LANGUAGE PLANNING IN MULTILINGUAL SINGAPORE : LESSONS FROM THE ETHNIC PERIPHERY

Abstract

In the last decade or so, five minority South Asian languages in Singapore appear to be undergoing some form of resurgence. Among the Bengali, Gujerati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu speakers, there is a sense of new-found confidence in their distinct ethnic-cultural identities and they have initiated formal ethnic language instruction which has successfully drawn an increasing number of school-going children, aged from 6 to 18. This phenomenon is unique in two respects. Firstly, Tamil is the officially endorsed language of 'Indian' representation in Singapore. Secondly, by virtue of their demographic size, these five language communities are really at the ethnic periphery in a society dominated by the Chinese, who constitute more than 75 percent of the national population. This dissertation seeks to establish that the happenings within these five Non-Tamil South Asian (NTSA) language communities reveal penetrating insights into the nature and role of official language planning in Singapore. The planning enterprise does not, of course, restrict itself to only the area of managing the multilingualism and English-knowing bilingualism it has defined for the society, but is intimately related to the maintenance of socio-ethnic balance as well as consolidation of socio-ideological stability. As it will be argued, larger social forces characterised by hegemony and negotiation centrally determine the local Indian community's positional standing in the larger society. At the same time, these forces also shape the dynamics of interaction between the different South Asian ethnies within the Indian sector itself. Official policies and statements pertaining to language, language education, culture and socio-ethnic relations spanning more than three decades will be analysed to uncover the realities and relationships they define for not just the South Asian minorities but the populace in general. Findings from the field research, which includes detailed interviews with individuals from the different Indian ethnic communities, will also be presented to get at the "insiders"' views on things. Of significance here is the involvement of the middle-class, English-educated ethnic community leaders, who are prepared to secure for themselves and their communities privileges otherwise overlooked by the official policies. Equally significant too is the process by which they go about their negotiation, which is motivated by resistance against the Tamil language and culture but also by careful accommodation to the boundary markers set down by the official polices. The lessons drawn from the Singapore context have important theoretical implications as well. It will I hope, become clear that since language development is closely interwoven with issues of ideology and power relations, theoretical frameworks that overlook the processes of power negotiation, whether at the macro sociolinguistic or micro sociolinguistic level, renders them explanatory inadequate. While it is not the purpose of this dissertation to conceptualise a metalinguistic theory that can effectively account for the fundamental issues it seeks to deal with, it will point the directions which such a theory needs to take.