A Case for the Standardization of Indian English

In this paper I consider the status of Indian English as a variety whose standard varieties are either British English or American English and show how this status forces it to position itself as a minor language without a major language, or as a variation of standard variety major languages which do not accord it the position of minority. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of major and minor languages, and Harris’s conception of language as a set of constraints, I show how having nationalistically defined foreign standards make Indian English both dependent on foreign sources to derive authenticity as well as limit its creative possibilities as a minor language by making its power of variation illegitimate. As a solution to this crisis I propose the recognition and standardization of an acculturated variety of Indian English.