Structural Reasons vs. Neocolonial `Hegemony' or Linguistic `Imperialism')

South Asia's great linguistic diversity has been seen as a source of conflict in the post-Independence era, as various states have attempted to throw off vestiges of colonialism and find a language policy that suits their own conditionsin particular, to find a way to reduce the dominance of English. The area's linguistic diversity can be viewed as not just a problem, but also as a resource: the linguistic diversity of South Asia is deeply rooted in its linguistic culture, and is in fact a product and an outcome of its cultural policy, rather than a vexatious hindrance. India's Three-Language Formula, under which everyone is supposed to learn English, the Mother Tongue, and Hindi, is supposed to be a middle way between unfettered diversity and monolingualism. It recognizes the value of local linguistic resources and the need for a language of wider (especially international) communication. Nevertheless, structures set up to foster multilingualism via schooling often fail to do the job, and end up perpetuating inequality, especially when it comes to a knowledge of English, a mastery of which is necessary to attain any useful kind of higher education, and thereby a higher standard of living. This paper reviews some of the problems associated with school-fostered multilingualism in South Asia, as revealed by recent research. In my earlier work on India (Schiffman 1996) it seemed to me that India, at least,1 had found a way to accommodate traditional and indigenous languages an