English a gatekeeper of privilege and pathway to empowerment in South Asia

A major new study under publication shows how access to English in Southasia influences inter-generational mobility, labour markets, and social outcomes

- BY MANITA SWATI / SAPAN NEWS

Co-authors Nadeem Hussain (left) and Aamir Hasan (right).

Language in Southasia is never neutral. It is not only a medium of instruction. It is a medium of power. That assertion runs through The Identity Reconstruction of Subaltern English Learners: Language, Liberation, and Leadership in South Asia, scheduled to be released January 2026 (Routledge).

The book draws on nearly a decade of research and collaboration with educators, organizers, and students from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, starting from an uncomfortable truth: English, once imposed as a colonial language, has become both a gatekeeper of privilege and, paradoxically, a pathway to empowerment.

I obtained an advance copy from the coauthors. Aamir Hasan in Michigan, is an educator with a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Harvard, and a PhD in Education from Western Michigan University, and the founder of the nonprofit English-for-All, a Pakistan registered organization dedicated to teaching English. There are plans to expand it across Southasia and Africa. Nadeem Hussain, a policy scholar and development practitioner currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston, examines how linguistics divides in Southasia shape opportunity, self, and justice.

“Hardly ten percent of the people in this region have real ability in English. Yet it is often the deciding factor for social mobility, dignity, and leadership,” write the coauthors.