Diversity Management and the Presumptive Universality of Categories: The Case of the Indians in Singapore

Autor/inn/en	Jain, Ritu; Wee, Lionel
Titel	Diversity Management and the Presumptive Universality of Categories: The Case of the Indians in Singapore
Quelle	In: Current Issues in Language Planning, 20 (2019) 1, S.16-32 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Jain, Ritu)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1747-7506
DOI	10.1080/14664208.2018.1503386
Schlagwörter	Indians; Foreign Countries; Language Planning; Ethnic Groups; Cultural Pluralism; Immigration; Educational Policy; Indo European Languages; Urdu; Dravidian Languages; Language Usage; Language of Instruction; Language Role; Foreign Policy; Case Studies; Multilingualism; Government School Relationship; Second Language Learning; English (Second Language); Second Language Instruction; Native Language Instruction; Singapore + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Inder; Ausland; Sprachwechsel; Ethnie; Kulturpluralismus; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Indoeuropäisch; Sprachgebrauch; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache; Außenpolitik; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Mehrsprachigkeit; Multilingualismus; Zweitsprachenerwerb; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Native language education; Muttersprachlicher Unterricht; Singapur
Abstract	Increasing societal and linguistic diversity poses significant challenges to formative categories of language policies. We make this point via an examination of Singapore's management of its most linguistically diverse ethnic group, the Indians. While heterogeneity has always been Singapore's defining feature, the nature and scale of recent immigration have resulted in an unprecedented societal complexity. The government's appreciation of this complexity among the Indians has led to a relaxation of the education policy by which five other Indian languages (Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu) serve as possible alternatives to Tamil (the officially assigned ethnic mother tongue). However, speakers from these other Indian language communities often prefer Hindi over alternatives. The growing prominence of Hindi illustrates that progressive policies can nonetheless be subverted by the very groups they seek to empower. We analyze this policy predicament, tracing the roots of Singapore's language policy to categories inherited from British colonialism. Consequently, contemporary tweaks to the policy leave unchallenged the presumptive universality of these categories. Calling for consistent attention to the situatedness and provenance of all categories (northern as well as southern), we close our paper with a description of what Singapore's language policy vis-à-vis the Indian communities would look like from a decolonial perspective. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01