South Asian language activists who advocate displacing English in favor of indigenous languages should carefully consider the arguments presented in this important book. Else, they might betray the interests of the very people they fight for. Perhaps counterintuitively, the authors argue that English proficiency can actually enhance respect for and inject vitality into mother tongues. The book rightly insists that English is the primary language of science, research, and international communication, and those lacking facility in it cannot access an everexpanding repository of human wisdom and experience. For South Asian women who face limitations in terms of mobility, learning English is especially important. By investing in English acquisition, individuals can leverage ties to global knowledge for revitalizing society and enhancing their own social mobility.
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Ph.D. (MIT), Physicist and columnist
In this groundbreaking and deeply humane work, Hasan and Hussain illuminate how English acquisition becomes a powerful vehicle for social mobility, identity transformation, and leadership development among South Asias nonelite popu lations. Through rich narratives and careful analysis, they reveal how access to English has become inseparable from access to dignity, opportunity, and full participation in global society. This meticulously researched book makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of language, power, and social justice essential reading for educators, policymakers, and scholars interested in linguistic equity and social transformation in the Global South.
Dr. Carola Suarez-Orozco, HGSE
This book makes a persuasive case for learning and using English agentively by people in South Asia for their leadership and development efforts. The authors articulate how subaltern people can resist the hegemony of English from within by diversifying its norms and values for empowering purposes. They inspire us to engage in critical education and activism from their own experiences at the community level.
Dr. Suresh Canagarajah, Penn State
Through heartwrenching tales and razorsharp analyses, Hasan and Hussain offer a neverbeforeseen look into the fraught reality of learning English for the nonelites in South Asia, whose struggles and triumphs constitute a powerful counternarrative to the often elitist position of undermining English under the banner of promoting mother tongues. Policy makers take heed!
Dr. Hansun Zhang Waring, Teachers College
In The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners (2026), Hasan and Hussain offer a powerful reimagining of English language education in the Global South. Drawing on fieldwork across six South Asian countries, they chal lenge deficit narratives and show how subaltern learners are reclaiming Eng lish as a tool for resistance, dignity, and selfdetermined leadership. Through communityrooted pedagogies grounded in indigenous ontoepistemologies, this work disrupts colonial hierarchies and centers belonging. A vital contribu tion to decolonial and critical pedagogy, this book is essential for educators and policymakers envisioning English classrooms as a space of humanization, resist ance, and radical hope.
Dr. Sarina Chugani Molina, University of San Diego
This is a beautifully written and ambitious book that provides a wideranging account of the experiences of nonelite learners of English from India, Bang ladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. It shows powerfully the ways in which language is entangled with social structures and, specifically, how the use of English by elites in South Asia has served to reproduce inequalities by both caste and class. It will be of significant interest to scholars from a wide range of disciplinesincluding education, sociology, and youth studies.
Rachel Brooks (University of Oxford) President, British Sociological Association
In South Asia, millions of English learners without access to quality English education or environments for practice rely on their agency to learn the lan guage. In doing so, they redefine their identities, fight for access to leadership, and dismantle the societal class structures that have long used English to main tain privilege. In Hasan and Hussains rich qualitative analysis, we can hear the voices of subaltern, nonelite individuals for whom learning English is far more than simply adding another language to their repertoire. While The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners is a mustread for specialists in sociology, linguistics, public policy, and development, many of its chapters are highly accessible and will be of interest to the general public.
Christina Sanz, Georgetown University
It may seem counterintuitive to argue that fluency in English is critical to the life chances of nonelite South Asians whose native languages are still the lin gua franca of everyday life. In this volume, Hasan and Hussain skillfully trace the development of English language usage in South Asian settings, blending a macro historical account with interviews of aspiring leaders. They make the case that fluency in English is both the knowledge of the powerful and powerful knowledge. English opens doors of opportunity for nonelites to exercise leader ship and provides access to new ways of thinking that promote novel identities and positive selfesteem.
Aaron M. Pallas, Dept. of Sociology, Colombia
The notion that acts of resistance are only possible by rejecting the English lan guage fails to recognize that access to power is necessary for selfemancipation and liberation. In this pathbreaking book, Hassan and Hussain detail colonial legacies of English and provide a powerful argument as to why access to Eng lish is a basic human right in the South Asian context. Their discussion of lan guage apartheid and why access to English promotes basic psychological needs Advance praise for The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners Language, Liberation and Leadership in South Asia of competence, relatedness, and autonomy is a powerful lesson that applies globally.
Francesca Lopez, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Education
The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners centers the lived experiences of South Asias most marginalized learners, those navigating the layered violences of caste, class, and coloniality in systems where English is both a barrier and a bridge. Through intimate, grounded narratives, this book traces how English acquisition can shift identity, open doors, and position people as leaders, even as it exposes the inequities of a language long used to reproduce dominance. It interrogates the educational structures that uphold exclusion and asks: What futures are possible when the subaltern must speak English to be heard? This is a call to reimagine language not only as a site of oppression but also as a powerful instrument of resistance and collective transformation.
