ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dynamics of linguistic hegemony in higher education. It is premised upon the survey conducted in 2016 at a metropolitan university in Delhi, the capital city of India, by the Progressive and Democratic Students’ Community (PDSC). This chapter exposes the undercurrents which divide the process of knowledge-production among the diverse segments of students in university classrooms in a metropolitan context. For analytical purposes, this chapter is divided into three parts. The first section demonstrates the data gathered through the field survey and explains the details of the observations. The second section deals with the place of the university in the prevailing neoliberal conjuncture. The last section discusses the implications and results of this study and in the process, I endeavor to theorize the role English plays in producing hurdles to inclusive pedagogical practices and knowledge-transaction within university classrooms. In this section, I also contextualize the testimonies conducted during the field survey. Broadly, this chapter unpacks the hegemonic and exclusionary character of English-medium education in the metropolitan city of Delhi.
