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Field Notes

Vol 7 No 2: September issue

Eating my words: Linguistic politics in India

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.7.2.803
Submitted
May 6, 2020
Published
September 30, 2020

Abstract

Language learning is common preparation for much anthropological fieldwork, but the choices researchers make in this area are distinctly political. Prompted by a chance encounter while studying Hindi, the author reflects on this realisation in view of the numerous languages spoken in India, the interactions involved in hospital-based research, and the place of language in Indian politics more broadly.