Description
Book SynopsisExamines a example of linguistic plurality on the island of Mauritius, where more than two-thirds of the population is of Indian ancestry. This study focuses on the formation of diaspora as mediated through the cultural phenomenon of Indian ancestral languages - principally Hindi, which is used primarily in religious contexts.
Trade Review"Through the depth, subtlety and breadth of his intellectual engagement with Mauritius, Eisenlohr establishes himself as one of our leading scholars on South Asia. Empirically rich, theoretically informed, imaginative, nuanced, and powerfully argued, Little India should transform how we think about language ideology, quotidian and ritual practice, and the complex intersections of national and transnational politics of culture." - Don Brenneis, Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz"
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration and Orthography Introduction 1. Creole Island or Little India? The Politics of Language and Diaspora 2. An Indo-Mauritian World: "Ancestral Culture," Hindus, and Their Others 3. Social Semiotics of Language: Shifting Registers, Narrative, and Performance 4. Colonial Education, Ethnolinguistic Identifications, and the Origins of Ancestral Languages 5. Performing Purity: Television and Ethnolinguistic Recognition 6. Calibrations of Displacement: Diasporization, Ancestral Language, and Temporality Conclusion: Time, Technology, and Language Notes References Index
