“Who Does She Think She Is?”—Vernacular Medium and Failed Romance

Abstract

Through a close analysis of an Indian woman's unsuccessful romance narrative, this article examines how class-based ideologies and prejudices concerning English and vernacular medium education sustain and perpetuate dismissive and disparaging attitudes toward people educated in the vernacular. The analysis utilizes theoretical understandings of difference as delineated in the work of Bakhtin (Holquist, 2002), Said (1978/1994), and Hall (1996) to examine the narrator's self-construction of a former marginalized identity. This construction, emanating from her Hindi medium education, is fashioned in relation to the elite linguistic and class-based ideologies articulated by narrated characters that belong to a higher socioeconomic background than the narrator. Additionally, the analysis reveals the hegemonic internalization of these discriminatory ideologies by the narrator. The study is situated in a north Indian city and is based on interview data collected for a larger project wherein 19 women narrated how their medium of education impacted their lives.

Keywords:

• medium of education
• language ideologies
• narratives
• identity

Notes

¹All names are pseudonyms.

²In India there is a deeply entrenched, centuries-old tradition of arranged marriages whereby the families of the bride and groom arrange “suitable” marriages based on compatibility of religion, caste, socioeconomic status, age, and so on. Although many young, especially urban Indians are increasingly marrying people of their own choice, the majority of marriages are still arranged. Additionally, given the patriarchal nature of Indian society, particularly at the north Indian site of this study, the groom's family has traditionally wielded the upper hand in such marriage negotiations.