LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:7 July 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Gendering of Language and the Challenges of Globalization:
A Sociolinguistic Account of Bengali Women’s
Linguistic Patterns in 21st Century Kolkata

Dr. Chandrabali Dutta

Abstract

Gendered language, which is defined as a symbolic device that limits the activities of one sex, but not those same activities of the other, actually spreads and reinforces sex role stereotypes and thus complements the existence of sexism in a society. At the dawn of 21st century when everything in our society is undergoing rapid changes due to the immense influence of modernization and globalization, language still acts as a catalyst for gender discrimination. Today globalization is on everyone’s lips. It has not only referred to the expansion of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale but also to the growth of a global consciousness. However, while it has become a central lens through which social scientists have reframed old questions of last couple of decades, researchers working on ‘gender-language interface’ have been slower to do so. And now when sociolinguists are increasingly recognizing that the phenomenon of globalization has implications for patterns of language use, linguistic variation and change, it is also evident that even in this global era each language has inherent in it expressions that are indicative of society’s differential treatment for women, which is on the whole negative.

Due to the acute dearth of substantial research in gender-language interface in India or more specifically in Kolkata, the primary aim of this paper is to investigate society’s bias against women with evidence from an Indian language, i.e., Bengali. The paper will focus on how in a patriarchal country like India, in spite of numerous socio-cultural transformations, language acts as a tool of coercion as well as it is internalized as part of learning to be a woman, imposed on women by societal norms and in turn keeps them in their place. Given this backdrop, this article attempts to show how over time, with the rapidly changing culture of our society language in general and Bengali language in particular facilitates the construction and reinforcement of gendered identity of educated Bengali women (18-25 years, 30-45 years) in Kolkata. Moreover, special thrust is given on how despite the introduction of several gender-neutral vocabularies in recent times, gendered linguistic practices continue unabated till date.

Keywords: language, gender, globalization, women, urban-metropolis.

Introduction

Globalization is changing or has the potential to change many of the social realities that preoccupy social scientists, among them ‘class’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘race’, ‘gender’, ‘work’ and indeed ‘language’. These developments are as significant for sociolinguistics as for any other social science discipline.1 While globalization has become a central lens through which social scientists have reframed old questions in the last couple of decades, students of language and gender in their socio-cultural context have been slower to do so. Yet global processes are of concern to people’s daily lives in all contemporary societies, as they gender themselves and each other through the intersubjective negotiation of the intersection of the global and the local.2

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Chandrabali Dutta
Lecturer
Department of Sociology
Basanti Devi College
Address for correspondence:
122B, Ananda Palit Road
Kolkata- 700014
West Bengal
India
chandrabali_d@yahoo.com
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