– Jayadhir Tirumalarao

Language sentiment is more important to humans than parents, property disputes and blasphemy. Hence, language is surrounded by politics and wars. Historically, the victors of the war did not limit themselves to ruling the [conquered] land. They worked towards implementing the use of their language. Arabic, Persian, Dutch and English were introduced to India in that way. English was forced on the colonized nations and its influence has weakened the national and local languages. Language facilitated the submission to others stalling one’s growth. The British introduced English education into schools through the Macaulay reforms. English language continues to live since then. English language serves as one of the reasons why the American imperial designs such as privatization and globalization were easily imposed on us. Indigenous languages were crushed and English was forcibly imposed in African nations. Slaves from other languages have to learn English to serve the white man. For any white man, learning an indigenous language is below his dignity. For this reason, our rulers have enforced English education. Rulers always impose their minority language on a majority population. Some of our national leaders don’t know that language has the power to enslave people. Our national leaders are imitating the western imperial language besides admiring their culture, art, food and lifestyle. Dominant nations are trying to establish modern colonies by employing language. By accepting the dollar as a standard, we are also accepting their culture and language as a standard. We are letting in their culture along with the multi-national investments. Language is the vehicle for this cultural mobility.

Occasionally, our national leaders follow the example of the imperial rulers by re-introducing ‘national language’ in various Indian states. Their main aim is not to compete with English by implementing Hindi, but to overpower other local Indian languages. No national party says ‘Angrezi Hatao’ (remove English) anymore. To continue the domination of northern India on the southern states (in a non-political way as well), language is crucial. Hence, they meddle in the national affairs on the pretext of Hindi language. They try to intrude through language interference and not direct politics.

In India, this dominance takes the form ‘Indianness’ against the south and the north-east India. The intention behind this is to spread the influence of Hindi language and culture on other regions. Many wars and occupations on India happened through the North India. The first foreign languages have started to spread their influence from the north. Hence they are familiar with language dominance. They introduce this dominance through language and culture. This leads to political supremacy. Therefore, our dominant national leaders are from North India, the purity of river Ganga is a national sentiment and Kashi becomes the most prominent religious centre, while Kanchi remains controversial. Similarly, Ganga civilization and Sanskrit’s language domination continues. Their translations become classics. The classics in regional languages stay invisible.

The literatures in languages that have migrated internally and had a strong existence are also heavily influenced by Sanskrit. The North Indian Sanskrit poets are the most celebrated throughout the country. This tradition follows till date. Sangam literature in Tamil, Akka Mahadevi and Basavana’s writings in Kannada and poets like Palakuriki Soma, Pothana and Vemana in Telugu have no recognition nationally. They are not even recognized as South Indian poets. They are only recognized as poets in their regional languages. Their writings and translations don’t receive prominence. Regional languages like Bengali and Marathi are recognized on a national level but there is no acknowledgement of great literature in South Indian languages.

The present central government is playing political games using Hindi. The results of these of these games will show after a decade. Hindi language shows its effect on other regional languages without causing slightest disturbance to English. This happened many times in history and it’s happening now. There is minimal influence of the south in the central government. The only ones with influence are political leaders and those who like political games. They place their personal interests above their state’s and regions’ (South) interests. Unless South India unites in to a common political force, we will remain as a second class entity. The local and regional languages of the South will be suppressed.

Telugu language has attained some respect owing to the struggle for Telugu language development from the past decade. As a result, the government has set up some institutions for the growth of Telugu. Some of them were brought down by the government itself. Some were merged with other institutions. Sahitya Academy was dissolved and merged with the Telugu University. The aim behind setting up Telugu University was to work in the areas of Telugu higher education, science education in Telugu, language development, dictionary building and research in Telugu history. Later it was converted in to a regular traditional university to receive aid from UGC. Later, government decided to publish textbooks in science at intermediate, degree and postgraduate levels through Telugu Academy. But, these text books had more Sanskrit than Telugu in them. Instead of helping Telugu, this has created a new and complex variety of Telugu. The Sanskritized Hindi language practiced in central government’s offices served as a model for this.

The Telugu Academy was formed 1968 with the funds received from the central government. Similar academies were set up in various states to make education accessible in regional languages and to write and publish textbooks for higher education. They were shut down in many states. The academy survived in Andhra Pradesh. Many opine that the academy has failed its function to protect the language.

