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This paper explores the evolution of the postmodern novel in Indian writings in English, with a specific focus on The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor. Through a close analysis of the novel's themes, structures, and techniques, the paper argues that The Great Indian Novel represents a significant shift in the trajectory of Indian literature, moving beyond the constraints of colonial and nationalist narratives. Drawing on the theories of postmodernism and postcolonialism, the authors examine how Tharoor's novel challenges traditional notions of history, identity and power, and instead offers a complex and nuanced vision of India's past and present. The study also considers the reception of The Great Indian Novel, both within India and abroad, and discusses its impact on the broader field of Indian literature. Overall, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the postmodern novel in India and its role in shaping contemporary literary discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies and Rishi Jheengun's Untangling the Knot: Tribulations and Legacy of a Coolie to critically study the lives of the people who migrated from India to Mauritius as indentured laborers, alternatively known as 'coolies' or 'girmitiya.' The two works heavily draw from archival record and anthropological data, while also portraying elements such as religion, folklore, and culture as integral parts of indentured lives. Using critical discourse analysis, this paper employs religion as a tool for investigating the girmitiya migration and their identity formation. Further, it uses Counted and Zock's idea of place spirituality and Sunden's roletaking theory to understand the role of religion in the journey across the Kala Pani. In the process, the paper also attempts to analyze the role and significance of the Ramayana in the construction of the identity of the girmitiya and their succeeding generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a detailed analysis of the visual imagery as well as the verbal mode of narration, in Sarnath Banerjee’s Graphic narrative All Quiet in Vikaspuri, the study suggests that the water-deprived, postapocalyptic world that Banerjee reflects, is a spitting image of the Anthropogenic water crisis in India. Drawing theoretical insights from Madhav Gadgil, Ramachandra Guha and Dipesh Chakrabarty, the paper attempts to suggest the “Great Indian Water Crisis” is fueled by “short-termism,” increased corporate privatization of water, myopic government development policies and erection of dams and other capitalist structures. The paper also aims to uncover how sociopolitical “slow-violence” is rendered to the natural resources under the garb of “Vikas” (development) and privatization. By contriving the narrative around the quest for the river Saraswati, Banerjee draws attention to the ever-so-real issue of groundwater overextraction in India, leading to its dipping levels and in turn, depletion. Further, the paper argues that “intermediality” of graphic narration abets Banerjee to cater to “the representational challenges” of the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By situating the problematics of Global English in the context of India's decolonization--a nation, which according to the 2011 census, has only 10 percent English speakers--the paper highlights the flawed postcolonial epistemology and the way it ignores the alternative knowledge traditions available in other languages. It also attempts to raise and examine questions on the role of the remaining 90 percent of the population and the way they imagine and construct the postcolonial India. What role do these large sections of the Indian population have, if any, in registering their voices to narrate the nation? What kind of resistance strategies are needed to counter this Euro-centric hegemony? Set against the backdrop of such pressing questions, the paper suggests that one needs to fervently engage with and reinvent ways to energize the rich Indian traditions available in languages other than English. The paper argues for an imperative need to contextualize new methodology and pedagogy to offer resistance to the English hegemony and for a more effective cognitive decolonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lexical Richness (LR) is a scarcely researched subject in India. The objective of this paper is twofold: (i) To statistically inquire whether LR varies across three multimodalities: visual-only, audio-only, and audio-visual; and (ii) To see which of the two measures of LR (MATTR and Guiraud) is independent of text length and is best suited for short oral productions. 270 students across three types of schools were examined, out of whom 100 willingly completed all three oral tasks. The students were asked to retell the stories transacted in each modality in their own words. Randomization of sampling is done to mitigate the confounding modality bias. Additionally, the genre and parts of the storyline in each modality are similar. The students' oral speech samples were recorded, transcribed and analyzed on WordCruncher and TextElixir software. The results revealed that there is statistically significant variance among the modalities. Furthermore, the Moving Average Type Token Ratio (MATTR) is seen to be independent of text length compared to Index of Guiraud. This study also throws light on the observations made during the study, pertinent issues in the field of education, and future directions for research on LR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, notions of gender fluidity and gender inclusion have replaced the conventional understanding of the dichotomy of gender due to an upsurge in studies on transgender people that seek to expand our conceptualizations about them. India's Supreme Court has given the third gender status to the transgender community in the country, advocating their inclusion in colleges and universities. However, little literature exists on how the mainstream students perceive and understand the transgender people. This paper seeks to bridge this gap by presenting a critical analysis of the responses of students to a text about a transgender person. Drawing on Fairclough's approach, it highlights how the students process notions about transgender people, sexual identities, and their roles. Most studies in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) neglect the role of text consumption, treating readers as passive and gullible. This paper argues against such notions by examining how transgender persons are discursively constructed through the students' responses and how the respondents analyze, support, challenge, and question the conditions of the transgender people, normative ideologies about gendering, and social practices at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, English occupies the position of a foreign language and is taught in many schools as a second/third language. However, a lot of importance is attached to the mastery