Through its colonial, class- and caste-based history, English in India has come to be seen as a powerful resource that opens doors for those who ‘have’ it and holds back those who do not. For women, English ostensibly offers various promises in addition to employment: progressiveness and ‘empowerment’; and the potential for upward mobility through marriage. Yet, the conversion of English capital for English-speaking Indian women proves to be intensely complex in practice, as many find themselves forced to navigate between shifting moral regimes attached to ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in an NGO in Delhi that offers free English training to ‘disadvantaged youth’, this paper explores how English capital is managed by young women striving to attain middle classness through English, and how their class, caste and gender positionings are negotiated across particular time-space configurations as they seek to become English speakers.

中文翻译：

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“她会控制我的儿子”：在印度驾驭女性气质、英语和社会流动性

通过其基于殖民地、阶级和种姓的历史，英语在印度已被视为一种强大的资源，它为那些“拥有”它的人打开大门，并阻止那些没有它的人。对于女性来说，英语表面上提供了就业之外的各种承诺：进步和“赋权”；以及通过婚姻向上流动的潜力。然而，事实证明，将英语资本转换为讲英语的印度女性在实践中非常复杂，因为许多人发现自己被迫在依附于“传统”和“现代”的不断变化的道德制度之间游弋。本文借鉴德里一家为“弱势青年”提供免费英语培训的非政府组织的民族志实地调查，探讨了努力通过英语达到中产阶级的年轻女性如何管理英语资本，以及她们的阶级如何，