Wednesday, July 22, 2009

THE BURDEN OF LANGUAGE




The relation between language and civilization is quite significant. The language of civilization, which explores knowledge, becomes the language of modernity and development. This pushes the ‘speakers’ of other civilization in “asylum”. The only way out is to imitate “The Civilization” and speak the language of “modernity”

English as a language triumphed as language of civilization. It speaks for rationality, modernity and development. The only way out for civilizational growth is to “Be English”. Language not only contains set of grammar and rules, it contains complete package of culture and value system. So if a language is ‘publicized’ its cultures ‘publicizes’ too. If languages get imported, culture gets imported too.

In the post colonial world the administration was handed to ‘natives’ but culture always remained colonial. In fact in colonial age the culture was native but in post-colonial era it became “foreign”. From education system to administration, from art to culture we are moving towards “foreign”.

In a schizophrenic assumption of ‘national self’ we are living in the world of dream and abnegation. Our value system, education, system, judiciary, economics all want to attain the eternal position of “development” which lies in being “civilizationlly foreign”.

The latest remark of Supreme Court is just an expression of common psyche. That knowledge and development, modernity and values rest in learning “The knowledge” in English. The bench of three judges exclaim there notion as :

"People who study in mother tongues are not able to compete in medical and engineering exams. It is very easy to say that children should be taught in mother tongues, but the question is how to survive in this world. The best way out of this controversy would be to make all choices available but let the parents decide. Today private schools are charging Rs 30000-40000 but still parents are crazy to get their children admitted to English schools." — Chief Justice of India, K G Balakrishnan

So survival of the Gen-next and nation is dependent on learning English and technology. The “only” branch of knowledge. Sometime suffocated by voices of technology, I feel that if technology is the only knowledge or “The knowledge”. What if one fails to learn English, what if one fails to pass engineering, what if he fails to imitate “The Culture”?? Is he aberrant, is he irrational or is he Anti-national?? Quaffed by voices of development and growth, we remain slave, our consciousness dying, and our culture in crisis of identity and “we” gawk from the burden of language.

6 comments:

Fahad Ahmed said...

So True!!

Syed Nasar said...

It is something like hegemony by using language as proxy...

Nice analysis...

There is however a recent hullabaloo about the dominance of the multi-lingual

Read on..( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4387421/ )

crazyandbrainless said...

The real concept of nowledge has to be brought into the lmeilight and wor has to be done on an intellectual level to provoqe the thinqing class. Well done Musb bhai

AbdulAzeemKhan said...

i used to think,though india got independence...but still it is slave ideologically ....why???
the missing link for this question
i got from this precise article...
and now i understand that though ... externally what ever we(Indians or colonised nations) look like but sub-consciously we are being programmed ...to be westernised(ideologically)..

i appreciate brother musab..for taking pain to write an article on this issue...
and...i request him to write an article on "how to combat this cultural aggression"

shukran va salam

AbdulAzeemKhan said...

need2address "how to combat it"

Zahid said...

A great post Alhamdulliah. I think, the best thing is the we found a reason for domination ENGLISH culture.

Now lets make MUSLIM ENGLISH thats it. Let be more sophisticated, developed, knowledgeable, dominating in the language of civilization.

I think the idea of Islam is above language and it will carry the same greatness, impact and effectiveness if transformed to any other language, Inshallah.

I think instead a worrying and thinking about alternative, we can make best use of it in positive sense. Need present many examples of being English and a great Muslim to the world, specially to the young Muslim generation.

Wonderful post giving a whole big picture, Alhamdullaih