Linguistic Decolonization: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages in Pakistani and Indian Anglophone Fictions

Abstract

This paper employs the decolonial approach to Pakistani and Indian Anglophone fictions through a comprehensive analysis of How It Happened by Shazaf Fatima Haider; Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Muhammad Hanif; The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. These authors predominantly attempt to revive indigenous sovereignty by strategically incorporating native languages as a mode of resistance as well as decolonial stance. In this regard, the aim of this paper is to explore how these authors through the manifestation of local or national languages such as Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Malayalam dismantle the Eurocentric dominance of English language. For this, the analytical part theorizes the theory of decolonization particularly the conceptions of linguistic decolonization. Hence, the core discussion revolves around linguistic appropriation in native language of cultural expressions of kinship, religious terms, cuisine and culinary diction, clothing and dressing, and native narratives to challenge linguistic dominance of English. These linguistic insights contribute to a broader spectrum of decolonization of the colonial legacies. Thus, the study illustrates that these fictions strengthen a literary tradition by affirming self-identity to maintain the sovereignty of South Asian language in the postcolonial literature. Moreover, they set an epitome of linguistic decolonization and invite indigenous people to promote national languages.