Overview

This book compares how multilingualism is governed, managed, and imagined in nation-states in the Horn of Africa and South Asia. With state-of-the-art contributions by leading scholars, this is the first volume to bring together political, historical, and literary perspectives on national multilingualism in the two regions, documenting both the views of state actors and those of writers, intellectuals, and activists. In undertaking this South-South comparison, the book shows that national multilingualism in the Global South is not a derivative postcolonial adaptation of European models. Rather, the multilingual nation-state of the Global South should be re-centred as paradigmatic of the relationship between language, multilingualism, and the nation-state in general, including in the Global North. This book is essential reading for all researchers interested in anti-Eurocentric approaches to multilingualism in policy-making, intellectual history, literature, and print culture.  

Full Product Details

Author:   Javed Majeed ,  Sara Marzagora
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9783032137715

ISBN 10:   3032137713
Pages:   248
Publication Date:   31 March 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Language, Multilingualism, and the Nation-State in the Global South – Towards a South-South Comparative Methodology.- 2. Managing and Reconciling Linguistic Diversity: The History of Language Policy Formulations in Ethiopia – Current Trends, Challenges, and Prospects.- 3. Bio-Cultural Belonging, Multilingualism, and Economic Liberalisation in India.- 4. The Contentious Path from Language to Land: The Movement for a Siraiki Province in Pakistan.- 5. The Monthly Panjābī and the Promotion of the Punjabi Language in Pakistan (1951–1960).- 6. Sovereignty and the Politics of Language in Early Twentieth-Century Ethiopia.- 7. Digital Publics and the Contested Politics of Language in the Somali Horn of Africa.- 8. Linguistic Alienation and Translation in Postcolonial India.- 9. An Alternative Vision of Multilingual India: Ari Gautier’s Indian Francophone Literature.- 10. Multilingualism in the Amharic Novel and Song.- 11. Managing a Multilingual Landscape: Periodicals, Language, and Frontier Identities in India’s North-Eastern State of Assam.

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Author Information

Javed Majeed is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at King's College London, UK. Sara Marzagora is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Comparative Literature at King's College London, UK.  

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