(De)centering and (De)colonizing the Dominant Sphere: A Critical Study of Politics and Language in India

This thesis aims to scrutinize the power at the center in an Indian context and it does so via a critical cultural rhetorical analysis of a widespread cricket campaign and also a self-reflexive autoethnographic inquiry into my own experiences with the language of the colonizer in both my upbringing and as an international student/scholar. The first paper focuses on how the interpellated right-wing, anti-Muslim hegemonic sentiments of the ruling government were leveraged by India’s leading sports broadcaster to create one of the most popular cricket campaigns, Mauka Mauka. By interweaving the lenses of hegemony and interpellation, in this paper, I conduct a critical cultural rhetorical analysis through an in-depth reading of the socio-political discourses pervading the country throughout the duration of the campaign. In this paper, I intend to present an informed interpretation of Mauka Mauka as a counterhegemony to Modi. The second paper is a performative postcolonial autoethnography where I examine the hegemony of the English language and how the language disciplines and regulates the social aspirations of the subordinate Indian middle class both locally and globally.

Embargo status: Restricted until 09/2173. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link to the left.