This study evaluates the importance of language in achieving a sense of national solidarity, considering factors such as territory, religion, race, historical continuity, and memory. It investigates the historical experiences of countries and ethnic or regional minorities according to how their political leadership, intellectual elite, or independence movements answered the question, "Who are we?" The Americans, British, and Australians all speak English, just as the French, Haitians, and French-Canadians all speak French, sharing common historical origin, vocabulary and usage--but each nationality's use of its language differs. So does language transform a citizenry into a community / or is a "national language" the product of idealogy? This work presents 26 case studies and raises three questions: whether the people of independent countries consider language the most important factor in creating their sense of nationality; whether the people living in multi-ethnic states or as regional minorities are most loyal to the community with which they share a language or the community with which they share citizenship; and whether people in countries with civil strife find a common language enough to create a sense of political solidarity. The study also covers hybrid languages, language revivals, the difference between dialects and languages, government efforts to promote or avoid bilingualism, the manipulation of spelling and alphabet reform. Illustrations include postage stamps, banknotes, flags, and posters illustrating language controversies. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

In a context where linguistic and cultural diversity is characterized by ever-increasing complexity, adopting official multilingual policies to correct a country's ethno-linguistic, socio-economic, and symbolic imbalances presents many obstacles, but the greatest challenge is implementing them effectively. To what degree and in what ways have official multilingualism and multiculturalism policies actually succeeded in attaining their goals? Questioning and challenging foundational concepts, Minority Languages, National Languages, and Official Language Policies highlights the extent to which governments and international bodies are unable to manage complex linguistic and cultural diversity on an effective and sustained basis. This volume examines the principles, theory, intentions, and outcomes of official policies of multilingualism at the city, regional, and national levels through a series of international case studies. The eleven chapters – most focusing on lesser-known geopolitical contexts and languages – bring to the fore the many paradoxes that underlie the concept of diversity, lived experiences of and attitudes toward linguistic and cultural diversity, and the official multilingual policies designed to legally enhance, protect, or constrain otherness. An authoritative source of new and updated information, offering fresh interpretations and analyses of evolving sociolinguistic and political phenomena in today's global world, Minority Languages, National Languages, and Official Language Policies demonstrates how language policies often fail to deal appropriately or adequately with the issues they are designed to solve.

