Vernacular English - (Translation/Transnation) by Akshya Saxena (Paperback)

About the Book

"After India's Partition and independence in 1947, "cleansing" Hindi by removing Urdu words was part of the nation's effort to disavow Islamic influence and to forge an exclusively Hindu "Indian" identity. Sanskritized Hindi was anointed the official language of India in 1950, a move protested by non-Hindi-speaking people; in 1963, lawmakers responded to these protests by making English an associate official language. Itself a language steeped in a history of colonial violence, English nevertheless was chosen to mend the gaps created by the imposition of Hindi and to uphold the ideal of democracy. This book considers English as part of the multilingual local milieu of India (a country where more than twenty languages are spoken) not as a colonial language imposed from without. Through a close study of English in India, from the language policies under British rule to the present day, Akshya Saxena argues that low castes and minority ethnic groups-those oppressed by or denied access to English-have routinely and effectively used the language to make political demands on the state. The book examines the ways that Indians use English in literary, spoken, and visual media, from novels to films to global protest movements, to express and shape their experience within the Indian state"--

Book Synopsis

How English has become a language of the people in India--one that enables the state but also empowers protests against it

Against a groundswell of critiques of global English, Vernacular English argues that literary studies are yet to confront the true political import of the English language in the world today. A comparative study of three centuries of English literature and media in India, this original and provocative book tells the story of English in India as a tale not of imperial coercion, but of a people's language in a postcolonial democracy.

Focusing on experiences of hearing, touching, remembering, speaking, and seeing English, Akshya Saxena delves into a previously unexplored body of texts from English and Hindi literature, law, film, visual art, and public protests. She reveals little-known debates and practices that have shaped the meanings of English in India and the Anglophone world, including the overlooked history of the legislation of English in India. She also calls attention to how low castes and minority ethnic groups have routinely used this elite language to protest the Indian state.

Challenging prevailing conceptions of English as a vernacular and global lingua franca, Vernacular English does nothing less than reimagine what a language is and the categories used to analyze it.

Review Quotes

"In a country where English literature departments refer to all other Indian languages as 'vernacular'--or, tautologically, as 'bhasha, ' for 'bhasha' means language--Saxena's book is a necessary and significant counterpoint to this discourse, showing how the vernacularization of the English language has affected India's political life. . . . Vernacular English is a timely, necessary, and original book."---Sumana Roy, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Fortified by academic soundness, rich references and a peek into how women, like her own mother, use English, Saxena's maiden attempt is a marvellous read for those who are intrigued by the status of English in India."---Vani Krishnan, South Asia Research

"Winner of the First Book Prize, Modern Language Association"

"Shortlisted for the ASAP Book Prize, Association for the Arts of the Present"

"Vernacular English . . . is crucial scholarship in the continuing resilience of the perspectives afforded by researching postcoloniality beyond the strict space-time of historical colonialism"---Saronik Bosu, Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Inquiry

"

The focus on a vast and understudied archive, nuanced textual readings, and sustained attention to the sensory modes of engaging with language allows [Vernacular English] to prise open the political and affective terrains of English in India.

"---Navaneetha Mokkil, South Asia

"A notable addition to existing historical, cultural, and literary scholarship that problematises the singularity of the English language and pays attention to the blurriness between the local and the global."---Shwetha Chandrashekhar, South Asian History and Culture

"One of the most fascinating studies on translation andextra-translational ways of perception. . . . Saxena succeeds to offer a relatively deeper and fresher view on theconstruction of the Anglophone that has lately become a homogenous term for global politics."---Ayan Chakraborty, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics

"Saxena stretches out her net to bring in not just everyday Indians but all those assailed by a brutal state and needing a medium to express their pain."---Peggy Mohan, The Wire

"Saxena's study of different domains toward the co-optation of English as an instrument of empowerment makes the concept of 'Vernacular English' a good alternative to the accepted mindset that English is a language of the elites in India."---Soni Wadhwa, Asian Review of Books

About the Author

Akshya Saxena is assistant professor of English at Vanderbilt University.