Maria CioePena, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education University of Pennsylvania
This book guides readers through the complexities of English acquisition in South Asia against the historical backdrop of colonization, segregation, and mar ginalization. The careful analysis and stirring narratives of subaltern learners perseverance and success convincingly show that language can be an instrument of transformation and liberation, rather than oppression. The book serves as a powerful reminder that paths to equity rest on amplifying the voices of nonelites and expanding their opportunities for leadership goals hardly attainable as long as access to quality English education remains unequal and limited.
Nadja Tadic, Ed.D., Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Georgetown University
A thoughtprovoking study of the role that mastery of the English language plays in social and economic mobility in South Asia, authored by two scholars with deep research expertise and practical engagement in the regions education and development sectors.
Charles James Kenny, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development (CGD), Washington, D.C.
Hasan and Hussain offer a compelling account of how South Asias marginal ized learners transform their identities and futures through English. The books innovative use of selfdetermination theory and intersectional analysis high lights the structural role of language, making it both theoretically rigorous and urgently relevant. By showing how access to English connects to public policy, leadership, and pathways of social and economic mobility, this work also speaks directly to broader debates on development and governance. It is an essential reading for anyone interested in language and the possibilities it creates for pro gress in unequal societies.
Heath Rose, Ph.D., Professor of Applied Linguistics Department of Education, University of Oxford
Through vivid accounts of the voices and lived experiences of Subaltern learnersnonelites excluded from dominant power structures in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka)Aamir Hasan and Nadeem Hussain offer a compelling portrait of how English can become a vehicle of empowerment, a pathway to leadership, and a vital source of liberation, selfesteem, and identity. Richly nuanced and genuinely humane, each narrative sheds fresh light on what it means to learn English, making this an inspiring and truly oneofakind work.
Yuko Goto Butler, Ph.D., Professor and Director of TESOL University of Pennsylvania
The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners conducts a fas cinating exploration of the role of the English language in disparity in South Asia. Hasan and Hussain eloquently trace out the linguistic contours of South Asian social hierarchy centralizing English as an inherited form of human capital both delimiting and determining status. Their qualitative analysis is careful, clear, fluidly written, and historically informed. In an era of both eco nomic and unprecedented cultural globalization, the analysis is both timely and valuable.
Neil Cummins, Ph.D., Professor of Economic History London School of Economics and Political Science
This innovative volume reframes debates about English as a global language by centering subaltern perspectives from postcolonial South Asia. Through firsthand accounts and crossnational case studies, the authors document how English mediates power, identity, and access in diverse local contexts. The book invites scholars, educators, and policy makers to rethink language policy and to prioritize the experiences of those most affected.
Anna De Fina, Ph.D., Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University
Language Rights advocates around the world promote the rights of non dominant language speakers to access education in their first language. In this outstanding book, Hasan and Hussain build on existing theoretical frameworks of selfdetermination, identity, and liberation, and use rich data from indepth inter views of nonelites in South Asia to argue that access to English has become nec essary to fully access dignity and opportunity. The achievements reached by the studys participantshigher education degrees in various fields and highstanding professional occupations around the worldrequired their mastery of English. Moreover, the authors argue that mastery in the dominant language was crucial to their sense of dignity. This book does not argue against instruction in non dominant languages but rather that multilingualism with access to the language of power allows individuals to enhance respect for the mother tongue and advocate for the linguistic rights of nondominant language speakers.
Pierre de Galbert, Ed.D., Assistant Teaching Professor of Education, Brown University
This is a muchneeded study that casts light onto a very delicate and still often hid den relationship, that of English as a tool of social class domination and discrimi nation. By giving voice to South Asia subalterns as opposed to the elite embodied by the Englishspeaking upper class, this book disentangles the intersectionality of leadership development and English acquisition providing the readers with pre cious food for thought, making them reflect on all the deep implications that the knowledge of English has for nonelite members in South Asian society. Tackling fundamental issues that pertain to dignity and selfesteem, like the place of English in the Maslow pyramid of needs, and daring to ask whether English has become a basic human right, this book opens new perspectives in multiple fields of study, proving a trailblazing work that will guide reflection in many years to come.
Enrica Piccardo, Ph.D., Professor of Language Education University of Toronto
Language uses us as much as we use it. And the power of language to deter mine and regulate ones social positioning in the world is well documented. But whats special about this book is how fully and carefully Hasan and Hussain dig into the ways in which English use in Southeast Asia is not only about com munication and not just a legacy of previous systems of power, prestige, and exclusionbut is the very process by which personal and social identities of users are constructed and reconstructed in context. Hats off to the authors for shining a nuanced light on language acquisition as empowerment for those con sidered marginalized in the countries Hasan and Hussain investigate.
Brad Olsen, Ph.D., Senior Fellow Global Economy and Development The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.
This book integrates rigorous policy analysis with rich life histories to show how language access is never neutral. In systems shaped by reform diffusion and mixed incentives, English becomes a site where power is contested and reconfig ured. The authors document how subaltern learners claim dignity and leadership while also deepening commitment to mother tongues and local communities. It is a rare study that speaks to theory, method, and practice with equal clarity.
