Do Indian Languages Carry the Legacy of Caste?

[Guest guest]

NEW DELHI (March 5, 2007): In an article on reservation [job quotas]

for oppressed classes in the information technology sector, noted

sociologist Gail Omvedt quoted a Dalit boy as saying: " In Pune they

just assume that anyone working with computers is a Brahmin. "

 

The hidden agony of being born in the former untouchable class is

now coming into the open in the so-called resurgent India. Dalits,

who number around 17 million and live on the margins of society, are

passing through testing times.

 

In a changing India, they don't want to be left behind as they have

for thousands of years in the past. Their aspiration to get ahead is

driving them to a variety of new ideas and actions. They are also,

looking back to their messiah -- freedom fighter and Constitution

expert Dr B R Babasaheb Ambedkar.

 

New Delhi-based Chandra Bhan Prasad, 48, is a Dalit activist who

writes a weekly column on Dalit issues in The Pioneer newspaper.

 

Born in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, in a peasant's family, Prasad has

done an M Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University on technological

acquisition in post-Mao China. Due to unavailability of resources he

could not complete his Ph D in the Chinese history of science.

 

Prasad picked up the gun in the early 1980s when he joined the

Communist Party of India-Maoist Leninist with dreams of changing

Indian society. " The Maoists are ambiguous, they can't win, " he

says. " They are not reflective on the issue of caste in India so I

left the CPI-ML. "

 

Now, married but struggling without a regular income, Prasad keeps

throwing up provocative ideas concerning Dalits in the national

debate.

 

His latest idea is the anti-thesis of the saying -- 'language is the

cradle of civilisation.' Prasad thinks the ethnic languages of India

are carrying forward -- generation after generation -- the

prejudices and biases of casteist Indian minds.

 

Prasad, in a passionately argued debate with Managing Editor Sheela

Bhatt, claims that for the empowerment of Dalits, the knowledge of

English is must, especially in a society where those who can speak

English are riding up the social ladder faster than others.

 

English, he says, is the new goddess! Prasad celebrated October 25,

2006, Thomas Macaulay's birthday as a day when the Dalit community

in New Delhi unveiled Goddess English!

 

Q: Why do you want Dalits to abandon their mother tongues and take

up English which is not their mother tongue?

 

A: In Indian society nothing belongs to the Dalits. Anything that is

Indian, mirrors the Indian culture, value system. It will certainly

contain the strong flavour of caste and prejudice against

untouchables.

 

In Hindi, to greet somebody we say pranam. The person bows down and

there is a kind of body coordination like the folding of hands and

bowing down of the head when he or she says pranam.

 

According to Indian tradition, Dalits don't have the right to

receive pranam . Because the receiver of the pranam had the right to

bless, so Dalits never received pranams. In response, the person

responds with 'khush raho (be happy).

 

Q: Have Dalits ever blessed the upper castes?

 

A: I want to emphasis the fact that how Indian languages -- be it

Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil or Malayalam -- all of them carry the

legacy of caste. But if you replace Hindi or Tamil by English you

will greet by saying 'good morning.' The other person will respond

saying 'good morning'. Both will look into the eyes and equality is

established.

 

There are too many caste-based abuses in India. People say chori-

chamari na karna. (Don't steal like the chamars, who are the lowest

caste amongst the Dalits). In the countryside these abuses are quite

common, even now. " I'll make you a bhangi(sweeper caste)! " -- is

quite often used as a threat.

 

In Hindi films and television serials they have slightly modified

these age-old abuses. They now say chori-chakari na karna. It hurts

us. Analyse it with a little sensitivity. These abuses are meant for

us only; it reflects the mindset of Indians.

 

Indians don't eat pork because untouchables were eating it. Germans

eat it, why can't we eat it? They are fine people also. Indian

culture carries many such caste-based biases.

 

Q: What are the broader issues in favour of English?

 

A: There are several cultural aspects. The knowledge of English by

Dalits will hit at the backbone of the caste system.

 

India's caste system relies on the twin principle of occupational

purity and blood purity. You could not go out of your occupation. A

cobbler's son would have to be a cobbler and a carpenter's son

remained a carpenter for generations. Inter-caste marriages were

strictly prohibited.

 

For centuries Dalits could not marry outside their caste to maintain

caste purity. But if a Dalit knows English then there is no way he

will be climbing a toddy tree and end up doing a manual job.

 

The English-speaking Dalit will not be made a sweeper or a cleaner

of toilets. Good knowledge of English will emancipate him and give

him leverage to liberate himself from traditional occupations.

 

Once you are out of your traditional socio-circle you have a higher

chance to marry in the non-Dalit family. That will break the bondage

of 'blood purity' as well. There are some instances of Dalits who

speak English, they dress well, have a good job and are married to

Brahmins.

 

Q: In a recent television interview, Yogendra Yadav, the well-known

thinker on social issues, has effectively rebutted your argument.

