The other mother tongues of Singaporean Indians

This chapter highlights the case of Singapore’s under-researched Indian community for whose languages the government has made an exceptional accommodation in its second language policy. Officially defined as ‘Indian’, the South Asians in Singapore are represented by Tamil in the language policy. However, the educational and socio-economic challenges of the multilingual community have consistently required the provision of allowances in language planning. Unlike the Chinese and the Malay communities, students of Indian heritage have the unique option of selecting among the three official and five Non-Tamil Indian Languages as the ‘plus one’ language subject in education. Offering a sociolinguistic profile of the Indian community, this chapter highlights (a) the historical rationale for the choice of Tamil as the representative Indian language; (b) challenges to and policy departure from the foundational principles of ‘one community, one language’; and (c) discusses the implications of such concessions, for the promotion of the unofficial Indian languages in education. Following a discussion of archival sources, community school enrolment figures, and survey data, the chapter concludes with an exploration of the challenges of language management for Singapore’s Indian community and minority languages globally.