of English, and it is necessary to determine the status of mastery of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW) skills and the lacunae, if any. Of all the skills, writing is the most used skill by students pursuing higher education. This paper aims to find out the status of the overall writing ability and its elements in students studying English as a Foreign/Third Language. It also aims to diagnose the lacunae in the writing ability of the students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The variables selected were gender, type of school (government/private) and medium of instruction. The results showed that there was no difference in students’ writing ability based on gender. The writing ability of private school students was better than that of government school students, and the writing ability of English medium students was better than that of Urdu and Telugu medium students. There was no significant difference in the writing ability of Urdu and Telugu medium students. In India, English occupies the position of a foreign language and is taught in many schools as a second/third language. However, a lot of importance is attached to the mastery of English, and it is necessary to determine the status of mastery of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW) skills and the lacunae, if any. Of all the skills, writing is the most used skill by students pursuing higher education. This paper aims to find out the status of the overall writing ability and its elements in students studying English as a Foreign/Third Language. It also aims to diagnose the lacunae in the writing ability of the students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The variables selected were gender, type of school (government/private) and medium of instruction. The results showed that there was no difference in students’ writing ability based on gender. The writing ability of private school students was better than that of government school students, and the writing ability of English medium students was better than that of Urdu and Telugu medium students. There was no significant difference in the writing ability of Urdu and Telugu medium students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has over the years earned the reputation of being the first country in the world to impart sex education. However, in the present time when the whole world is gradually becoming aware of and open towards the idea of alternate sexuality, in India, still people with discursive sexualities are treated with contempt and derogatory comments. This paper analyzes the condition of alternate sexuality in pre-colonial India and elucidates how the Victorian notion of culture and civilization has hampered the growth of discursive identities in India. With reference to Mahesh Dattani's famous play On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, it delves deep into the historicity and dynamics of gay personalities in India and outlines the different camouflaging techniques adopted by them in order to conspicuously mingle with the largely heterosexual Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars predominantly read the ongoing secessionist movement in India's Nagaland state as a characteristic representation of the nationstate formation process in a postcolonial world, simultaneously presenting the Naga militants as subjects devoted to exclusively achieving political independence. Against this totalizing narrative, this paper focuses on Easterine Kire's novel Bitter Wormwood to systematically criticize the sophisticated academic generalizing of all insurgents as politically motivated to prevent the Naga ethnic group from subsuming into post-independence India. For this purpose, this investigation will particularize the protagonist Mose's moral ideal that obliges him to join the Naga armed separatist organization, the same virtuous principle that later paradoxically engenders agonizing guilt within him for his association with the militants. By scrutinizing this apparent contradiction in his superego, this study foregrounds Mose's heroic death epitomizing Friedrich Nietzsche's notion of a guilt-ridden individual making amends as per the creditor-debtor paradigm. Locating Mose's demise within this unique Nietzschean perspective would establish that he becomes a militant to uphold his moral beliefs exclusively and not due to a political stimulus. This analytical thrust on Mose's moral sense rescues him from getting pigeonholed as an exemplar of postcolonial Naga identity politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the history of research as well as contemporary trends in higher education in India reveals the predominance of scientific research. Public policies, developmental strategies, and market forces often determine the nature and output of research in humanities and social sciences. Research in literatures, languages, and media needs articulation—a process that reveals the significant interdisciplinary interventions that can be brought to the process of research and highlights the need for purpose-driven “research as research” rather than need-based “research for research.” This paper offers a critical overview of the role of research in universities in India, contemporary approaches to research at the national level, and the need to engage in interdisciplinary, collaborative, and action-based research, especially in humanities and social sciences departments in universities across India. Further, the paper offers a few examples of interdisciplinary and collaborative research to highlight the need for a symbiotic approach to academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for technology in classrooms, particularly language classrooms, was envisaged way back in the 1970s, and ever since there has been attempts to blend socio-constructivist theories of language learning using a technological interface. The last decade witnessed an unprecedented digital penetration across the world, resulting in demand for agility in approach and outcome-driven curriculum. This led to revisions in classroom pedagogy, pedagogic principles, and the concept of classroom itself. Digital revolution in India coincided with economic liberalization and attempted to update the curriculum to achieve global standards. In fact, in the urban quarters of the nation, the classrooms have been growing smarter with learners having access to worldwide information network and teachers acting more as facilitators than sources of information. However, the needs and readiness of learners are as diverse as the vast socio-geography of the nation. This paper probes into the diverse learning contexts of India and analyzes the technological intervention in the language classrooms. Discussing the manifold challenges to be overcome at every level, the paper surveys the effectiveness of Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL) in the Indian context and studies its future scope in transforming the education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on