NEITHER HERE NOR THERE: ANALYSING THE POSITION OF MINORITY INDIAN LANGUAGES IN SINGAPORE, 1966-1989

Abstract

Following the implementation of compulsory bilingualism in 1966, it can be deduced that the state assumed a certain level of homogeneity assumed within the three major racial categories (Chinese, Malays and Indians). Though conformity to their assigned mother tongues was hence expected, in practice the uptake of vernacular languages was very different for speakers of minority Indian languages; the government allowed them the choice of any of the three official state languages (Mandarin, Malay and Tamil) as a second language. Despite recognising the linguistic heterogeneity within the Indian community, the government did not resolve the key issue of the lack of second language choices until 1989. Furthermore, having recognised the linguistic heterogeneity, there were no efforts made to encourage the use of the assigned vernacular language amongst the minority Indian language speaking community. It is the purpose of this paper to explore potential explanations for why between 1966 and 1989 there were a) no provisions made to offer minority Indian languages as second languages in schools and b) no provisions made to discourage the linguistic diversity within the Indian community and ensure a general adherence to Tamil as the ‘mother tongue’ of the community.