The academy believed that learning in mother tongue is necessary to stabilize higher education and for this reason translated works into Telugu. They also had new text books written in Telugu. But, the language used in these books is not Telugu. It is similar to Sanskrit. It’s a cloned version of Sanskrit. This language has created more Sanskrit words than words from any other language. Since English was difficult to understand, they created synonyms in Telugu. Unfortunately, this aim [of making it easier to read] was not achieved. Instead of saying creatures with spines and creatures without spines, they say ‘’ Akasekarulu” and “Sakasekarulu” increasing the complexity of both language and meaning. Creating a complex language instead of simplifying text book language has made Telugu Academy abject. Students were able to get through in their exams with what they learnt in English from their teacher or in another fashion, rather than learning in Telugu from their text books. The creation of this artificial language has lost its influence in a short span. On the other hand, there was effort to gather and research words in various dialects from various districts. These efforts were limited to the study and research in linguistics. Hence, it failed in creating a democratic Telugu language. It couldn’t address the practical interests and perspectives of the Telugu language. Though a few dictionaries were published by them, these had no influence on the society. They failed in standardizing and modernizing the Telugu language. Language should reach the needs of the changing society. The government institutions did not cater to these needs. All the institutions and employees were not able to create a standard dictionary in Telugu. Mini-dictionaries cannot replace a standard dictionary. We weren’t able to provide dictionaries and reading material to students in Inter, B.A and M.A. So, we had to depend on English for higher education. English education increased in popularity. One of the main reasons for this is the failure of the language based institutions. Telugu University, established more than three decades ago is also mostly dedicated to literature. There was no success in building dictionaries, updating and modernizing Telugu language.

Many government institutions did no justice to Telugu language. Every institution has made the language more complex. The growth of the language is not possible for unless the institutions are centered on people’s perspectives. If there are budgets, there are no jobs. if there are jobs, there are no plans. Every institution has limited budgets. The lack of language centered perspectives is a curse to the people.

Rulers think that language’s only function is to dominate. Hence, there are so many problems in our state and in our country. We need a vision to overcome this problem. If not, the issues of language will become grave in new and old states.

 

Translated into English by Tejaswini Madabhushi.

Jayadhir Thirumalarao is a retired professor, and is interested in literature, language and folk culture.

 

Gogu Shyamala

At home, I used to snuggle against my mother’s warm body. If I had to go to the bathroom, my mother would wake up. When we went to bed, my grandmother Sangavva and her mother Lasumavva would regale us with stories. When we slept in the yard, we would count the stars in the sky and tell each other stories about the constellations—the Three Plough Spikes, the Golden Bed, the Hen and the Chickens, the Scorpion.

In the hostel, we told each other whatever stories we knew after dinner. I would tell the girls all the stories my mother and grandmothers told me. After that, we studied for a while, and then spread our mattresses and lay down in a row. When the watchman came and said, “Now go to bed, all of you,” I would cover myself fully with my sheet, but wouldn’t be able to sleep. I remembered events at home with a shudder and my stomach sank in anxiety. I wondered what had happened to my father, what the landlords had said to him, whether they had abused him or beaten him up, and how they might have made him suffer. I thought about how much my mother and Sangavva must have cried, and wept myself. I never knew exactly when I cried myself to sleep. I had nightmares and would wake up suddenly, sitting bolt upright. I missed my family deeply and wanted to go back to see them. 

In the morning, the mess cook would ask, “What is it, my dear? Your face is swollen, your eyes are red—are you ill?” I would not reply. Not knowing what to say, I would shake my head and my desire to weep would increase. But I couldn’t cry, because I was afraid they would say I wanted to go home and send me back. So I swallowed my tears. One day when the cook saw me all pensive like that, she inquired, “Remembering your mother and father, are you? In a few days, we’ll be having a four-day holiday. Everyone will go home and come back. Why are you so sad? You should go too.” I cheered up.

On the day I had to go home, I removed my ribbons, lightly combed the hair plaited the day before and tied it up in a loop. I quickly washed, ate my breakfast and went to school with the other girls. When the evening bell rang, I put the money my brother had given me from his winnings at the game of marbles into my skirt pocket. I put the new books that I had been given in the hostel into my bag, so that I could show them to my father. I slung the bag across my shoulder and started for home.

(Translated by R Srivatsan)

From the story ‘Radam’ in Father may be an Elephant, Navayana, 2012.