111 – Language-in-education policy across borders in South Asia

Different policy priorities across the India-Bangladesh border, and the state borders within India significantly impact the promotion, preservation as well as marginalisation of the languages in this region. The panel will examine the language policies across various borders in the South Asian context. (a) Santosh Kumar discusses the role of the intervention of colonial language policies through the project of writing grammar of Indian languages notably by Gilchrist (1796) and Halhed (1778). These colonial projects suggest the hegemonic apparatus adopted by the colonial regime to command the language and the language of command (Cohn, 1997; Viswanathan, 1989) that shaped the present-day linguistic landscape in the educational policies of the target areas. (b) Asifa Sultana examines language-in-education policy as a critical mechanism for preservation of marginalized languages (e.g. Hornberger, 2008; Skutnabb-Kangas & Phillipson, 2010). She works with Kurukh-speaking communities in Northern Bengal in Bangladesh and India to explore the policy provisions available for education of the community members, and to understand whether or not they impact the language use among the community members. (c) Ritu Santh looks at the dominance of multiple standard languages and their negotiation with the minoritised vernaculars across the border of the states of Karnataka and Kerala with a focus on the northern Kasaragod region of Kerala where several languages including Malayalam, Kannada, Tulu, Konkani and Marathi are prevalent. (d) Dripta Piplai (Mondal) discusses the hybrid languages of Bengal-Jharkhand-Odisha border where multiple named and unnamed hybrids are made (Krammer et. al, 2022) following the structures of dominant languages (Bangla/Odia) which reflect how the policies shape the language use in the ground.

Convenor

Piplai Mondal Dripta -