Home English medium education, patriarchy, and emerging social structures: Narratives of Indian women
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

English medium education, patriarchy, and emerging social structures: Narratives of Indian women

  • Priti Sandhu EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 18, 2018

Abstract

This article adopts an intersectional, narrative analytic framework to analyze the autobiographical narratives of five North Indian women and examines how they associate their Hindi medium education (HME) with their socioeconomic marginalization in personal and social domains. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews. Analysis of participants’ stories revealed how they narratively constructed specific worldviews within which they reported multiple subordinations resulting from their HME, their gender, and their location in a traditional patriarchal society increasingly influenced by material considerations. The long-established practice of dowry was re-imagined to include “good” jobs and salaries of prospective brides. These, in turn, were portrayed as crucial for successful marriage negotiations and for agreeable post-marital relationships. The women linked HME to an inability to secure “good” jobs and salaries and thus constructed it as saliently responsible for deepening their gender- and class-based marginalization. Analysis also revealed the varying degrees to which they resisted such subordinations.

References

Annamalai, E. 2004. Medium of power: The question of English in education in India. In James W Tollefson & Amy B. M. Tsui (eds.), Medium of instruction policies: Which agenda? Whose agenda?, 177–194. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Search in Google Scholar

Bamberg, Michael. 2005. Narrative Discourse and Identities. In Jan Christoph Meister (ed.), Narratology beyond literary criticism: Mediality, disciplinarity, 213–237. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110201840.213Search in Google Scholar

Canvin, Maggie. 2007. Language and education issues in policy and practice in Mali, West Africa. In Naz Rassool (ed.), Global issues in language, education, and development: Perspectives from postcolonial countries, vol. 4, 157–186. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853599538-008Search in Google Scholar

Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1989. Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black Feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum vol. 1989, Art. 8. 139–167.10.4324/9780429499142-5Search in Google Scholar

Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1991. Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review 43(6). 1241–1299.10.2307/1229039Search in Google Scholar

Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1997. Intersectionality and identity politics: Learning from violence against women of color. In Mary Lyndon Shanley & Uma Narayan (eds.), Reconstructing political theory: Feminist perspectives, 178–193. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.Search in Google Scholar

De Fina, Anna & Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2012. Analyzing narratives. Discourse and sociolinguisticperspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Derné, Steve. 2008. Globalization on the ground: Media and the transformation of culture, class, and gender in India. New Delhi: Sage.10.4135/9788132100386Search in Google Scholar

Dua, Hans Raj. 1994. Hegemony of English. Mysore: Yashoda.Search in Google Scholar

Garrett, Paul B & Patricia Baquedano-López. 2002. Language socialization: Reproduction and continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology 31. 339–361.10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085352Search in Google Scholar

Giddens, Anthony. 1994. Beyond left and right: The future of radical politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Heugh, Kathleen. 2007. Language and literacy issues in South Africa. In Naz Rassool (ed.), Global issues in language, education, and development: Perspectives from postcolonial countries, vol. 4, 187–217. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853599538-009Search in Google Scholar

Holstein, James A & Jaber F Gubrium. 1995. The active interview. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.10.4135/9781412986120Search in Google Scholar

Kachru, Asha. 2006. Single women: No problem! Challenging Indian realities. New Delhi: The Women’s Press.Search in Google Scholar

LaDousa, Chaise. 2014. Hindi is our ground, English is our sky: Education, language, and social class in contemporary India. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books.Search in Google Scholar

Lauder, Allan. 2008. The status and function of English in Indonesia: A review of key factors. Makara Hubs–Asia (Human Behavior Studies in Asia) 8(3). 9–20.10.7454/mssh.v12i1.128Search in Google Scholar

Lyotard, Jean-François. 1984. The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge (trns. Geoff Bennington & Brian Massumi). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.10.2307/1772278Search in Google Scholar

Massey, Doreen B. 1994. Space, place, and gender. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar

Mishler, Elliot G. 1986. Research interviewing: Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Mohanty, Ajit K. 2006. Multilingualism of the unequals and predicaments of education in India: Mother tongue or other tongue? In Ofelia García, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas & Maria E Torres-Guzmán (eds.), Imagining multilingual schools, 262–283. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853598968-014Search in Google Scholar

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Ann Russo & Lourdes Torres (eds.). 1991. Third world women and the politics of feminism. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Neke, Stephen M. 2005. The medium of instruction in Tanzania: Reflections on language, education and society. Changing English 12(1). 73–83.10.1080/1358684052000340470Search in Google Scholar

