New Delhi, November 11, 2025: The Subject Association of the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), organized a special lecture featuring eminent linguist and author Dr. Peggy Mohan as the guest speaker. The lecture, titled “The South Asia Story: From Early Migrants to Indian English,” explored the linguistic, historical, and cultural evolution of South Asian languages and their connection to Indian English.

About Dr. Peggy Mohan

Born in Trinidad, West Indies, Dr. Peggy Mohan completed her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1978, with a dissertation titled “Trinidad Bhojpuri: A Morphological Study.” Her research, supported by the National Science Foundation, focuses on language death and linguistic evolution.

She has taught at Howard University (Washington D.C.), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Ashoka University, and Jamia Millia Islamia. A celebrated author, her fiction works include Jahajin, The Youngest Suspect, and Walk in C-Minor. Her acclaimed non-fiction books — Wanderers, Kings, Merchants (Penguin Random House, 2021), winner of the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award, and Father Tongue, Motherland (Penguin, 2025) — delve into the linguistic and cultural fabric of India.

Highlights from the Lecture

The event began with Dr. Roomy Naqvy introducing the speaker, followed by Prof. Mukesh Ranjan, Head of the Department, welcoming Dr. Mohan with a sapling as a gesture of appreciation. Dr. Saba Bashir spoke on the significance of Dr. Mohan’s contributions to linguistics and cultural studies.

In her engaging lecture, Dr. Mohan traced 70,000 years of South Asian linguistic history, emphasizing that the Indus Valley has always been inhabited, making India a cradle of civilization. She drew fascinating parallels between Sanskrit and Old Avestan, asserting that interconnections among Indian languages run much deeper than generally perceived.

She described Indian English as a modern form of Prakrit, noting that “Indian English uses nouns whereas International English uses verbs.” Dr. Mohan also discussed diglossia in India, referring to it as a “slow variant of language death,” highlighting how linguistic homogenization affects cultural diversity and translation capacity.

Her insights connected closely with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, emphasizing interdisciplinary learning, gender sensitization, and the preservation of linguistic diversity.

Interactive Discussion and Closing Remarks

The session concluded with a lively Q&A where Dr. Mohan discussed the shared grammatical structures among Indian languages, remarking that even Urdu and Hindi are “identical twins” despite differing scripts. She observed that while Indians perceive their languages as diverse, structurally they are strikingly similar.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Roomy Naqvy, Advisor of the English Literary Association (ELA), expressed gratitude to the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mazhar Asif, the Registrar, the Jamia Administration, Prof. Mukesh Ranjan, Dr. Saba Bashir, and especially Dr. Peggy Mohan for her enriching and thought-provoking lecture.

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