Continuing debates over the native speaker: a report on a symposium on English in India and Indian English

Abstract

The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India organized a symposium/dialogue on English in India and Indian English held during January 4–6, 2007 at the The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, India. It was devoted to a discussion of the issues addressed in the keynote paper by Rajendra Singh, which some 23 scholars from throughout the world had been invited to respond to. Although a few of the invited scholars were not able to attend, they were kind enough to send their papers and we had a very productive and lively discussion in which the academic staff of CIIL and local journalists, students, and educationists also participated. This report is organized as follows: in section 1, we summarize the keynote address and all the full-length responses to it; in section 2, we summarize the brief comments and observations that were presented or tabled by the invited respondents; in section 3, we offer concluding remarks and a brief summary of Singh's responses to the interventions summarized in sections 1 and 2.