Abstract
This study explores the trajectories of Bhojpuri language socialisation in two contrasting sites of eastern Uttar Pradesh: the urban city of Varanasi and the rural area of Chunar. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with school children, teachers, parents, and elders, the research examines how Bhojpuri is simultaneously sustained in intimate domains and marginalised in formal, educational, and aspirational spaces. Employing the ethnographic approach, data were collected through interviews, participant observations, language diaries and natural discourse transcriptions, enabling a detailed account of everyday negotiations of language use. The analysis is grounded in three interlocking frameworks: the language socialisation paradigm, Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic capital, and Garcí a-Sa nchez’s concept of interactional marginalisation. Findings show patterned shifts in language use, experiences of correction and linguistic shame, aspirational ideologies privileging Hindi and English, and emerging practices of Bhojpuri pride and resistance. Together, these results show how children are socialised into viewing Bhojpuri as emotionally rich but economically devalued, while simultaneously carving spaces of symbolic resistance through peer culture and digital media. The study highlights the structural inequalities embedded in India’s multilingual ecology and argues for educational policies that respect vernacular languages as heritage carriers and as resources of identity, belonging, and cultural legitimacy.
Keywords: Language Socialisation, Marginalisation, Multilingualism, Symbolic Capital.