Language Without Borders

English in the Social Imaginary of Hindi Cinema, 1950–2015

Examines how code-switching, code mixing, and accents reveal class relations embedded in Hindi cinema.

Language Without Borders is the first book-length exploration of code-switching, code mixing, and accents in Hindi cinema. Considering political shifts—from socialism to free-market liberalization—and their manifestations across several decades of Hindi cinema, the book examines the visual and aural representations of English/Englishness in popular films, from Shree 420 to English Vinglish, calling attention to social-class relations embedded therein. Informed by multidisciplinary studies on spectatorship, gender relations, parody, globalization, and language and media relations, the book examines code-switching and code mixing to trace the processes by which English is naturalized in India. Significantly, Indian English accents in cinema reveal an unabashed class consciousness, creating the space for an uncritical acceptance of a staged "Indianness" for domestic and overseas audiences. Joining a broad range of scholarly inquiries into the machination of language systems, the book lays bare the harsh realities of social-class relations.

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