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English and the transnational Ismaili Muslim community: Identity, the Aga Khan, and infrastructure

Publication Type  Article
Year of Publication  2016
Date Published  2016
Authors  Bolander, Brook
Original Publication  Language in Society 45(4), 583-604
Pagination  583-604
Source  

Room 735, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China

Key Words  Ismaili Muslim; English language; Aga Khan; and infrastructure
Full Text  

The adoption of English as the official language of the transnational Ismaili Muslim community has its roots in the British Raj, which provides the backdrop for recent Ismaili history. Yet it is the Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader of the community since 1957, who has most avidly pushed English as part of a ‘language policy’. Drawing on Ismaili discourse published online, historical sources, secondary literature, and data collected during ethnographic fieldwork in Northern Pakistan and Eastern Tajikistan, this article addresses how English emerged as the community’s official language, how and why it was made integral to the community’s transnational infrastructure, and what English means to Ismailis living in a village in Hunza, Northern Pakistan and the city of Khorog, Eastern Tajikistan. It thereby underscores that identity and infrastructure emerge as entangled, and it reflects upon the implications of this relationship for research on 2 English and Islam, and language and transnationalism. (Transnationalism, English, Ismaili,Pakistan, Tajikistan, identity, infrastructure, Islam)*


English and the transnational Ismaili Muslim community: Identity, the Aga Khan, and infrastructure

The adoption of English as the official language of the transnational Ismaili Muslim community has its roots in the British Raj, which provides the backdrop for recent Ismaili history. Yet it is the Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader of the community since 1957, who has most avidly pushed English as part of a ‘language policy’. Drawing on Ismaili discourse published online, historical sources, secondary literature, and data collected during ethnographic fieldwork in Northern Pakistan and Eastern Tajikistan, this article addresses how English emerged as the community’s official language, how and why it was made integral to the community’s transnational infrastructure, and what English means to Ismailis living in a village in Hunza, Northern Pakistan and the city of Khorog, Eastern Tajikistan. It thereby underscores that identity and infrastructure emerge as entangled, and it reflects upon the implications of this relationship for research on 2 English and Islam, and language and transnationalism. (Transnationalism, English, Ismaili,Pakistan, Tajikistan, identity, infrastructure, Islam)*

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