travel writing in India are gaining momentum currently. People traveling to the nooks and corners of India or abroad and exploring geographies and ethnicities with their customized itineraries, visions and missions, and perspectives, are adding to its blossoming. The socioeconomic and political constraints of the past that hindered travels and writings consequent to them, are fast diminishing in the globalized world with increased knowledge, technology, awareness and above all, appetite for exploration. Overcoming the taboo and stigma attached to traveling and anxieties of physical discomforts, the travel enthusiasts are gauging the width and length of the evolution of the human race on earth. Deepankar Aron's travelogue is a tribute to the deep cultural connect that India shared with China and East Asia along the silk route, evident through similarities in manners of worshipping, ceremonies, customs, grottoes, cave temples, and of course statues of the omnipresent Buddha. The paper identifies the canons intrinsic to travel writings with Deepankar Aron's On the Trail of Buddha: A Journey to the East as its primary source for discussions, and argues why travel writing must be included in curricula alongside core literature courses in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English speakers from native English-speaking countries have a very attractive way of delivering their speech and have a good grip on the language. The reason is, the pronunciation they use has the right kind of effect on the listeners, especially for nonnative English-speaking countries. While in native English-speaking countries, the English LSRW skills come naturally to the speakers, the nonnative English speakers have to make efforts to learn and master those skills. Of all, listening and speaking are the first set of skills a child learns. In India, English is a second language, hence learning the right way to speak it requires massive efforts and practice. While learning the English language, one must understand that English as a language has different variations across the world and also there is a vast difference between speaking and writing English. This paper focuses on teaching the English sounds to adult learners in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Education Policy 2020 is notified with an objective to place India as 'knowledge superpower' on the map of the global education providers. The new policy is overhauling the entire Indian education system which includes the primary, middle, high school and higher education. The embedded target of the policy is to make the Indian education competitive with the international education and attract foreign students and impart high quality education on par with the international institutions. Though India has taken some strategic initiatives and education policies pronounced earlier have paved way for qualitative education and liberal approach to the education sector, they have not accomplished the desired results. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has facilitated and opened the education markets for the global players, and the institutions with quality products and services will only survive in the stiff competition. The new education policy has opened discussions and a road map for internationalization of education in India as part of compliance of GATS provisions. This paper provides discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the internationalization of higher education and facilitating the educational institutions towards achieving the goals of the education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significant developments in discourse studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and semiotics, together with the new insights in the fields of conversation analysis have affected our understanding of the way communication works. Translation evolves as a useful test case for examining the role played by language in social life. Translators create a new act of communication out of the existing source text. In doing so, they act as mediators of different languages, cultures, and social conditions, while trying to negotiate the meaning between the source text (ST) and the target text (TT). This paper focuses on this complex process at work by transgressing the disciplinary boundaries of translation to study the relationship between social context and the language activity in which translation takes place. Taking note of the oldest translation practices and the medieval and the translation genre of the present times, an attempt has been made to answer the question as to what a text represents when it is translated, keeping in view a multilingual and multicultural site like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sufism represents the inward or esoteric side of Islam, often contested as an alternate form of Islam. Studies show that the first Sufi to visit India was Mansur al-Hallaj, but this fact is contested as many believe that al-Hujwiri, commonly known as Data Ganj Baksh, was the first Sufi to visit India in the eleventh century. When the Sufi poets from Central Asia arrived in India, the land was already dominated by Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism. Thus, the Islam practiced in this region had already been colored by the local cultural norms. As Ira Lapidus and Ishaq Khan have mentioned, the foreign Sufis formed a body of ulema representing the "normative" Islam or high tradition, while the masses or the common folk followed the Islam of their venerated Sufis, forming another form of Islam, namely, "popular" Islam or low tradition. This created, as Ishaq Khan mentions, a cleavage between the foreign culture and the indigenous culture, which was later on bridged by lesser known Sufi poets across India singing Sufi ideology in the form of folksongs and folktales. This paper studies these lesser known or indigenous Sufi poets who were very popular among the masses but find little mention in the academia. The paper focuses on the literature produced by these Sufis and how they filled the gap between the normative Islam and the popular Islam prevalent among the common people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 crisis is unprecedented in every sphere of life. All businesses hit by Covid-19 have one factor in common: they are all proximate businesses where people come nearer like school education, restaurants, real estate services, and travel and hospitality. Whereas businesses like online education, digital payments, video conferencing, and ecommerce, where the final product is consumed singularly without others' physical presence, have thrived. In addition to these singular businesses, the healthcare products sector and also the innumerable startups which rely on apps and people's immobility have seen exemplary boom. Despite the hardships that the teachers and the students faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, the teachers' resilience and reluctance to submit to the coronavirus has made history in the