The theme Multilingualism in India seeks to focus on the various languages that are spoken in India, and those that are altered, created and evolve, as a result of interaction and contact between people who speak different languages. The discussion planned for the Conclave would focus on three issues – urban multilingualism, ways of reading sources in different languages, and translation. 

Plenary Talk:

 Multilingualism: Living in Babel – Keynote Address by Prof. Alok Rai

Prof. Rai is former faculty, Department of English, University of Delhi. Born and bred in Allahabad, he holds a graduate degree in modern English literature and became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He has published books on George Orwell and writes on the formation of modern Hindi. As a translator his translation of Nirmala was published by Oxford University Press. He has been involved with the business of writing, with language in society. His interests include, Modern English Literature; cultural processes in modern North India, with particular reference to issues of language and literature. He is also the grandson of the legendary Hindi writer Premchand. 

Lectures:

1. Understanding Linguistic plurality in India – A Lecture by Prof. Shobha Satyanath

Prof. Satyanath is an Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Delhi.  She has her Doctoral Degree from University of Pennsylvania (U. Penn.), Philadelphia, U.S.A. She has been the Editor of Language Variation and Change, Asia Pacific ( APLV), John Benjamins. She has also been the Founder of an International conference series, New Ways of Analysing Variation in Asia Pacific (NWAV AP). Her interests include Sociolinguistics: Language variation and change, Contact languages, urban diversity, language landscaping. The lecture seeks to look at language variation and change through transmissions to different contexts from their origin. The multilingual urban set up and its cultures are a product of such diversity. ‘Street languages’ and colloquialisms are an interesting outcome of the new cosmopolitan milieus in cities. 

2. Indian Cinematic Multilingualism – A Lecture by Prof. Ravikant

Prof. Ravikant is a bilingual historian, writer, and translator. He read, researched, and taught modern Indian and world history in various colleges of Delhi University before joining CSDS. His ongoing social history project, ‘Words in Motion Pictures’, navigates inter-media sites such as print, broadcasting, and web in an effort to offer creative connections between these media forms and their diverse publics. The Hinglish Project, in collaboration with SOAS, London, tries to make sense of contemporary bilingualism in North India. His lecture would deal with Indic sources for modern history in general and for histories of cinema and radio in particular, and the different ways of reading texts. 

Workshop:

‘The Right Click’ and ‘Choice of Words in Translation’ – A Workshop by Prof. Tulika Chandra

Prof. Chandra is Associate Professor, Department of English, Shiv Nadar University. She has over 19 years of research and teaching experience in the area of Translation, Folklore, Business Communication, English Language Teaching, Language Acquisition and ESP (English for Specific Purposes). Dr. Tulika Chandra is presently working on a project “Documentation of Folktales through Digitization” to preserve the folktales that await digitization and revival. In order to create a hands-on engagement with the theme, a workshop on the technicalities of translations will be held to ensure individuals attending feel that they really are part of a society that is basically multilingual. 

A cultural programme will be presented by the music society and different literary societies of St. Stephen’s College, harmonising the flavour of different languages.

The Academic Conclave invites you to explore a theme that deals with issues particularly relevant to society, by looking at one of its most basic and vital foundational elements, that of language.