Language, Identity, and Power in Modern India
Gujarat, c.1850-1960
Abstract
This book is a historical study of modern Gujarat, India, addressing crucial questions of language, identity, and power. It examines the debates over language among the elite of this region during a period of significant social and political change in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Language debates closely reflect power relations among different sections of society, such as those delineated by nation, ethnicity, region, religion, caste, class, and gender. They are intimately linked with the process in which individuals and groups of people try to define and project themselves in response to changing political, economic, and social environments. Based on rich historical sources, including official records, periodicals, literary texts, memoirs, and private papers, this book vividly shows the impact that colonialism, nationalism, and the process of nation-building had on the ideas of language among different groups, as well as how various ideas of language competed and negotiated with each other. Language, Identity, and Power in Modern India: Gujarat, c.1850–1960 will be of particular interest to students and scholars working on South Asian history and to those interested in issues of language, society, and politics in different parts of the modern world.
Keywords
Young Men; Gujarati Language; Gujarati; Common Language; Indulal Yagnik; Gujarati Speakers; Hindi Sahitya Sammelan; Nagar Brahmans; Gujarati Elite; Samyukta Maharashtra; Gujarati Literature; Western Nationalism; Vice Versa; High Caste Hindus; Indian People; Linguistic Provinces; Modern Languages; Linguistic Maps; Modern Gujarat; Bombay City; Bombay State; Pradesh Congress Committee; Female Training College; States Reorganisation Commission; Swaminarayan SectDOI
10.4324/9781003177166ISBN
9781000468588, 9781032565514, 9781000468595, 9781032009247, 9781032011066, 9781003177166, 9781000468588Publisher
Taylor & FrancisPublisher website
https://taylorandfrancis.com/Publication date and place
Oxford, 2022Imprint
RoutledgeSeries
Routledge New Horizons in South Asian Studies,Classification
Asian history
Regional / International studies
Politics and government
Social and cultural history
Sociolinguistics
Social and cultural anthropology
Sociology
Ethnic studies