technology-mediated higher education across the world in general and the Indian subcontinent in particular. This paper deliberates on the innovations and strides made in the language classrooms of the higher education portals during the pandemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During and after the Covid-19-induced lockdown, online teaching has attained an unprecedented status like never before all over the world. Teachers and students have been compelled to fall in line with the new normal of virtual classrooms. Even though many teachers and students have expressed their inconvenience of virtual classrooms, it has become mandatory to adapt their teaching and learning styles to cope with the exasperating times triggered by the coronavirus. The survey presented in this paper was conducted among second and third-year engineering students of a private university in India just before the Covid-19 outbreak. The objective of the survey was to understand which method is more suitable for learning English skills for the engineering students. The students' attitude and perception toward online and teacher-led sessions have been unveiled through qualitative and quantitative data. The participants have weighed the pros and cons of both the methods according to their specific needs, and the results suggest that in order to have a balanced teaching-learning process, the students require both the methods. It has been identified that students' needs play a major role while choosing between online or teacher-led sessions. Though the modern generation relies more on technology, teacher-led sessions have not lost the sheen and are considered an effective way of learning due to various factors such as human interaction, direct guidance, and knowledge-sharing possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, the ethnic population constitutes a significant portion of the sociocultural scenario of the country. Taking into account the cultural, historical, religious, and linguistic heterogeneity of Indian tribes, the largest indigenous community in terms of population is the Santhals. Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, a major contemporary Anglophone Indian writer, who is a Santhal himself, renders the complex struggle of his native culture in his debut novel The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey (2014). The novelist makes a bold attempt to showcase the alleged practice of dahni-bidya by Santhal women and its acceptance by the tribal society. Shekhar deviates considerably from the traditional matrix of stereotypical presentation of women in indigenous literary creations. Instead of socially ostracizing women who cast evil eyes on others, Shekhar undertakes an attitude that neither glorifies nor condemns the social system in which women are either the perpetrators or the victims of witchcraft; rather, he depicts the supernatural beliefs and rituals of his ethnic group to a wider Indian and global audience in a matter-offact manner. The principal characters in his novel are indigenous women who have been projected very realistically with all their virtues, vices, strengths, weaknesses, determination, vulnerabilities, promiscuities, subjugation, and marginalization. The paper embarks on a gendered reading of the novel to study the status of women in the indigenous Santhal community in terms of race, class, gender, and identity. At the same time, it also highlights the celebration of the free spirit and independent identity of women, in spite of their mysterious and terrific association with spirits and apparitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Often migrants are caught between spaces where they live negotiating between their past and present selves. A sense of nostalgia traps them from within, which gets reflected in comparative parameters through their interaction with the new place and culture, through changing frameworks of family and relations, and through varying levels of perceptions. As a social phenomenon, migration gets potent when seen through the perspectives of time, nostalgia, and memory. Temporality hence is closely connected to the understanding of the process of migration. This paper aims to analyze the conditions and situations that the migrants face when aspects of time and remembrance are brought together on a temporal scale of past and present from select migrant narratives of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present status of English as a global language demands a new perspective not only to teaching and learning English in India but also to assessing English proficiency of the learners. In the globalized work culture, engineering graduates' oral proficiency in English ensures their adaptability and career growth. Engendering opportunities for interaction in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classrooms and utilizing the communicative activities themselves for formative and summative oral assessments is proposed in this paper, because only oral assessment could induce the undergraduates to learn to speak in English. Further, it deliberates on dialogic teaching approaches and assessment methodology and tools to fine-tune the oral communication skills of ESP learners in the higher education portals of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1960s, Badal Sircar, one of post-independent India's most prominent playwrights, wrote some serious plays which reflected the sociopolitical turmoil of the contemporary period, emphasizing on the need for a social change. This paper analyzes four plays of Sircar, namely, Evam Indrajit (And Indrajit), Baki Itihas (That Other History), Tringsha Shatabdi (Thirtieth Century), and Shesh Nei (There's No End), in the context of the references made to the prevailing sociopolitical problems of that era and examines how Sircar throws light on the fact that man alone is responsible for bringing destruction to the world and inviting disharmony in his life. It further attempts to establish the fact that through his plays, Sircar intensifies the guilt in man and urges him to take responsibility for the occurrences around him. A study of the selected plays helps understand the emphasis that Sircar puts on the need for a social reformation, which can happen only through the collective efforts of mankind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecocritical tools offer an opportunity to analyze not only literary texts but also other art forms like visual arts, paintings, and sculptures. More than any art form, it is sculpture that has been used most as a propaganda tool. Kings and leaders have erected sculptures of themselves or their ancestors in great numbers. Even greater numbers of sculptures have been carved with a view to propagating religion. Historians today are discovering the hidden messages in sculptures when they examine them with newer tools of analysis. This paper uses ecocritical tools to analyze a sculpture and propounds an oikic interpretation of the sculpture of Mahishasuramardini at Mamallapuram