Language, Cultural Capital, and Competitive Examinations: Indigenous Aspirants and the Linguistic Politics of State Bureaucratic Recruitment in India

Competitive examinations are frequently presented as meritocratic and linguistically neutral. However, sociolinguistic scholarship demonstrates that such systems are embedded within hierarchies of language and cultural capital. This study investigates how linguistic transition and symbolic power shape the experiences of Indigenous (Scheduled Tribe) aspirants preparing for India's Civil Services Examination. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital and postcolonial language scholarship, the article analyzes qualitative data collected from 42 aspirants enrolled in a state-supported residential coaching institution in southern India. Findings reveal that linguistic disadvantage operates as structural misalignment between aspirants' embodied linguistic habitus and the dominant academic register privileged in elite examinations. The study argues that competitive recruitment functions as a site of linguistic gatekeeping that reproduces social stratification, even within affirmative action frameworks. By situating bureaucratic examinations within language and identity scholarship, the article contributes to understanding how institutional language norms regulate access to state power in multilingual societies.