We all know that necessity is the mother of inventions. Sometimes when these inventions become part and parcel of our daily routine, we never realise that there was a necessity at some point of time that triggered this invention. Thousands of years ago when one man wanted to communicate to another he possibly used signals. It must have been terrible just to say a "How are you doing?". People possibly avoided each other - it would take an entire hour to exchange pleasantaries. Thanks to all those who have learnt that Communication is the key to growth the hard way, we now have language - a defined medium and easy to learn, understand and helps us exist.
But then too much of something always ends up creating trouble and so is the case of languages. India alone has close to about 900 spoken languages. And these languages have created boundaries - strong enough to be state borders within the Union. While it is certainly beyond a few years of discussion on whether states should be split based on linguistic prominence, it is certainly worthy to step back and see what have we gotten out of it. Language is a basic attribute of a social animal and for an Indian it is a key differentiator. Language defines roots, history, tradition, culture, habits, ceremonies. It is a matter of pride for many. Some languages have a rich saga and there is always a contention or a comparison.
Particularly down South India, language is a very sensitive topic. Right from the early 40's when Hindi - a language spoken by around 40% of Indians - was declared as a official language of communication in India and imposed in schools and colleges, there have been continous strikes and bandhs. Parties have strived on their linguistic affinity. Elections have been fought and won over kindling of lingo sentiments. We have seen self immolation, broken bridges, fallen trees, black paints on signboards & milestones, strikes, total shutdowns, picketing - everything that a democracy can boast of for this cause. Any political or cine celebrity who doesnt show his affinity for the language will be trashed mercilessly.
While the affinity for one's language and the sentiments are to be respected and honored, some of these loyalists end up becoming fanatics and self declared saviors of the language. There are organizations/leaders in Tamilnadu who are the Templars of Tamil. Their job is to make sure that it is all Tamil everywhere. They have no purpose, nor goals nor any honorable intentions. All they want is all sign boards to be in Tamil, all movie names to be in Tamil and all college curriculum in Tamil. They believe that they can bring honor to the language and protect it's rich traditions by painting English name boards with a black paint or by stopping crowded trains on weekday mornings during rush hour traffic. I still cannot understand what good it would do to Tamil by renaming a 150 minute entertainment currently called "Mumbai Express" into a Tamil name. Of course, the irony that the sons of these warriors are all well educated in English(sometimes even in Hindi) in some of the best schools in the country, they even have overseas graduation degrees - but then who can question them, at the cost of being called a traitor.
Love the language. Appreciate its history. Enrich the literature. Contribute to the purity. Spread the word... But realise that petty stuff like renaming movies will only make the lanuguage an object of ridicule.
Chao..
But then too much of something always ends up creating trouble and so is the case of languages. India alone has close to about 900 spoken languages. And these languages have created boundaries - strong enough to be state borders within the Union. While it is certainly beyond a few years of discussion on whether states should be split based on linguistic prominence, it is certainly worthy to step back and see what have we gotten out of it. Language is a basic attribute of a social animal and for an Indian it is a key differentiator. Language defines roots, history, tradition, culture, habits, ceremonies. It is a matter of pride for many. Some languages have a rich saga and there is always a contention or a comparison.
Particularly down South India, language is a very sensitive topic. Right from the early 40's when Hindi - a language spoken by around 40% of Indians - was declared as a official language of communication in India and imposed in schools and colleges, there have been continous strikes and bandhs. Parties have strived on their linguistic affinity. Elections have been fought and won over kindling of lingo sentiments. We have seen self immolation, broken bridges, fallen trees, black paints on signboards & milestones, strikes, total shutdowns, picketing - everything that a democracy can boast of for this cause. Any political or cine celebrity who doesnt show his affinity for the language will be trashed mercilessly.
While the affinity for one's language and the sentiments are to be respected and honored, some of these loyalists end up becoming fanatics and self declared saviors of the language. There are organizations/leaders in Tamilnadu who are the Templars of Tamil. Their job is to make sure that it is all Tamil everywhere. They have no purpose, nor goals nor any honorable intentions. All they want is all sign boards to be in Tamil, all movie names to be in Tamil and all college curriculum in Tamil. They believe that they can bring honor to the language and protect it's rich traditions by painting English name boards with a black paint or by stopping crowded trains on weekday mornings during rush hour traffic. I still cannot understand what good it would do to Tamil by renaming a 150 minute entertainment currently called "Mumbai Express" into a Tamil name. Of course, the irony that the sons of these warriors are all well educated in English(sometimes even in Hindi) in some of the best schools in the country, they even have overseas graduation degrees - but then who can question them, at the cost of being called a traitor.
Love the language. Appreciate its history. Enrich the literature. Contribute to the purity. Spread the word... But realise that petty stuff like renaming movies will only make the lanuguage an object of ridicule.
Chao..
1 comment:
Well said Shiva. Guess Tamil is perhaps the only mainstream indian language that does not have sanskrit as its origins. Its an ancient classical language on par with sanskrit with enough and more literary writing from days of yore.
But that ofcourse does not mean that you should take your love for a language to an extreme. It then becomes a butt of everybody's ridicule.
From "fighting for a cause", its now become just "Fighting" !!
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