An English Made in India: How a Foreignanguage Becameocal

In An English Made in India, the author delves into the various aspects of Indian English— asingua franca, colonial bequest, theanguage of the elite and those who aspire to elite status. She explores the Englishanguage’s earliest influences on Indiananguages (and vice versa), the evolution of Indian English after independence and the way theanguage is spoken today. She talks to people from different parts of the country to create a colourful portrait of the ways in which the Englishanguage has influenced different segments of Indian society. The book is an entertaining narrative about the myriad Indianisms to be found in the English used by aarge percentage of Indians; the growing importance of Indian English in a world of many Englishes; the ongoing tussle between the elite who speak the King’s English and those who speak in their mother tongue or mother-tongue-accented English; the effect of the IT boom on global English; and the changing attitudes of young Indians towards aanguage introduced by the Raj hundreds of years ago.