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Diglossia

In this section I will focus on one factor, that of diglossia, to illustrate how by deliberately turning its back on its own indigenous values about language, India's policy planners caused chaos in post-Independence language policy. Diglossia as a concept and as a feature of language has been well-known since at least the appearance of Ferguson's seminal article (1959) and an extensive literature on the subject attests to its widespread manifestation in the languages of the world, not the least of which is India, classical and modern. To me it is clear that diglossia is so deeply rooted in Indian culture that it is not only probable that we will find it no matter which language we look at, it is almost an inevitable feature of the Indian linguistic scene. I have claimed before (Schiffman 1978) that diglossia is rooted in a concern for purity that is parallel to, if not related to, the purity/pollution complex. I would now expand this to say that it is rooted in Indian linguistic culture (witness Deshpande above) per se. It is not just a concern for purity, but for purity of language(s) as a way of maintaining the purity of the channels for the transmission of culture. But the underside of diglossia is that all sorts of things are allowed outside the arena of pure things, as long as they are not dignified by any attention being paid to them.


next up previous contents
Next: Diglossias of various types. Up: Language in Ancient India Previous: Language in Ancient India
Harold Schiffman
12/8/2000