We are pleased to have Sam Sonntag join us on Friday, October 31, for our next Luncheon Series talk, "Depoliticizing Hindi through Linguistic Federalism." While the politics of Hindi dominated the language policy debate in India for much of the 20th century, by the turn of the new millennium many scholars were commenting on how the Hindi language question no longer incited the passions that it had in the past.
Sonntag focuses on India's linguistic federalism as one of the major causes of this de-politicization of Hindi. The success of linguistic federalism, she suggests, lies in the language-based democratic-hegemonic bond between emerging regional elites and masses, initially forged in the south of India, later in the Hindi-belt of north India.
Sm Sonntag is a Professor at Humboldt University and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder.
This event will begin at 12:00 p.m. in the CAS Conference Room, located two doors north of Starbucks on Broadway and University. Lunch will be provided.