Mobarak Hossain, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Social Policy London School of Economics and Political Science
In their book, Aamir Hasan and Nadeem Hussain challenge the melancholic narrative of the English language being imposed upon passive subaltern subjects across the globe. While certainly attentive to the (neo)colonial politics of Eng lish, Hasan and Nadeem, through extensive research and illuminating commen taries from South Asian English users, highlight that English is not simply an instrument of oppression but also a means to better oneself both professionally and personally. The book is ultimately a reminder that marginalized communi ties are never voiceless, but rather have yet to be heard in a careful and ethical manner.
Vijay Ramjattan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Language and Literacies Education, University of Toronto
The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners is a powerful explo ration of how individuals in marginalized communities in South Asia use English to challenge social hierarchies, reclaim dignity, and assert leadership. Through extensive fieldwork across six countries, Hasan and Hussain expertly reveal how subaltern learners navigate linguistic variation and sociopolitical barriers to transform their identities and futures. Their research demonstrates that English, far from being a tool of assimilation, becomes a mechanism for social change and selfempowerment. This book offers crucial insights into the intersection of language, class, and leadership, highlighting the role of English in breaking class barriers and enabling economic mobility. A mustread for sociolinguists and discourse analysts!
Katherine Rehner, Ph.D., Professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching & Learning, University of Toronto
This fascinating book could have been called can the subaltern speak Eng lish? Its authors ask: what do those who do not have the means to converse in a dominant language like English lose as a means of participating in a stratified and connected global world? Does the world become smaller for them, and what are the costs? Hasan and Hussain put these provocative questions to us, and ask us to consider what it means for identity, selfdetermination, and leadership in South Asia.
Susan L. Robertson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Sociology of Education, University of Cambridge
This book is a humanizing, theoretically nuanced, and critical account of how subaltern learners appropriate English without abandoning the linguistic worlds that made them. Recognizing the historical depth of English use and instruction in South Asia, Hasan & Hussain reveal how English language development can both widen and narrow spaces for participation and leadership among subal tern learners. Through detailed portraits of students navigating work, study, and civic life, the authors trace identity reconstruction and leadership emergence as learners move across repertoires, leveraging critical and creative translan guaging practices as the everyday engine of autonomy, agency, and opportunity. Hasan and Hussain take our attention away from the tired binary of English or mother tongue, towards policy architectures that honor translanguaging, expand access, and refuse linguistic gatekeeping. This is essential reading for scholars and educators committed to a multilingual justice and affirming students full communicative repertoires as a source of dignity and collective empowerment.
Kevin Donley, Ph.D., Assistant Teaching Professor Georgetown University
The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners is a deep and com prehensive study of English as the language of prestige and power in the post colonial world and one of the most original explorations of how the formerly colonial language has become the instrument of marginalized groups seeking to reconstruct their identities in a globalized world. The book will be essential reading for scholars and students of the politics and theories of language in situ ations of domination.
Simon Gikandi, Ph.D., Professor of English Princeton University
As a scholar of global citizenship and cultural exchange, I found this book both urgent and inspiring. Hasan and Hussain reveal how English learning in South Asia is not merely about acquiring a skill, but about reclaiming dignity, voice, and leadership in societies structured by inequality. Their nuanced analysis com plicates the opposition between English and local languages, showing instead how language can be mobilized as a resource for equity and agency. This book resonates strongly with ongoing debates about inclusion in education and offers a vital perspective for anyone committed to building a more just global society.
Julie Ficarra, Ph.D., Associate Teaching Professor, Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University
This book is an important reminder for scholars invested in epistemic justice and in the act of hearing. Much current work, including my own, foregrounds the struggle to recognize native languages and ways of being as essential to identity. Yet Hasan and Hussain caution against being consumed solely by this desire. They illuminate what may be called the other side of epistemic justice, show ing how English proficiency functions as an unavoidable gatekeeper to circles of power, dignity, and meaningful opportunity. Subalternity is often described as a position without identity, and for nonelite learners, English is not simply an instrument for employment. As the authors argue, it is central to selfesteem, social inclusion, and what they term a Liberative Motivation, allowing indi viduals to reimagine and reconstruct their identities. The tension, then, lies in how recognition of local languages alone cannot dismantle entrenched hier archies; when global languages of mobility are sidelined, access to decision making spaces remains closed. The book thus exposes how activism centered only on local languages may inadvertently reproduce the very disadvantages it seeks to overcome. In situating language within gatekept circles of power, Hasan and Hussain extend vital debates on epistemic justice.
Aliya Khalid, Ph.D., Senior Departmental Lecturer of Comparative and International Education, University of Oxford
This meticulously researched book offers a distinctive Southern perspective on the role of English in the lives of subaltern communities across South Asia. Through the compelling voices of its participants, the book reveals how English proficiency has shaped nearly every aspect of their livesoften in ways they perceive as affirming and transformative. Each chapter builds tension and invites readers to critically examine entrenched assumptions about the hegemony of English and the complex interplay between vernacular languages and English in subaltern education. While at times unsettling, this is a powerful and necessary work for language education policymakers and literacy educators who navigate and enact language policies across the Global South.
Antoinette Gagne, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Department of Curriculum Teaching & Learning, OISE, University of Toronto
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