Multilingualism in India

Multilingualism in India
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Multilingualism in India
Part 1: Proposal
India is one of the unique countries when it comes to language use. The country is large with diverse cultures, reflecting the language's richness and language use policies. Almost every Indian understands and uses two or more languages. While Hindi is considered the national language, it is often a blanket collection of other languages that sometimes have a relationship with each other. Apart from the local dialects, India also understands English, also the national language alongside Hindi. However, English is the language of education and international business, while regional dialects are the languages of everyday use. Another strain of English is not formal enough and used in conversations and other social engagements. Therefore, the language used depends on the context, the place, and the people using the language. Thus, the research proposal seeks to understand how the English language is used in different Indian institutions such as government, business, schools, and media.
Research Question
How have government policies in language and education influenced multilingualism in India, including language use in formal and social contexts?
Annotated Bibliography
Mallikarjun, B. (2019). Multilingualism in 21st century India. Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow Volume 19: 9 September 2019 ISSN 1930-2940, 148.
Mallikarjun (2019), Indian multilingualism is an issue of cultural fusions and the unique situation that India finds itself with the issues of colonialism since the unique education, geography, and language policy means that people share languages.
Tsimpli, I., Mukhopadhyay, L., Treffers-Daller, J., Alladi, S., Marinis, T., Panda, M., Balasubramanian, A., & Sinha, P. (2019). Multilingualism and multiliteracy in primary education in India: A discussion of methodological challenges of an interdisciplinary research project. Research in Comparative and International Education, 14(1), 54-76.
Tsimpli et al., 2019 focus on the challenges that educators face when dealing with the development of curriculum and the outcomes for the learners. Multilingualism in India is a blessing and a curse for the education system. Due to massive multilingualism, language outcomes in English which are the language of education, are often impacted. While multilingualism is hailed as a good thing, it is important to understand the trouble that curriculum developers have in developing the right institutions to meet the unique situation in the education setting.
Aronin, L., & Singleton, I. D. (2018). What is Multilingualism? In David Singleton and Larissa Aronin (eds.), Twelve Lectures in Multilingualism. (pp. 3-34). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. -matters.com/display.asp?isb=
Multilingualism in society and education has been a unique phenomenon, and even though efforts have been made to study the phenomenon, nothing has been clear-cut. The elucidations on the subject provide a succinct understanding of the concept of multilingualism and how individuals' multilingualism and societal multilingualism are one and different at the same time. The study provides a unique understanding of multilingualism in education and society. The same language could differ in how it is used in education and how it is used in a formal setting such as education and government institutions. Language use in education and society, therefore, is distinct.
McKibben-Greene, M. G. (2020). Managing Multilingualism in India and South Africa: A Comparison.
McKibben-Greene (2020) reviews the nature of multilingualism in India and South Africa. The shared history of British colonialism and the variety of local language makes India share the same language characteristics when it comes to language use. The two countries have had language policies. The language policies in both countries have faced major problems due to their multilingual nature. The study also underlines the difficulty in developing effective language policies in countries with vast multilingualism, both collective and individual.
Part 2: Essay
Introduction
The use of language in India and many other Asian countries are influenced by the diversity of the people and the history of colonialism by the British. Language is used in different contexts based on the person using it and the nature of the context demanding a particular type of language. India has many languages, the major being the Hindi language, even though there are many dialects. Due to colonialism, the nation has adopted English as a national language. At the same time, the country still has Hindi as an official language. English and Hindi, therefore, are the top official language in the country which is mainly used even though India does not have a national language but rather 22 official languages. Due to issues of nationalism, Hindi has been given credence and is used in government documentation. However, the nation's uniqueness when it comes to local dialects, which vary from region to region, is unmatched. The media, however, uses English and Hindi with almost the same frequency. Indian multilingualism, therefore, is primarily dominated by English as the official language of the media and the government institutions, and Hindi as an official language almost on the same level but used in the more informal settings in commerce and socialization. In contrast, the local languages are based on regions.
The Language of Education and Government
Focusing on any particular village in India, the language policy is expected to apply. The 28 states in India each have a native language recognized as the official language. English, however, has some privileged status in the country, even with the school policies on the language requiring something different. The government policy on teaching language mandates that the learners must be taught the native language alongside English (Groff, 2017). There is a distinction of language throughout the states, with each focusing on the local dialects and English. However, in all the states, their learners are exposed to at least two languages; the local native language, the official language in the states, and English. The Indian society, therefore, is set to be multilingual.
The language policies in the country are also the reason for the multilingual issues that occur in the country and affect language use in government and society. Public schools are mandated to teach the local official language. English is only introduced in Grade five. In grade 6, the learners can be taught any other native language. The government, therefore, emphasizes the local languages they learn majorly for political reasons. However, the situation is quite different in private schools. Private schools have almost a complete English emphasis on learning (Omidvar & Ravindranath, 2017). English is the prestigious language in India and is emphasized as a must-have. It is the means for social and economic advancement, such as private schools have become more desirable than public schools. There is such a huge discrepancy in the language preference, with parents often encouraging the children to communicate in English even at home since they believe it is the only way to social and economic opportunity (Sah, 2022). Therefore, English has a privileged status even when the government has policies to en...