Vernacular English

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the use of the English language in India, considering its story as the story of a people's vernacular in a postcolonial democracy. It defines vernacular English before tracing the history of the legislative adoption of English in India. Now more than ever in India, English is seen on bureaucratic documents, billboards, clothing, and storefronts—and heard in political slogans, classes in spoken English, and Bollywood films. This economy of literary, sonic, and visual English across languages and media—its use by people outside of traditional privileges of class, urbanism, and education—diminishes the authority of English as a language of global and colonial power. With such profound ubiquity, English demands newer ways of reading and conceptualizing language and power. The chapter explains that this book follows how English lives in other Indian languages and media, such as Hindi literature, bureaucratic documents, language legislation, Bollywood and international films, and public protests.