in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comics are conventionally associated with fun and amusement in India. A majority of the people consider comics to be meant only for children. Hence, serious social issues are generally not taken into consideration by the comic writers. A discriminatory and unjust caste system has been prevailing in India for centuries now. Autobiographies, memoirs, novels, and testimonials are often considered suitable genres by Dalit writers to convey their struggle against oppression. This paper attempts to show how comics can be used as a visual form of literature in promoting social and caste equality. Popular comics generally exclude Dalits and other marginalized sections of Indian society. The paper takes a close look at some of the comic issues of Amar Chitra Katha and a few other publications to point out such bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at studying the commonalities between a few famous Shakespeare's characters and Indian mythological figures, proving that human beings share certain common emotions. Of course, literary works reflect contemporary society, but a few gain universality and timelessness; of them are Shakespeare's works and Indian mythological stories. They are replete with various characteristics of man: how moral weakness can possess the mind and lead it to annihilation; and the question of 'moral choice' in all issues and circumstances. In particular, Shakespearean characters like Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, King Lear and Brutus, are noble in nature, yet are destroyed by their own emotional actions which often lead to the destruction of those close to them as well. Here rises a question: What are those emotions? Undoubtedly, the characters become prey to the internal emotions which are called as Arishadvargas (inner enemies), i.e., kama (lust, desire), krodha (anger, hatred), lobha (greed, narrow-mindedness), moha (delusory, emotional attachment), mada (arrogance), maatsarya (envy, jealousy). This paper studies the negative passions of these characters that are responsible for all kinds of difficult experiences and the undoing of their lives as well as their relevance in the contemporary society, underscoring the universality of Shakespeare's works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Scientific and Technical Writing (STW), specifically the technical writing has emerged as an important thrust area of ESP. Unlike the other areas in ESP, STW requires teaching of English language with domain-specific terminology and scientific orientation. This calls for integration of STW in English language teaching which fulfills one of the basic goals of English education in India. The aim of the paper is to discuss appropriate STW curriculum, propose strategies to integrate the domain-specific terminology and to examine the issues related to integration with English language teaching. A review was carried out on STW training programs in India and the results indicate that most of these training programs are at diploma or certificate level and the curriculum, teaching and learning process and evaluation of the training programs seems to be much focused on writing skills. It is suggested that there is a need to stress more on oral skills and focus should be on imparting the domain-specific terminology in STW academic programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with an analysis of how often Indian women writers have been relegated to the limbo while writing a history of the emergence and evolution of Indian short fiction in English, this paper is an attempt to highlight the contribution of Indian women writers in shaping the form of short story as we find it today in India. It takesinto its purview almost all the Indian women writers who have published short story collection/collections in English. This paper focuses mainly on the annotated chronological bibliography of Indian women's short fiction in English as even the information available is scant and therefore, requires a compilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of 'marginal discourse', Dalits, Blacks and women have been frequently and prominently discussed in literature. It is no more a secret that Dalits in India and Blacks in America and elsewhere have been the most exploited, subjugated and oppressed classes. More so, women of these classes, by virtue of their gender, are even worse victims as they suffer double marginalization because of their class/caste/race and gender. The literatures across the globe are full of the images of women who have suffered due to their caste/race and gender. This paper discusses the images of women in Hindi and African American literatures that are culturally divergent, yet same in essence and attitude. By juxtaposing the two, the paper seeks to highlight the prevalence of certain maladies despite all sorts of cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the bilingual factors that affect use of a language among nine science research scholars from India. Although English is the official language and the first language in India, subjects' preference of language is taken into consideration. So this resulted in the subjects' mother tongue being L1 and English being L2. The function of bilingualism is viewed at in an educational context in this paper. Individual differences are also mentioned in terms of the bilingual behavior with regard to motivation, attitudinal behavior, aptitude, language acquisition/learning, learning tools and sociolinguistic awareness. A questionnaire and an informal interview method are adopted to measure the bilingual behavior of the subjects. It is interesting to note that scientists, teachers, peer group/friends are part of the integrative motivation of the subjects, whereas examinations, getting a job, status of English are the source of instrumental motivation to learn the language. Data also reveals the ways subjects have acquired L2 i.e., English. This study has pedagogical implications such as correlation between listening and speaking, between reading and writing, exploiting students' interests to teach various language skills from one source, a need to expose students to various learning strategies to master the basic language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guru-shishya parampara (GSP), a longstanding tradition in Indian education system, emphasizes a spiritual teacher-disciple relationship for knowledge transmission. However, recent changes in Indian education system and rapid sociocultural and economic transformations have significantly altered the dynamics of GSP. This study explores unique tenets of GSP and changes observed in the tradition across ages. Through a systematic literature review, it identifies seven tenets constituting the bedrock of GSP. The study further investigates the transformation of the teacher-student relationship within contemporary Indian campus fictions (ICFs) employing Theme Framework Analysis on five ICFs. The findings suggest that the portrayal of the