Patterns of language use in a bilingual setting in India

Abstract

Introduction In the Indian urban context the use of English is becoming increasingly widespread, with English acquiring more functions now than ever before. This was not envisaged, however, by the framers of the Constitution before independence. The Indian Constitution recognises 15 national languages, with Hindi as the official language and English as the associate official language, with a directive that English was to be replaced by Hindi in a period of 15 years. However, this did not happen, for various social and political reasons, and English has flourished even more after independence. The national impact of Hindi, on the other hand, has not been able to equal that of English and has led to English–Hindi rivalry, with each language continuing to compete for recognition as a pan-Indian language (Kachru 1979). Here, English has certain advantages over Hindi. Since it is not the language of any major group, it does not threaten any group's ethnic identity and hence is politically more acceptable. It is the main language of education, administration, the mass media, science and technology, and it has provided appropriate and stable registers in these areas. Hindi, despite government support, is still in the process of standardising and codifying the specific registers. Therefore, it cannot provide much professional and linguistic mobility to its users. Any language which aspires to replace English at the national level needs to acquire the functional load of English (Kachru 1979).

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