Colonial Modernity and Language Hierarchies: The Rise of English and The Decline of Vernacular Voices: With Special Reference to Kannada

Abstract

This paper explores how British colonial modernity reconfigured linguistic hierarchies in South India, particularly in Bengaluru, by elevating English as the language of power, modernity, and social mobility while relegating Kannada to the margins of intellectual and administrative life. Through postcolonial frameworks drawn from Fanon, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Gramsci, Bourdieu, and Spivak, the study examines how colonial education policies and missionary interventions institutionalized English as a symbol of enlightenment and cultural superiority. Bengaluru, as a hybrid city divided between princely Mysore and the British cantonment, became a site where linguistic hegemony translated directly into class distinction. 
The essay further analyses the responses of Kannada intellectuals and reformers, including B. M. Srikantaiah, D. V. Gundappa, Kuvempu, Ti. Nam. Sri., K. Shivaram Karanth, and Aluru Venkata Rao, who resisted linguistic subordination through literature, translation, and education. Their efforts transformed Kannada into a medium of modern expression and cultural self-assertion, culminating in movements for linguistic unification and regional identity. 
While postcolonial Bengaluru continues to project itself as a global metropolis, the colonial hierarchy of English over Kannada persists in education, employment, and prestige. The paper argues that genuine decolonization requires not the rejection of English but the revalorization of Kannada as an equal language of intellect, science, and creativity. By tracing the historical continuity of linguistic inequality, the study redefines modernity as a plural and multilingual experience rooted in the cultural consciousness of Karnataka.