Chutnefying English

Something has happened to English; and something has happened to Hindi. These two languages, widely spoken across India, need to be understood anew through their ‘hybridization’ into Hinglish-a mixture of Hindi and English that has begun to make itself heard everywhere-from daily conversation to news, films, advertisements and blogs.

How did this popular form of urban communication evolve? Is this language the new and trendy idiom of a youthful population no longer competent in either English or Hindi? Or is it an Indianized version of a once-colonial language, claiming its legitimate place alongside India’s many bhashas?

Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish, the first book on the subject, takes a serious look at this widespread phenomenon of our times which has pervaded every aspect of our daily lives. It addresses the questions that many speakers of both languages ask time and again: should Hinglish be spurned as the bastard offspring of its two parent languages, or welcomed as the natural and legitimate result of their long-term cohabitation? Leading scholars from literature, cultural studies, translation, cinema and new media come together to offer a collection of essays that is refreshingly new in thought and content.