teacher-student relationship in contemporary ICFs starkly contrasts with ancient and medieval times. This study outlines the tenets of GSP, suggesting a departure from traditional norms. It implies a shift from the prescriptive GSP norm to a reinvented framework, adapting to a fast-paced, consumerist workforce, influenced by ICT and market-driven employability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex Predicates (CPs hereafter) are multi-verbal constructions where Light Verbs (LVs hereafter) play a vital role (Alsina et al. 1997). Dravidian languages spoken in the southern part of India abound in CPs. The semantic and syntactic intricacies of LVs reveal a great deal of combinatorial possibilities with other verbal/nonverbal elements with respect to CP constructions in Telugu. Telugu, a language with rich morpho-syntactic features, has abundant CP constructions in which the LVs exhibit various syntactic and semantic behaviors, some of which are particular to Telugu and some universal in nature. Certain LVs in Telugu can even change the transitive value of the lexical verbs they go with and thus impact the argument structure, which in turn affects the semantic content of the whole CP construction. There is a special account of meanings expressed by LVs of Telugu, which in turn contributes to the study of LVs in particular and to the universal grammar at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, India has woken up to the importance of English Language. In a country as culturally and linguistically diverse as India, English is often seen as a connecting thread. For Indians, English symbolizes better education and better culture. It opens the door to greater job mobility and economic success. To cater to the ever increasing demand for English, a number of "English Medium" schools have sprung up all over the country. However, on a closer look, we see that most of these schools fail to deliver what they promise. What are the reasons that prevent them from doing so? What are the challenges the teachers of English Language face today? What efforts should be made to help them overcome these challenges? These are some of the issues that will be discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edward B Taylor observes, "Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (Jayaseelam, 1999, p. 12). An Indian immigrant who migrates to different countries of the world has to encounter with different cultures; these cultures made India a country of pluralism. Nevertheless, plurality in Indian society is not the result of people moving into India, for India already had intrinsic plurality. The Hindu way of life with its umpteen philosophical systems and immense linguistic and literary diversities has given an Indian the advantage of being absorbed into any country in the world. The migrant cultures have only given the country a unique cultural enrichment that has been mutual. The paper attempts to show how the cultural pluralism which has spread in our country by different ethnic cultures--Jews, Parsis, Afghans and Turks and many more--has given a cultural advantage to our country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For aeons, monsoon rains have been descending in India with an amazing spurt of life-giving energy at the appointed time "like a king in pride of power" duly accompanied by "the lambent flashes of lightning . . .and the reverberating thunder" (RS1 2.1) that is hailed by mankind "as the royal cavalcade is acclaimed / by crowds of suppliants." For, it is on varsha, rain, that "impregnation in the entire universe" rests-varsha makes their "earth a comely courtesan / attired in the green silk of grass / wearing silver ornaments of sprung-up mushroom / ruby of purple colored worm of moist fields" (RS 2.5). For Indians, varsha, as Kalidasa had aptly adored, is "praninam pranabhutah" (RS 2.28)-the lifebreath of all that live. Besides, nothing was so romantic to the Sanskrit poets as the patter of rain shower-an ordered filigree of sound that stirred them to muse. Indeed, India has so much to be thankful to monsoon, for in it, all its existence recycles year after year. This paper is an attempt to trace the evocation of rain in the works of Indian literature like Kalidasa's Ritusamhara and Valmiki Ramayana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a surge in bhakti literature and this is evident from the recent developments in Indian writing in English. Bhakti transcends geographical, sociocultural and literary boundaries and the same can be said about bhakti literature as well. India is known for its spiritual and bhakti culture and tradition. Whenever the balance of the universe is disturbed by external interference from any of its parts, the redeemer, as the power of eternal balancing, appears for the protection of those who are in harmony and the rectification of everything disharmonious. This dharma, i.e., the religion of God, the Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, has survived even as Abrahamic religions and atheism spread across the world in the last 1000 years primarily because of its inherent patriotism. It is on this that the whole idea of the religion is based. The religion treats the nation as mother. The roots of nationalism can be traced to its spiritual and bhakti traditions. In this Kaliyuga, the means attaining salvation is bhakti alone. The aim of the present paper is to outline the relevance of bhakti literature and its implications to nationalism. Further, it discusses the contribution of Kerala's bhakti literature in general and Poonthanam's and Melpathur's literary contribution in particular to Indian nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of establishing national identity in the period soon after de-colonization at the time of setting up Sahitya Akademi has over the years turned outdated and irrelevant. At the time of emergence of India as an independent nation, there was need for asserting cultural homogeneity of the country and that objective was sought to be realized through the awards presented by the Akademi. But as times rolled by, the objective was rarely observed in practice as evident in the works selected for the awards instituted by it. The paper examines three novels selected by the Akademi for its awards: Nirmal Verma's The Last Wilderness (2002), Manik Bandyopadhyaya's The Puppets' Tale (2008) and T S Pillai's Chemmeen (2004). The criterion which determined the quality of the novels was not regional specificity, but their over-reaching literary merit in portraying the cultural ethos specific to their region and language, although they occasionally reach out pan-Indian cultural ambience. The novels exhibit global contemporaneity and transcendental creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postcolonialism is a study of the interrelationship between the colonized and the colonizer. It is a strange relationship that involves resistance, repression, abhorrence, fascination, dependence and independence. While the colonized fight for independence, they