Contentious consensus: challenges of diversity to identity-based language policies

Abstract

Language policies in Singapore have long served as tools for the management of its linguistic diversity comprising mainly the Chinese, Malay, and Indian vernaculars. Officially designated community ‘mother tongues’ (i.e., Mandarin, Malay, Tamil) have not only been used to strengthen nation-building and maintain ethnic harmony, but also as instruments of socio-economic development. This chapter draws attention to the under-studied languages of the ‘Indians’ in Singapore: the role of Tamil in the linguistic representation of Indians and the challenges posed by such singularity to the immensely diverse represented South Asian population. The chapter begins by tracing the process by which Tamil became established as the pan-Indian identity; evaluates policy measures necessitated for the accommodation of languages (in education) marginalised through such representation; assesses implications of the availability of choice as well as of the preference of Hindi among the more recently arriving immigrants; finally, it highlights the Scylla and Charybdis dilemma of contemporary policy makers: reinforcing the majority linguistic identity (Tamil) disadvantages those with alternate language affiliations while acknowledging additional languages enhances the risk of a contending identity and a potential breach of community harmony. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of linguistic representation of collective identities to the management of pluralist populations. It suggests that linguistic diversity and identity-based language policies are mutually challenging and proposes the delinking of identity from education policies to avert predicaments posed by the dominant linguistic identity to contending identities in linguistically heterogeneous societies.