ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the spread of neoliberal doctrines in the 1980s and the liberalization of the Indian economy have contributed more to the current dominance of English in India than its colonial legacy. Secondly, the chapter outlines how the English-vernacular binary, which invests the latter with ‘native’ authenticity in opposition to English as a permanently ‘colonial’ and non-native language, mystifies and disguises the crucial aspects of the sociolinguistic situation and politics of language in India. The chapter concludes by considering how we might move beyond the English-vernacular binary in India. It considers how English has progressive potential as a global language, and it argues that while the spread of English as a global language can be correlated with globalization and its inequalities, English is not in and of itself an actual cause of these inequalities. Positing English as a cause of these inequalities has negative consequences for our understanding of material structures of domination and oppression.
