Bhaya Nair, RukminiEnglish in India has had an extended and elite colonial history. It was the dominant language of governance in the 19th and 20th centuries till India became independent and a new set of language policies came into being. This paper traces the narrative of English on the Indian subcontinent from its genesis as a foreign and imperial tongue to its acceptance and ‘democratization’ as one amongst the many languages of India. It is emphasized that English in India has always existed in a vibrant multilingual environment and that the emergence of Indian English as a ‘world’ variety owes much to this fact. A detailed analysis of the lexicon, grammar and pragmatics of the English spoken today in urban India especially by India’s youth who comprise over 65% of India’s population is undertaken in the paper with a view to demonstrating that radical and striking shifts in attitudes toward English in India have occurred over the last few decades of economic liberalization and technological growth. Yet, the timeline created in this paper also shows that many of the paradoxes and dilemmas that attended English from its inception in India have not quite been banished. Rather, they have taken on new, acutely self-reflexive and challenging forms that will require a radical reassessment in the 21st century.application/pdfapplication/x-ziphttps://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/latic/article/view/2720engDepartment of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting, Ionian University2241-7214International Journal of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication2241-4304International Journal of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication; Τόμ. 1 (2012): Special Issue: Varieties of English; 103-122International Journal of Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication; Vol. 1 (2012): Special Issue: Varieties of English; 103-122Bringing English into the 21st century: A view from Indiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion2012-01-01Δημοσίευση σε περιοδικόPublication in journalΓλώσσα και ΓλωσσολογίαLanguage and Linguisticsisi - Language & Linguistics covers resources relating to theoretical, literary and historical linguistics as well as stylistics and philology.isi - Linguistics covers resources relating to all theoretical and applied aspects of linguistics, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The category also includes resources dealing with language as a social phenomenon such as sociolinguistics, language acquisition and education, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, corpus linguistics, semiotics and the relationship between memory and language.Επιστημονικό άρθροScientific articleΤμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων/Τεχνολογικό Εκπαιδευτικό Ίδρυμα ΗπείρουGreek Aggregator OpenArchives.gr | National Documentation Centre (EKT)other