Understating South Asia interculturally and communicatively: What the contemporary scholarship tells us

This article reviews contemporary intercultural scholarship by examining published papers in 16 communication journals (5 of them were dedicated intercultural journals) between 2007 and 2018. The analysis found that the number of manuscripts published in 12 years (n = 191, or approximately 2.5% of 7452 published papers) on South Asian issues and populations is meager. Based on the reading of the intercultural manuscripts, this article identified eight key areas of scholarly attention, including acculturation and cultural adaptation, intercultural transitions, language and verbal communication, communication for social change, negotiation of identities, technology-based communication, media and mediated communication, and new dynamics in the contemporary era. Later, this article talked about “silent zones” of contemporary intercultural scholarship—topics or areas that are under-researched and then described potential pathways of future scholarship in imagining a more tolerant, just and equal South Asia.