This article focuses on the ever-increasing stress on multilingual education (MLE) in policy documents, especially its pairing with mother tongues in education (MTE). This focus brings into relief the relationship between MTE, the preservation of linguistic diversity and social democracy. We argue that the outcome of this relationship crucially…

In the immediate aftermath of Indian Independence in 1947, there was a palpable attempt to replace English with Hindi and other Indian languages to unleash the processes of decolonisation. English was castigated as the language of the British Empire and was seen to be the basis of power and privilege for a handful of English-educated elites. A new…

The spread of English as a global language has sparked debate over how language should be taught and learned and the optimal connection between traditional and Global Englishes (GE) approaches to teaching English as a second/foreign language. According to the GE approach, teaching and learning English might focus more on different contexts than…

The paper examines how new age pedagogies and neoliberal policies consciously work towards "naturalizing" English language's hegemony in institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in India. An ethnographic study the paper foregrounds the precarious positioning of non-English Indian languages "vis-à-vis" the pervading discourses of…

Drawing from the rich cultural heritage and diverse historical contexts of Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, we examine how teachers adapt traditional and modern pedagogical methods in response to linguistic and cultural diversity. Colonial legacies in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, along with Nepal's shifting sociopolitical climate, offer insights…