The caste system will not go away only because Dalits start speaking

English. It will be more useful if the mindset of the upper caste

changes.

 

A: You are right. My movement for English will not immediately

demolish the caste system. But it will be a great leap forward. Look

at the way ordinary people are treated in India who know only Indian

languages and the way English-speaking people are treated.

 

When you speak English it so happens that you dress up differently.

I get invited to parties and when I speak in English people talk

differently and are even ready to listen to me.

 

What I speak, if spoken in Hindi, doesn't make an impact at all. I

am dismissed but if I say the same things in English, I am heard and

applauded. Also, you may have noticed that English-speaking people

tend to wear suits and matching shoes. Better dressing elevates your

position and makes you heard.

 

Q: But it is also true that to move ahead in life you need

confidence and talent more than anything else. Second, unless the

upper castes change their mindset how are you going to get fair

treatment, which is your real and final aim? In other words, the

upper castes will give you equal status irrespective of the fact

that you speak Hindi or Telugu or English if and when they realise

their wrongs.

 

The change in mindset will only help you, not your knowledge of

English. And, if you have confidence in your talent or in yourself

more can be achieved than otherwise. You have an example of Planning

Commission Member Dr Bal Mungekar.

 

A: He is a well-known economist who writes in English, speaks

English. He didn't write his first book in Marathi, his mother

tongue. If he was not English-speaking he would not have been made a

member of the Planning Commission.

 

Q: But that would be true for even a Brahmin economist.

 

A: For the same reason I am arguing that chances of Dalits moving

ahead will be much less without knowing English.

 

Q: It may not be an entirely correct argument because Lalu Prasad

Yadav, a leader of the Other Backward Classes, is powerful and

successful because of his ethnicity. Rather, he knows English but

never speaks it because he knows that to win an election in India he

should speak Hindi. How do you explain that? He ridicules English-

speaking people and is still surging ahead.

 

A: You can't compare him to ordinary Dalits because he holds

political office. Politics is a limited field. In democracy, you can

win an election without the knowledge of English. How many can

become MPs?

 

Q: We are talking about his confidence.

 

A: But he is ridiculed too.

 

Q: J Jaylalithaa's strength is not her knowledge of English.

 

A: You can't compare politics with what I am saying.

 

Q: Okay, take Sania Mirza. Her talent and tact has nothing to do

with her knowledge of English.

 

A: Films, sports and politics are different fields. I am talking of

ordinary lives. These are fields offering opportunities to merely a

few people. Whereas the knowledge of English can give opportunity to

millions and millions of people. Not out of any complexes but with

confidence we have celebrated Lord Macaulay's birthday on October

25, 2006. On that day, we have established English as the Dalits'

goddess.

 

People condemn him for making India bilingual but I consider

Macaulay the father of Indian modernity. The bottom line is that

since I have some knowledge of English I feel more confident than

those other Dalits who can't speak English.

 

Q: Do you disagree that culture and identity is interlinked to

languages?

 

A: Yes, I agree.

 

[To be continued ...]

 

SOURCE: Rediff.com. 'Indian languages carry the legacy of caste' By

Sheela Bhatt| March 05, 2007 | 17:34 IST

URL: http://in.rediff.com/news/2007/mar/05inter.htm

[Guest guest]

The interview with Sri Chanra Banu Prasad is interesting.

 

He rightly says the Indian system is based on occupational Purity. Son of a

capenter is expected to be a carpenter. Similarly, Son of a pujari is expected

to be a pujari which is the worst paid profession.

 

In rhe heart of Hyderabad, there is a place where Dialy wage workers colect

looking for employment. These are migrant labour and caste compsition varies

from tribal Lambadi to high caste Reddy. Poverty has made them all equal. The

pure blooded Reddy gets the same wages as the Lambadi.

 

Just about 100 meters from the daily wage workers , Pujaris collect waiting,

hoping that some one will come and ask them to perform some puja. They are much

worse paid than the daily wage workers. Some of them are very good Sanskrit

scholars As per Bhanu Prasadji these Brahmins have Blood purity and should

have been at the top of the system. The issue is poverty and not caste. Quality

of education is linked to money not language.

 

If English replaces Indial languages it will simply result in English speaking

migrant labour and English speaking Poor Pujaris. It is misleading to attribute

every thing to the caste system.

 

Devi Bhakta <devi_bhakta wrote:

 

NEW DELHI (March 5, 2007): In an article on reservation [job quotas]

for oppressed classes in the information technology sector, noted

sociologist Gail Omvedt quoted a Dalit boy as saying: " In Pune they

just assume that anyone working with computers is a Brahmin. "

 

The hidden agony of being born in the former untouchable class is

now coming into the open in the so-called resurgent India. Dalits,

who number around 17 million and live on the margins of society, are

passing through testing times.