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Issues in the study of bilingualism and multilingualism in India and Pakistan are examined, including the delineation of linguistic boundaries, defining a society that is multicultural and yet has developed a "communication ethos" based on a core of common experience, the difficulty in interpreting language role and defining language usage in a multicultural area, the relationship between language identity and communication, definition of bilingual identity, and the role of the government and language elite(s) in language identity. Three indexes of prominent language pressure that affect language use in a given area are described: the state language pressure index; Hindi-Urdu pressure index; and English pressure index. It is concluded that the Indian experience suggests that a genuine understanding of multicultural societies will be guided largely by viewing language as a synergistic network inspiring trust in cross-cultural settings while empowering the particular. Contains 38 references. (MSE)

Examines the use of English in urban India, with specific focus on the three domains of mass media, print, television, and advertising. Points to the emergence of Angrezi, which can potentially take a divergent path as an Ausbau language different from the global English. Brings under discussion interesting examples of bilingual and biscriptal sensitivity of the Indian educated mind. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on the communicative approach in plurilingual settings and analyzes data from Indian English in the light of the speaker/listener, the task, the context, and other negotiating factors that regulate speech in everyday life. Identifies the complementarity of grassroots English with other Indian languages and its emergence as one of the vital contact languages in plural India. (Author/VWL)

This article discusses the language planning problems that India faces. The distribution and usage of the various languages are outlined. There is considerable linguistic heterogeneity, with 80 languages currently being used as media of instruction at least at an elementary level, and 14 languages being used at the secondary level. Since language has become a political issue, there is a need for legislation determining the role of language in public spheres of communication such as education and administration. The main problems revolve around a confrontation between tradition and modernity concerning the role of language in education. The basic issues concern: (1) the objectives of education, (2) the role of language in education, (3) the choice of the medium of instruction, (4) requirements qualifying a language as a medium of instruction, and (5) the pace of change. The established elite generally opposes the use of regional languages and mother tongues as media of instruction; it fears a lowering of standards and wants languages of wider communication for international interaction. Defenders of the use of regional languages are in favor of cultural regeneration and cohesion at a national level. It is suggested that the implementation of bilingual education at the secondary level would contribute to the solution of India's language problems. (CLK)

In India today, the traditional tolerant attitude toward linguistic and ethnic heterogeneity has given way to a drive for language autonomy. The national language policy appears susceptible to the sensitivities of different pressure groups, while the state policies have been slow to respond to the sensitivities of language minorities. Today, language development agencies insulated from each other by sharp boundaries, all committed to diverse traditions, seem to be pulling in different, at times contradictory, directions in the name of modernization, resulting in discord and tension. Efforts of the national and state governments in shaping language policy are discussed, as well as those of volunteer organizations. The use of the adaptation model, rather than the handicap model, is advocated for language reform. In order to counter the fractionalizing tendencies, it is considered essential to draw upon the traditional virtues of language tolerance promoted through language hierarchy, grassroots multilingualism, and fluidity in speech behavior. (Author/AM)

In the context of language development. experts have suggested taxonomical classifications of sociolinguistic types of languages as tribal, early modern (developing), modern (developed), contemporary, etc. In this taxonomy, linguistic modernization is plotted as "a process the sense of which is to remove the inadequate premodern features from language." But the precise features characterizing inadequacy or modernity in a language system (lexical, syntactic, etc.) are left to subjective evaluation by extra-linguistic dimensions--ecological, social, projectional and so on, which is presented in a tabular form in this article. The South Asian experience provides a unique model of plurality in verbal and non- verbal communications which has withstood the test of time over the centuries. A critical appraisal of these patterns demonstrates the magnitude of functional heterogeneity in language use. Some of the salient characteristics out of which the edifice of linguistic plurality in the Indian subcontinent has been built over the ages are relativity, hierarchy and instrumentality.

This article discusses the ideology of language and language development in India. The roots of intense language controversies in South Asia can be found in the schizophrenic handling of education by the British rulers. Various native pressure groups championing the cause of different languages were mobilized during the nineteenth century largely due to the rulers' policies of arbitrarily distributing favors or prejudices through language concessions or constraints, to bring some order into the chaotic diversity, or at times to serve imperial interests. Various instant, but often vacillating, decisions with regard to language education on the part of British rulers played a vital role in shaking the traditional fluid modes of language loyalty in South Asia. The great debate about language policies among colonial administrators and the native elite for over a century has left a deep imprint on contemporary language ideologies of different nations in the subcontinent. The politicization of the language issue in India during the struggle for independence dominated the medium controversy, pushing into the background the ideological issues concerning the content of education. The demand for vernacularization by the native elite was associated with the cultural and national resurgence, and eventually, with the growth of democracy promoting equality of opportunity through education.

This article attempts to assess the state of sociolinguistics and the sociology of language in India. The multiplicity of Indian languages prevailing in a single federal polity has received considerable attention from many social and political scientists interested in developing nations, particularly from those for whom language identity is very much a part of the identity of a nationality or a nation. In a land populated by 700 million speakers, in various multilingual pockets, scores of small speech groups consisting of a few thousand people still maintain their mother tongues in everyday life. The prevalence of tiny linguistic minorities scattered in small clusters throughout the country exemplifies a degree of tolerance of linguistic and cultural variation in India's history. Sociolinguistics as a discipline can count upon certain advantages from the relatively high degree of formalization and rigor achieved in formal linguistics. However, as of 1984, the social and behavioral sciences have not developed the conceptual tools with which to evaluate social planning strategies. With closer scrutiny of the language-planning processes, one can gain insights into deliberate behavioral change and patterns of areal and social propagation of linguistic innovations.