INDEX CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 : THE COLONIAL LEGACY CHAPTER 3 : THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT AND ITS LEGACY CHAPTER 4 : THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUTION AND MAIN PROVISIONS CHAPTER 5 : THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CONSTITUTION : BASIC FEATURES AND INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER 6 : THE INITIAL YEARS CHAPTER 7 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION(I) CHAPTER 8 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION (II) : THE LINGUISTIC REORGANISATION OF THE STATES CHAPTER 9 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION (III): INTEGRATION OF THE TRIBALS CHAPTER 10 : CONSOLIDATION OF INDIA AS A NATION(IV) : REGIONALISM AND REGIONAL INEQUALITY CHAPTER 11 : THE YEARS OF HOPE AND ACHIEVEMENT, 1951–1964 CHAPTER 12 : FOREIGN POLICY : THE NEHRU ERA CHAPTER 13 : JAWAHARLAL NEHRU IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE CHAPTER 14 : POLITICAL PARTIES, 1947–1964: THE CONGRESS CHAPTER 15 : POLITICAL PARTIES,1947–1965: THE OPPOSITION CHAPTER 16 : FROM SHASTRI TO INDIRA GANDHI,1964–1969 CHAPTER 17 : THE INDIRA YEARS, 1969–1973 CHAPTER 18 : THE JP MOVEMENT AND THE EMERGENCY : INDIAN DEMOCRACY TESTED CHAPTER 19 : THE JANATA INTERREGNUM AND INDIRA GANDHI’S SECOND COMING, 1977–1984 CHAPTER 20 : THE RAJIV YEARS CHAPTER 21 : RUN-UP TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM AND AFTER CHAPTER 22: POLITICS IN THE STATES (I): TAMIL NADU, ANDHRA PRADESH AND ASSAM CHAPTER 23 : POLITICS IN THE STATES (II): WEST BENGAL AND JAMMU AND KASHMIR CHAPTER 24 : THE PUNJAB CRISIS CHAPTER 25 : INDIAN ECONOMY, 1947–1965: THE NEHRUVIAN LEGACY CHAPTER 26 : INDIAN ECONOMY, 1965–1991 CHAPTER 27 : ECONOMIC REFORMS SINCE 1991 CHAPTER 28 : THE INDIAN ECONOMY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM CHAPTER 29 : LAND REFORMS (I): COLONIAL IMPACT AND THE LEGACY OF THE NATIONAL AND PEASANT MOVEMENTS CHAPTER 30 : LAND REFORMS(II): ZAMINDARI ABOLITION AND TENANCY REFORMS CHAPTER 31 : LAND REFORMS (III): CEILING AND THE BHOODAN MOVEMENT CHAPTER 32 : COOPERATIVES AND AN OVERVIEW OF LAND REFORMS CHAPTER 33 :AGRICULTURAL GROWTH AND THE GREEN REVOLUTION CHAPTER 34 : AGRARIAN STRUGGLES SINCE INDEPENDENCE CHAPTER 35 : REVIVAL AND GROWTH OF COMMUNALISM CHAPTER 36: COMMUNALISM AND THE USE OF THE STATE POWER CHAPTER 37 : CASTE, UNTOUCHABILITY, ANTI-CASTE POLITICS AND STRATEGIES CHAPTER 38: INDIAN WOMEN SINCE INDEPENDENCE CHAPTER 39 : POST-COLONIAL INDIAN STATE AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT: AN OVERVIEW CHAPTER 40 : DISARRAY IN INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNANCE CHAPTER 41 : DAWN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM: ACHIEVEMENTS, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

This volume examines nationhood as a concept and how it became the basis of political discourse in South Asia. It studies the emergence of nationalism in modern states as a powerful, omnipotent, and omnipresent form of political identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book examines the idea of a nation, as it originated in medieval Europe, as an unending process of 'othering' individuals, groups, and communities to establish its hegemony, exclusivity, and absolute power within a political discourse. It sheds light on how these new political frameworks in the name of nationalism resulted in conflicts and bloodshed. It unleashed politics of retribution and facilitated majoritarianism, minority persecution, and collective authoritarianism which devastated individuals and collectivities. Further, the author also discusses various prominent ideas and contemporary theories on nationalism alongside pivotal socio-cultural factors which have significantly shaped the formation of modern nation states and their politics. Topical and nuanced, this book will be indispensable to researchers, scholars, and readers interested in nationalism, political science, modern history, political theory, political philosophy, political sociology, political history, post-colonial studies, and South Asia studies.

A comprehensive and up-to-date study of the major political, cultural and economic changes in India during the past 45 years.

This book is recognized as a classic study both of the politics of language and religion in India and of ethnic and nationalist movements in general. It received overwhelmingly favorable reviews across disciplinary and international boundaries at first publication, characterized as "a masterly conceptual analysis of language, religion, ethnic groups, and nationhood", "a monumental work", "of interest to all political scientists", one that "should be required reading for any politically concerned person" in the United Kingdom (from a TLS review), a work whose "value and importance can scarcely be overstated", with "no competitor in the same class".

A sea change has occurred in the Indian economy in the last three decades, spurring the desire to learn English. Most scholars and media venues have focused on English exclusively for its ties to processes of globalization and the rise of new employment opportunities. The pursuit of class mobility, however, involves Hindi as much as English in the vast Hindi-Belt of northern India. Schools are institutions on which class mobility depends, and they are divided by Hindi and English in the rubric of “medium,” the primary language of pedagogy. This book demonstrates that the school division allows for different visions of what it means to belong to the nation and what is central and peripheral in the nation. It also shows how the language-medium division reverberates unevenly and unequally through the nation, and that schools illustrate the tensions brought on by economic liberalization and middle-class status.