Language, Power and Ideology

Abstract

This chapter describes the shifts in linguistic policies that operated simultaneously to the beginnings of teaching English in Hyderabad State during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, to explore its links with the administrative, political and socio-cultural shifts that were pivotal to the shaping of the state. The rulers themselves were mostly Urdu-speaking Muslims, but the majority of the common people spoke Mahratti (Marathi), Telugu, Canarese and other languages. The pro-Urdu campaign also worked to efface the use of local languages, including Deccani. Local languages were used as the medium of instruction in schools in Hyderabad State. However, the shift in language learning - with the use of printed resources - restructured the meanings, practices, participants, goals and agendas related to the process of being educated. Anything that was said or done in one language could be done equally felicitously in any other language, in a framework of universal translatability.

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