Member article, Cook & Khemlani-David, Language Shift and Identity Reproduction among Diaspora Sindhis in India and Southeast Asia

After working at the intersection of anthropology and history for a long while, I am happy to share my first published article (with Maya Khemlani-David) on the Sindhi language: 

COOK, M., & DAVID, M. (2020). Language Shift and Identity Reproduction among Diaspora Sindhis in India and Southeast Asia. Modern Asian Studies, 1-30. doi:10.1017/S0026749X20000013

The article examines the relationship between language shift and identity among diaspora Sindhis in India and Southeast Asia. It focuses on questions concerning how members of this community reproduce identity through language shift. The first part of the article describes identity and language shift among diaspora Sindhis in post-partition India. It argues that language shift facilitates the reproduction of core cultural modalities among diaspora Sindhis. The second part describes the history of diaspora Sindhis in Southeast Asia and analyses language shift. It contends that language shift enables diaspora Sindhis to suspend a connection between mother-tongue proficiency and identity. The article concludes by discussing how the diaspora Sindhi experience retunes the interval that conventionally connects language shift to cultural change.

For further information:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/language-shift-and-id...