also have a habit of aping the colonizers and glorifying them. In India, Vikram Seth has called it 'Anglophilia'. Mahatma Gandhi justifiably pointed out that India literally gave away her independence. The blacks also, for instance, suffer from immense trauma because of the unjustified distinctions created in society on the basis of color, as Fanon has vividly pointed out; but the blacks too are moving into an order of resistance and acceptance that is creating a new translucent mixed society. This paper attempts to study this kind of relationship on the basis of the given postcolonial theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the emergence of popular L1 English nursery rhymes in India. Indian culture, like other Asian cultures, emphasizes relationship building, respecting others and knowing one's position in the great macrocosm of nature and society. Nursery rhymes in L1 Hindi (a national language of India) develop these factors in the Indian child. English L1 nursery rhymes, however popular they might be, showcase a society and culture from which the Indian child is far removed. A cultural disparity is evident when one compares L1 English and L1 Hindi nursery rhymes. Parents in India are increasingly relying on L2 English nursery rhymes which reflect the images that a child can easily assimilate from the day-to-day world. The child can easily relate to what he or she is learning (due to the common gender of the child, gendered pronouns like 'him' will not be used) when the sociocultural elements, which form an important part of the Indian ethos, are incorporated in L2 English acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent years, learner-centric approach to English teaching and learning has gained importance and is in practice. The knowledge and skills perspective of teaching of English and learning has neglected the holistic development of a student. Scholars and educationists have called for a value-based education for the holistic development of a student. Recent reports suggest that there is a shift in value system leading to individualism, ragging fellow students and other forms of negative behaviors among college students, mostly in India. Further, there is a general perception that due to mechanical delivery and evaluation, teaching and learning process is becoming less joyful. In the light of these developments, the paper highlights the necessity for value-based teaching of English for technology and management studies. Further, drawing from the rich scope in English language and literature in imparting values, a framework has been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes an attempt to discuss the growth of English language and analyze its present status, and suggests an acceptable approach for learning English easily. Accordingly, the paper is composed with the thematic framework of providing the conceptual clarity in understanding the language. English, being used in former colonial countries like India, is unquestionably a valuable treasure of British legacy. One can observe that the language is either misunderstood or distorted in many countries due to improper ways of teaching strategies, the mother tongue influence and the conventional methods of training. Therefore, this paper tries to dispel the confusion taking place in knowing the true picture of English language. Simultaneously, it also discusses the evolution of technical English suitable for technology students and tries to present a few innovative techniques for teaching and learning English in an easy way. As a matter of fact, this popular language has become a passport to high society and visa for employability in modern job environment. It is high time the language teachers developed creative methods of teaching English. As the students of engineering colleges and technical institutions tend to think in terms of scientific methods and systematic learning, it is necessary to provide special language learning skills for presenting the concepts in Science and Technology. For this reason, the paper focuses on suggesting better devices for English language teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author makes an attempt to bring Bodo literature from margin to center. Protest and acquiescence are the recurrent themes in Indian literatures. The idea of being an Indian is steeped in heterogeneity which has been our way of life right from the ancient time. The paper does not just focus on Bodo literature; it also shows the various influences which contribute to its making. Search for identity, enlightenment, memory, history and democratic spirit form the central focus of contemporary Bodo literature. Influenced both by Indian and Western poets, Bodo poets, at present, deal with the complex political and social issues. Although Bodo poetry is yet to reach a maturity, the energy with which the poets write shows that they are committed to uphold vision and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of linguistic globalization is much felt in the language use in the domain of electronic devices for communication. The devices used for communication are English-friendly. English as an instrument of knowledge and prestige entered almost all the countries in the world. National seminars, international seminars, conferences, and workshops are being organized in English all over the world. In countries like India, where multilingual scholars interact every day, English plays a vital role of being contact language and link language. As communication is part and parcel of human life, it is also enriched by technological development. There are a number of devices being used to enhance the mode of human communication. It is being realized that English is predominantly used in all these technological devices. Internet, e-mail and Short Message Service (SMS) have become common and normal modes of communication. Computer, mobile phone and digital multimedia all have become part of everyday communication. The present generation finds it easy and convenient to communicate through these media resulting in a change in the traditional mode of communication. Among the various devices used in technical communication, it is the mobile phone that has become quite common and ordinary. Its affordability multiplies the number of users day by day. Many of its users feel uncomfortable if they do not hear their mobile ring tone even for a few minutes. Multiple versions of technologically advanced phones have come into use in the market. As mobile phone has become common and widely used in everyday communication, it is necessary to analyze the role of language used in this device and the impact of this device on language. In this paper, the author has limited his study to the texts of SMS in mobile phones and made a critical analysis of the linguistic features of English from the collected data at phonological, lexical and syntactical levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an exploration to reveal various faces of Delhi presented in Williwam Dalrymple's