IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-024-03878-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From colonial legacy to contemporary reality: attitudes towards English and Hindi hegemony in India

Author

Listed:
  • Sadaf Khan

    (Indian Institute of Technology Indore)

  • Thapasya Jayaraj

    (Indian Institute of Technology Indore)

Abstract

The dominance of one powerful, ‘killer’ language, particularly in formerly colonized countries, has been studied mainly in the context of language education in a multilingual scenario. However, attitudes towards linguistic hegemony remain largely unexplored, an issue that takes on added significance in India, a country known for its exceptional linguistic diversity. The ethnographic study attempts to bridge the gap by analyzing the implicit and explicit language attitudes toward English and Hindi language hegemony among Indians representing a diverse spectrum of linguistic, geographical, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Explicit attitudes, consciously held and reported perceptions, were investigated through one-on-one and group interviews with 60 participants while implicit attitudes, unconsciously held beliefs, were explored through field observations. The study also examined whether English is still viewed as a remnant of colonialism in India. The findings of the thematic analysis reveal that English has largely shed its colonial associations, with socioeconomic status, and the medium of instruction significantly influencing these attitudes. With its exploration of Hindi hegemony in addition to English, the research offers fresh insights into the evolving linguistic landscape of India and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of language dynamics in a post-colonial, globalized society.

Suggested Citation

  • Sadaf Khan & Thapasya Jayaraj, 2024. "From colonial legacy to contemporary reality: attitudes towards English and Hindi hegemony in India," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03878-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03878-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03878-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-024-03878-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03878-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.