[Linganth] Leya Mathew's new book

[Ilana Gershon]

Dear Colleagues,

Leya Mathew discusses her book, *English Linguistic Imperialism from Below:
Moral Aspiration and Social Mobility *with Shavani Nag on CaMP anthropology
blog today.

The book was published earlier this month, so I am especially pleased to
have an author interview so soon after publication on the blog.


https://campanthropology.org


Best,

Ilana

Press blurb: Imperialism may be over, but the political, economic and
cultural subjugation of social life through English has only intensified.
This book demonstrates how English has been newly constituted as a dominant
language in post-market reform India through the fervent aspirations of
non-elites and the zealous reforms of English Language Teaching experts.
The most recent spread of English in India has been through low-fee private
schools, which are perceived as dubious yet efficient. The book is an
ethnography of mothering at one such low-fee private school and its
neighboring state-funded school. It demonstrates that political economic
transitions, experienced as radical social mobility, fuelled intense desire
for English schooling. Rather than English schooling leading to social
mobility, new experiences of mobility necessitated English schooling. At
the same time, experts have responded to the unanticipated spread of
English by transforming it from a second language to a first language, and
earlier hierarchies have been produced anew as access to English
democratized.
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