Legitimising Standard Languages

Perspectives from a School in Banaras

This book employs an ethnographic approach to explore the reproduction of class, status, and ethnic identities through the schooling process.

Legitimising Standard Languages: Perspectives from a School in Banaras focuses on the introduction of official languages in schools. The primary objective of this work is to look at the socio-economic backgrounds of administrators, teachers, and students and their families vis-à-vis their influence on the languages in their lives, both in and outside school. It examines how the dominant languages are transmitted, transacted and negotiated in modern institutions.

The author puts forth the cultural consequences of standardising and legitimising languages in educational institutions in a society where variability and diversity have otherwise been the norm.