Link: https://indianculturalforum.in/2019/05/21/politics-of-assamese-language/?fbclid=IwAR2WIPBZANJumHvt3CIYeVNRC0tNAspK3vC3XmvOxEIzyikJOALhJh1Yfyk ) on May 21, 2019.
Colonization and English ideologies in India: A language policy perspective
Language Policy, 2016
A language policy document on English teaching asserted that in India, ‘‘the colonial origins [of English are] now forgotten or irrelevant’’ (NCERT 2006: 1). Using data obtained in the course of a longitudinal ethnographic investigation into the language and literacy practices of young multilingual boys living at an anathashram (orphanage) in suburban New Delhi, India, I contest NCERT’s (2006) ideological framing. This study, employing the theoretical perspective of language ideology, demonstrates how the colonial encounter, in fact, continues to frame, inform, and regulate notions about the English language in India. Furthermore, this study sheds light on how the reductive ideological arc of language educational policy documents—such as the one articulated in NCERT (2006)—can enforce and enact a homogenizing gaze that glosses over ideological pluralities. The larger ambition of this exploration is to inquire how and why such ideological normativization is enforced in language educational policy discourse, as well as to consider its implications for educational equity.