Ochs, Elinor. 1997. Narrative. In Teun A Van Dijk (ed.), Discourse as structure and process, 185–207. London: Sage.10.4135/9781446221884.n7Search in Google Scholar

Pavlenko, Aneta. 2007. Autobiographic narratives as data in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics 28(2). 163–188.10.1093/applin/amm008Search in Google Scholar

Pennycook, Alistair. 1998. English and the discourses of colonialism. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Ramanathan, Vaidehi. 2005. The English-vernacular divide: Postcolonial language politics and practice, vol. 49. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853597718Search in Google Scholar

Ramanathan, Vaidehi. 2013. A postcolonial perspective in applied linguistics: Situating English and the vernaculars. In Margaret R Hawkins (ed.), Framing languages and literacies: Socially situated views and perspectives, 83–104. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Rapley, John. 2004. Globalization and inequality: Neoliberalism’s downward spiral. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.10.1515/9781685857301Search in Google Scholar

Rassool, Naz. 2007. Global issues in language, education, and development: Perspectives from postcolonial countries, vol. 4. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853599538Search in Google Scholar

Rassool, Naz & Sabiha Mansoor. 2007. Contemporary issues in language, education, and development in Pakistan. In Naz Rassool ed.Global issues in language, education, and development: Perspectives from postcolonial countries, vol. 4, 218–244. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853599538-010Search in Google Scholar

Roulston, Kathryn. 2010. The reflective researcher: Learning to interview in the social sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Search in Google Scholar

Rubdy, Rani. 2008. English in India: The privilege and privileging of social class. In Peter K. W. Tan & Rani Rubdy (eds.), Language as a commodity: Global structures, local Marketplaces, 122–145. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

Sandhu, Priti. 2010. Enactments of discursive empowerment in narratives of medium of education by North Indian women. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i at Manoa dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Sandhu, Priti. 2014a. The interactional and narrative construction of normative and resistant discourses about Hindi and English. Applied Linguistics 35(1). 29–47.10.1093/applin/ams075Search in Google Scholar

Sandhu, Priti. 2014b. ‘Who does she think she is?’ Vernacular medium and failed romance. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 13(1). 16–33.10.1080/15348458.2014.864210Search in Google Scholar

Sandhu, Priti. 2015a. Resisting linguistic marginalization in professional spaces: Constructing multi-layered oppositional stances. Applied Linguistics Review 6(3). 369–391.10.1515/applirev-2015-0017Search in Google Scholar

Sandhu, Priti. 2015b. Stylizing voices, stances, and identities related to medium of education in India. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 34(2). 211–235.10.1515/multi-2014-1012Search in Google Scholar

Sandhu, Priti. 2016a. Professional identity constructions of Indian women. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Series: Studies in Narrative, edited by Michael Bamberg.10.1075/sin.23Search in Google Scholar

Sandhu, Priti. 2016b. Negative self-categorization, stance, affect, and affiliation in autobiographical storytelling. In Matthew T Prior & Gabriele Kasper (eds.), Talking emotion in multilingual settings, 153–176. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.266.07sanSearch in Google Scholar

Sandoval, Chela. 2000. Methodology of the oppressed. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar

Shamim, Fauzia. 2008. Trends, issues, and challenges in English language education in Pakistan. Asia Pacific Journal of Education 28(3). 235–249.10.1080/02188790802267324Search in Google Scholar

Sinha, Mrinalini. 2012. A global perspective on gender: What’s South Asia got to do with it? In Ania Loomba & Ritty A Lukose (eds.), South Asian Feminisms, 356–374. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.10.2307/j.ctv11g96jz.19Search in Google Scholar

Subramaniam, Mangala. 2006. The power of women’s organizing: Gender, caste, and class in India. Lanham: Lexington Press.Search in Google Scholar

Talmy, Steven. 2011. The interview as a collaborative achievement: Interaction, identity, and ideology in a speech event. Applied Linguistics 32(1). 25–42.10.1093/applin/amq027Search in Google Scholar

Tollefson, James W & Amy B Tsui (eds.). 2003. Medium of instruction policies: Which agenda? Whose agenda? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.10.4324/9781410609328Search in Google Scholar

Vavrus, Francis. 2002. Postcoloniality and English: Exploring language policy and the politics of development in Tanzania. TESOL Quarterly 36(3). 373–397.10.2307/3588418Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2018-08-18
Published in Print: 2018-08-28

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 13.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijsl-2018-0023/html
Scroll to top button