27.3201, All: Obituary: Braj B. Kachru

Mon Aug 8 14:20:07 UTC 2016

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-3201. Mon Aug 08 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.3201, All: Obituary: Braj B. Kachru

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Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2016 10:19:20
From: Shikaripur Sridhar [s.sridhar at stonybrook.edu]
Subject: Obituary: Braj B. Kachru

A Cultural Warrior Rests His Case 
Braj. B. Kachru

 Linguistics, English studies, and India Studies have lost one of their most
charismatic leaders.  Professor Braj B. Kachru successfully challenged the
orthodoxies of the English establishment on both sides of the Atlantic (the
British Council, TESOL), including the “sacred linguistic cow” of the native
speaker, which looked upon non-native varieties such as Indian English as
erroneous approximations of standard English.    Instead, he argued for a
pluralistic, socially realistic conceptualization, the “Three Circles of
English.” In this paradigm, which has replaced the earlier colonial paradigm,
the English-using world is viewed in terms of three concentric circles:   the
inner circle of the native speaker varieties, the outer circle of second
language varieties, and the extended circle of foreign language varieties.
Through half a century of meticulous scholarship and energetic advocacy,
Kachru demonstrated that the non-native Englishes were rule-governed systems,
shaped by natural evolutionary processes of second language learning and
multilingual creativity, and vibrant expressions of distinct cultural
identities.  As such, he argued, they should not be judged with reference to
native speaker standards.  In the process, Kachru emerged as the world’s
leading authority on all aspects of the use of English as a global language. 
Today, “World Englishes,” the field of study he pioneered and dominated, is a
burgeoning discipline, with a world-wide following.

 Kachru was an influential authority on sociolinguistics, multilingualism,
South Asian linguistics, applied linguistics, and his native language,
Kashmiri, as well.  He wrote well-researched, comprehensive surveys on
language in South Asia for numerous international reference works.  He showed
how South Asian languages have been shaped by a history of multilingual give
and take with one another and with the lingua francas, Sanskrit, Persian, and
English.  There is, therefore, a common core in the sound system, vocabulary,
grammar, and culturally rooted modes of expression, such as greeting, which
bridges the otherwise baffling diversity.  He studied the communicative
rationale for the widespread use of language mixing or hybrid languages (for
example, Hinglish) all across South Asia.  He described choices that speakers
make based on the range of valued roles they make available.  He was concerned
with the “killer” effect of the hegemonic languages on regional, minority and
tribal languages of South Asia.  

 Braj Behari Kachru was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, India, on May 15, 1932.  He
was educated at the University of Allahabad, the Deccan College, Pune, and the
University of Edinburgh.  He was Professor of Linguistics, Jubilee Professor
of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Center for Advanced Study Professor at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He died on 29 July, 2016 at
Urbana.  He was married to Yamuna Kachru, herself an authority on Hindi
grammar and English discourse, honored by the President of India, who died in
2013. They have a daughter, Amita, a physician in Santa Rosa, California, and
a son, Shamit, a professor of physics at Stanford, and two granddaughters,
Sasha and Ila.  

 Professor Kachru authored and edited over 25 books and numerous research
papers. He was author of The Indianization of English, The Alchemy of English,
Asian Englishes:  Beyond the Canon, A Reference Grammar of Spoken Kashmiri, A
History of Kashmiri Literature, and co-author of other important works.  He
edited or co-edited The Other Tongue, The Handbook of World Englishes, World
Englishes:  Critical Concepts, Asian Englishes, Language in South Asia,
Dimensions of Sociolinguistics in South Asia, Issues in Linguistics, Cultures,
Ideologies, and the Dictionary, among other titles, which have become standard
reference works. He was associate editor The Oxford Companion to the English
Language and contributor to the Cambridge History of the English Language, and
other volumes.  The Collected Works of Braj B. Kachru have been published by
Bloomsbury, London, in three volumes so far.  

 With Larry E. Smith of the East-West Center, Honolulu he co-founded and
co-edited the journal World Englishes (now in its 35th year) and co-founded
the professional organization, International Association for World Englishes
(IAWE), serving as its President from 1997-99.  In his vast research,
publication, advocacy, and institution-building enterprises, he worked closely
with his brilliant wife and colleague, Professor Yamuna Kachru.  His other
major collaborators were Professor Kingsley Bolton of Singapore, as well as
many students, who have made their names as distinguished scholars around the
world.  

 Kachru was also a gifted administrator. In a distinguished career spanning
nearly half a century at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one
of the leading public universities in the U.S., he served as head of three
academic units.  Under his leadership (1968-79), the Department of Linguistics
blossomed into a vibrant, multi-faceted research center, and came to be ranked
as the third leading department in the nation.  His pluralistic vision ensured
that its faculty comprised cutting edge Chomskyan theorists as well as
Classical scholars, experts on non-Western languages, Asian and African, and
applied linguists.  He insisted that linguists should address not only the
structural and theoretical aspects of language but also their social and
cultural dimensions.  He encouraged the study of linguistic theory with its
applications to areas, such as, second language teaching, discourse structure,
and analysis of literature.  He championed the teaching and scientific study
of non-Western (Asian and African) languages, and the dynamics of
multilingualism.  Subsequently, as Director of the Division of English as an
International Language (1985-91), he transformed it from a service unit into
an innovative research entity.  Finally, as Director of the university’s
prestigious Center for Advanced Study comprising many Nobel laureates, he
redefined its mission and gave it expanded visibility and influence
(1996-2000).  

 Kachru held many influential offices and received many prestigious honors. 
He directed the Linguistic Institute of the Linguistic Society of America in
1978.; he was Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund Visiting Professor at Hong Kong
University (1998) and a Visiting Professor at National University of
Singapore; an Honorary Fellow of English and Foreign Languages University,
Hyderabad, and President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics
(1984) and the International Association for World Englishes (1997-99). His
book, The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions and Models of Non-Native
Englishes, was conferred the English Speaking Union of the Commonwealth prize
for the best book on English.  He was a sought after Keynote Speaker at
universities and professional conferences all over the U.S, India, and Asia.  

 Professor Kachru was a larger than life figure who left an indelible
impression on everyone he met, from students to luminaries of the field. He
was an encyclopedic and meticulous scholar, a critical but respectful admirer
of tradition, an open-minded integrator of scholarship from every culture,
Asian, African, European, and American, an imaginative institution builder,
and a confident, fearless, visionary intellectual.  He was also an inspiring
teacher, passionate public speaker, a caring mentor, a supporting colleague,
and a charismatic raconteur.  At Urbana, he and Yamunaji were an institution. 
They trained generations of well-rounded linguists. These beloved gurus are
now, in the words of Abhinavagupta, the greatest of Kashmiri scholars whose
millennial anniversary we celebrate this year, kiirti maatra shariira (present
only through their fame), but they will be missed by their world-wide,
extended family of scholars and students.  

-- S.N. Sridhar, Stony Brook University
s.sridhar at stony brook.edu

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Discipline of Linguistics
                     General Linguistics
                     History of Linguistics
                     Lexicography
                     Ling & Literature
                     Pragmatics
                     Sociolinguistics

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