SOAS Research Online

Abstract

After over a century of language nationalism and almost as long a period of intense competition and mutual contempt, in post-liberalisation and post-low caste assertion India the boundaries between English and Hindi have recently become more porous, and the hold of both “pure Hindi” and “British/pure English” has become much more limited. English is of course still the language of greater opportunities in local and global terms, and increasingly so, but as low-caste politicization and literacy widen the sphere of Hindi, and the “new middle class” remains resolutely bilingual in its everyday and entertainment practices, the relation between English and Hindi has become more a relationship of parallel expansion, though still perceived in public discourse as a zero-sum game.