Script/dialect Chauvinism
On Alok Rai’s book Hindi Nationalism the following text is found on the outer
cover page. It’s content is applicable to the situation of Konknni in Goa. The
text reads, “This tract by Alok Rai looks at the politics of language in India
through a study of the history of one language- Hindi. It traces the tragic
metamorphosis of this language over the last century, from a creative, dynamic,
popular language to a dead, Sanskritised, dePersianised language manufactured
by a self-serving upper caste North Indian elite, nurturing hegemonic
ambitions. From being a symbol of collective imagination it become a signifier
of narrow sectarianism and regional chauvinism. The tract shows how this
transformation of the language was tied up with the politics of communalism and
regionalism. Rai seeks to save Hindi from the politics of Hindi nationalism.
If Hindi has to realise its inner potential and become a national language of
communication, argues
Rai, then it has to emancipate itself from its own repressed history, and
dissociate itself from its deformed other – the Sanskritised Hindi of the
pundits. It can only do this through a critical return to its troubled past.
In returning to that past, Rai hopes to create the possibilities of a new
future. This is a powerful tract, written with emotion and passion, speaking
with wit and ideas. It persuades us to rethink the question of National
Language, and reflect on the tangles links between language, identity and
politics.”
In the Editorial Preface of Alok Rai’s book the editor Neeladri Bhattacharya
says,
“This tract by Alok Rai is a passionate defense of Hindi. But Rai’s Hindi is
the language of everyday life that had evolved in North India by the nineteenth
century, a language variously and synonymously called Hindi, Urdu,, Hindustani.
It was a heteroglot, hybrid language that had absorbed the semantic resources
of many traditions. …to explain the sources of the deeper linguistic fracture,
Rai looks at the complicated working of competitive elite politics, and caste
and regional rivalries. The anxieties and ambitions of the North Indian Brahmin
elite., tormented by the entrenched power of the Muslim upper classes and
jealous of the Kayastha monopoly over the service sector, sustained the
energies of the Nagari/Hindi movement. Devanagari was opposed not only to the
Persian script, but also to Kaithi, a variant of the Nagari script that was
popular amongst Muslims and Kayasthas. To displace a community, it was
necessary to repress the assumed
markers of its identity and the cultural basis of its power. The hostility
towards the Persian script, coalesced with the attack against the syncretic
culture associated with the hegemonic Avadh Muslim elite, fusing the issue of
language and religion.
…As the Hindi/Urdu conflict became acrimonious, ‘Urdu’ protagonists dismissed
Hindi as rustic and uncouth, while ‘Hindi’ protagonists projected Urdu as the
language of the prostitutes.
…If Hindi has to realise its inner potential and become a national language of
communication, argues Rai, then it has to emancipate itself from its own
repressed history, and dissociate itself from ‘Hindi’ – a regional language
invented by a self-seeking upper caste local elite desperate to exercise
national dominance. Instead of being opposed to regional languages, Hindi has
to ally with them, and allow them to acquire national presence. By bringing to
light the violence that ‘Hindi’ has done to Hindi, this tract seeks to counter
the politics of that violence, and create the possibilities of a renewal.” (pp.
vii to xi).
Konknni has many lessons to learn from Alok Rai’s book “Hindi Nationalism”. It
is available for sale at Other India Book House, Mapuça. Price Rs.150/- I
highly recommend this book for all those who are interested in language/script
arguments which are still alive in Goa.
Konknnis (Konknni speakers) are spread out in different States of India. They
use different dialects and scripts. Konknni is required only to maintain their
cultural identity. In this context, Konknni does not help as a medium of
instruction, as a common media for communication or to earn one’s livelihood.
So far Konknni is survived because it is a vibrant spoken language "One script,
one dialect, one community" principle has not succeeded so far to unite
Konknnis and in the future it will not succeed. If we force this principle
Konknnis will survive but Konknni will perish. The protagonists of this
principle implicitly believe that Aryans, Brahmins, Sanskrit and Devanagari
script are inseparable elements of the common umbilical cord and they are
‘holy/pure/standard/best/high’ for all and for all ages! They are afraid to
break this cord because if they do so they will lose their fort and monopoly.
Pratap Naik, S.J.
Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr
B.B. Borkar Road
Alto Porvorim, Goa – 403 521
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