LINGUISTIC HEGEMONY AND THE SILENCING OF DAWOODI: POWER, STIGMA, AND STRUCTURAL MARGINALIZATION

Abstract

This study investigates the intersection of language, power, and social marginalization within the Dawoodi-speaking community through a critical sociolinguistic framework. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews, community narratives, and institutional discourse analysis, the research examines how dominant languages exert symbolic and material power over minority linguistic systems, leading to the systematic devaluation of Dawoodi. Building on a longitudinal body of research that has documented language shift, lexical attrition, and structural collapse in the Dawoodi-speaking community (Ishfaq & Bhatti, 2019; 2020; 2021), this study extends the analytical lens to examine the ideological and structural conditions that sustain and accelerate these processes. The findings reveal that language shift within this community is not a neutral communicative choice but is deeply embedded in socio-economic hierarchies, institutional exclusion, and internalized stigma. Dawoodi speakers, particularly younger generations, experience their language as a marker of lower social status and limited economic opportunity, driving them toward dominant languages in pursuit of social mobility. Institutional practices, including education policy and administrative frameworks, further reinforce this marginalization by systematically excluding Dawoodi from formal domains. The study situates these dynamics within broader theoretical frameworks of linguistic hegemony, symbolic violence, and language ideology, arguing that the loss of Dawoodi is both a consequence and a mechanism of structural marginalization. It concludes by calling for policy-level interventions and community-driven initiatives that address not only documentation but also the dismantling of the power structures that sustain linguistic inequality.