Abstract

The North and South of India were split over English status in the process of framing the Constitution of India. This article focuses on the controversy over English status in independence-era India and reveals the logical structures of “language ideologies” that northern and southern leaders constructed. The analysis shows that the northern leaders attempted to construct the Indian national identity by eliminating English from the official language while the southern leaders called for English as an official language in order to stand on an equal footing with the North and maintain their Dravidian identity. It exemplifies that selection and justification of a certain language is a part of the process in which a community is imagined and constructed.