City of Djinns. Moving from 1984 anti-Sikh riots to the site of Indraprastha, Delhi has undergone many changes and what we see today is the eighth city that has been rebuilt after the destruction and reconstruction of previous faces of Delhi. The study endeavors to examine the effect of Operation Blue Star, anti-Sikh riots and the partition of 1947 on the religious face of Delhi with the help of Puris, the land lords of the author and other migrants from Pakistan. The impact of these riots can still be visualized in the eyes of many Punjabis who had to sacrifice their religious symbols-hair and beard. Many times Delhi had faced this brutality and now in the 21st century it is the New Delhi with its metro and all modern facilities as compensation to what it had suffered in the past. However, aneffort has been made in the study to establish that Delhi is transforming itself in every phase and therefore, it justifies its position as the capital of India. It is a true representative of cultural and religious diversity of India and thus arouses interest of all to probe into it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cater to the evergrowing job market demand for communicative English in the 21st century, Indian universities have modified mostly the General English (GE) courses. This paper studies the GE courses offered in the conventional and professional degree programs in India with the help of some reports of commissions and committees and the past and the present syllabi of some universities in Maharashtra. It is noticed that GE courses offered in the professional degree programs are more updated with respect to the objectives, weightage to communication skills, interactive teaching methods and evaluation procedures. The focus of the GE courses appears to enhance the employability potential of the students studying in professional colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English used in electronic medium has been a frequent issue of discussion for teachers, grammarians and linguists, because the language used in it has many deviations from the traditional language. The individuals who are connected to each other with the electronic medium seem to bring a revolution in communication. As it happened with the emergence of printing technology, radio and TV, many changes are seen with the emergence of Internet and mobile communication too. This paper aims at studying certain significant grammatical deviations in e-English found in the discourses of non-native speakers of English. For this purpose, SMS, e-Mail, chatting and online community messages of Indian users are collected and studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aravind Adiga in his Booker Prize winning novel, The White Tiger, deals, in fictional disguise, with the social structure and relationships, process of social change or the lack of it, and various ills affecting our society. The novel provides samples of gross malpractices in Indian Democracy and society. It is a social criticism focusing on the poverty and misery of India, and its religio-socio-political conflicts, presented through humor and irony. The present paper attempts an in-depth analysis of the social and political resonances in the novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-colonial writers like Rushdie use history as a subject for their fiction. Reclaiming history and retaining certain memories are important for the post-colonial condition. In fact, it is very difficult to draw a line of demarcation between reality and imagination. In Midnight's Children, Saleem Sinai, the protagonist, claims he is central to India and India's history. But the novel is not merely about his story. Saleem's version of hi(story) comes through his own views which he thinks to be authentic. Rushdie depicts an India that is completely diverse where there is no coherent center. India is multiple, fluid and complex and can only be imagined through fragmented memories and histories. The open-endedness of historical 'truth' is the central issue of the novel where the reader is taken to see a nation that is partly brought into existence through a collective fantasy/ imagination. This paper tries to explore how Rushdie in his landmark work, by blending fiction, politics, magic and memory, has taken the reader to a world of imagination where reality appears to be fiction and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kumud Pawde's essay, "The Story of My Sanskrit", is an extract from her autobiography Antasphot. This paper is an attempt to study the social, economic and political implications of untouchability in India after nearly 20 years of independence. This essay is important not only because it is a pioneer in Dalit Feminist Studies but also because it traces the path of a Dalit woman in the public sphere of education and employment. The economic aspect exposes the resistance of individuals at various levels of bureaucracy in implementing the constitutional measures put in place by the Government of India. The pervasive depth and strength of untouchability becomes a reality when Pawde elaborates how even politicians in the highest echelons remain only mute spectators in the face of society's negation of the rights of the Dalits. What is significant about the narrative is the unsentimental and factual tone and the strong sense of individual assertion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of contemporary literary theory in the Indian academy has had its positive impact. However, its entry caused differences of opinions among academics. These disputes enable us to understand the pedagogical implications of theory for the Indian classroom. This paper is a modest attempt at listing those useful implications of theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The passive voice is one of the common grammar topics in the teaching of English. It is often found that the conversion of the active voice into the passive is taught as a mechanical exercise. The functions that the passive performs are not explained to students. As a result, students may not know whether to retain the agent phrase in the passive clause or not. But, as Svartvik (1966) and Kawale (2008) find, the agentless passive is the most common passive type in British English (BrE) and Indian English (IE), respectively. No matter whether the teachers want to teach BrE or standard IE to Indian students, they must not lose sight of the centrality of the agentless passive in their teaching. Students should also be made aware of the functions that the passive performs. Questions on the passive in question papers should also be set with all this in mind. Examination questions on the passive often expect students to think of the active-passive conversion as a mechanical exercise. The nature of evaluation often influences the teaching of the topic concerned. Therefore, the general features of the passive have important implications as far as the teaching and evaluation of this topic is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]