From Yashwant Place to Yashka: a case study of commodification of Russian in India

ABSTRACT

The present paper is a case study of how the commodification of the Russian language has transformed a market in New Delhi, India, inaugurated in 1969 and known as Yashwant Place. Over the years, the market slowly assumed a new identity, referred to as Yashka not only by Russian visitors but also tourists from countries of the former Soviet Union, symbolizing the status it has acquired as a largely Russian (-speaking) place of trade. With the help of ethnographic fieldwork that includes participant observations and interviews, this paper traces the histories of four shops in the market that mainly cater to Russian speakers, examining both how Russian emerged as a language that provides an added value and at the same time ask, which Russian is actually commodified by whom and in which ways. In addressing the histories of the shops, the personal trajectories of salespersons and their motivations to acquire a form of Russian, this paper aims to show the particular conditions and processes that characterize the commodification of languages within specific spaces for limited audiences. This will provide insights into the characteristics of a locally confined ‘Yashka-pidgin' language that emerged as a result of commodification efforts by local entrepreneurs.

KEYWORDS:

• Russian
• language commodification
• India
• Yashka-pidgin
• tourism
• language workers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. http://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/stop-shop-eat-at-yashwant-place/article1-737567.aspx.

2. I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing out that a comparable pidgin language existed (for e.g. Jahr 1996).

3. http://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g304551-d6395174-Reviews-Yashwant_Place-New_Delhi_National. Accessed July 28 2015.