Language, education and identities in plural Mauritius: a study of the Kreol, Hindi and Urdu Standard 1 textbooks

Abstract

The present study was carried out in the context of the recent (2012) introduction of Kreol in the primary school curriculum in Mauritius. The time-tabling of Kreol as an optional subject offered at the same time as the other existing ancestral languages, institutionalised Kreol as an ancestral language, despite its status as a national language. The aim of the study was to investigate the ways in which the Standard 1 Kreol textbook reveals or reflects the ancestral identity that it has been institutionally assigned. In order to do so, a comparative perspective was adopted: the Standard 1 Kreol textbook was compared with the Standard 1 Hindi and Urdu textbooks, given that Hindi and Urdu are long established ancestral languages. A social semiotic analysis of the textbooks indicates that each textbook mediates ethno-religious discourses in varying ways and to varying degrees. It is argued that while changes in language policies and curricula open up ‘implementational and ideological spaces’ (Hornberger, N.H. 2002. “Multilingual Language Policies and the Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Approach.” Language Policy 1: 27–51), textbooks can be seen as one such space within which identities are maintained, (re)defined or resisted. As an ‘implementational and ideological space’, the textbook is historically, socio-culturally and politically embedded, shaped and constrained.

Keywords:

• language-in-education
• textbooks
• ancestral languages
• identities

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Ms Nabiilah Khan, Ms Tejshree Auckle and Mr Sanju Unjore for their help with translating and their insightful comments while doing so. The analysis included herewith is the author's analysis.

Notes

1. Arabic has always been the religious language of Mauritian Muslims. However, in the 1980s, it was claimed or ‘imagined’ as an ancestral language of Mauritian Muslims (cf. Hollup 1996).

2. There were indentured labourers who were from the South of India and they spoke Tamil and Telugu. According to Eriksen (1997), there are 7% of Tamil-speaking Hindus and 2.5% of Telugu-speaking Hindus. In this paper, I focus on Hindi-speaking Hindus and not on Tamil- and Telugu-speaking Hindus.

3. In the nineteenth century, there had been resistance on the part of colonial officials to teach ancestral languages in the schools. This was matched by the Indian indentured labourers’ resistance to trust their children to colonial schools. The labourers rather opted for vernacular education in peripheral religious-education institutions such as baitkas and madrassahs where Hindi and Urdu were taught alongside religious teachings (Ramdoyal 1977).