Abstract

Globalization and the new media boom over the last couple of years have created a divide between the old and the new India. One of the most significant phenomena of this so-called new India is the emergence of English as a lingua franca but not in the proper form of it. In this digital age of online communication [email, text messaging (SMS), instant messaging (WhatsApp, Hike, AOL etc.)], Blogging, Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr, FriendFeed etc.) and so forth writing (with word limit of, say 160/140) is bound to be smaller than it used to be earlier, but that must never mean that one is free to flout the rules of grammar wholesale. English used in the various sections of new media, especially in the Social Networking Sites [SNS(s)] is in a desperate plight. This article is a probe into the predicament of old English in new India.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.