ANS Member Smita Joseph published two books recently: The Anglo Indians In Hyderabad: Socio-Linguistic, Historical And Anthropological Perspectives (2020) and A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Indian Christian Names: The Case of Telugu Catholics and Syrian Christians (2022).
The Anglo Indians In Hyderabad: Socio-Linguistic, Historical And Anthropological Perspectives is described as giving “a fascinating account of how the Anglo-Indians of Hyderabad maintain their ethnic identity through the use of proper names and slang. The data on slang and names has been elicited through a combination of interview, survey and ethnographic methods.”
Due out in 2022, A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Indian Christian Names: The Case of Telugu Catholics and Syrian Christians “gives a sociolinguistic account of Syrian Christian and Telugu Catholic personal names. Unlike previous works on the linguistic or sociolinguistic analysis of the personal names of Indian Christians, which have mainly used a reflexive approach to analyse names, this book takes a constitutive approach by analysing the personal names of two Indian Christian communities (Telugu Catholics and Syrian Christians) from the perspective of community members. This novel approach provides greater insights into individuals’ motivations for naming and how names are used to create social identities.”
Both books can be purchased on Amazon India or via the publisher’s links above.