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<h1 class="">Language identity in India</h1>
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One state, many worlds, now what? </h3>
Jun 25th 2013, 21:46<span class=""> by S.A.P. | THE HAGUE</span>
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<p> </p><p dir="ltr">THE music video “Ek Sur”, more popularly known as “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jf6pwtPqCs">Mile Sur Mera Tumhara</a>”,
was released on India’s Independence Day in 1988. It was a small
contribution to the country’s herculean post-independence task of
building a unified national identity. The song’s lyrics were written in
all 14 languages recognised by the constitution at the time. (The number
has since increased to 22.) Playing off India’s many cultures, the
performers sing: “When your song and my song meet, they become our
song.” In typical Indian fashion, the video is both kitschy and
irresistible. It has since attained legendary status, eclipsing even a
hi-fi, star-studded 2010 remake. “Ek Sur” represents one piece of the
ongoing effort to define who and what is “Indian”, one of modern India’s
most pressing challenges.</p><p dir="ltr">On a smaller scale, the
southwestern state of Karnataka struggles with some of the same issues.
Karnataka was created in 1956 from adjoining, mostly Kannada-speaking
districts in four different states. The three other southern Indian
states were created using language-based distinctions around the same
time. The reorganisations were meant to strengthen regional identities.
But as with all things Indian, matters are never so clear-cut. Within
Karnataka, there are major native linguistic minorities: Tulu and Kodava
are spoken by some 8m and 200,000 people, respectively, all within
Karnataka. Konkani is spoken by 8m people spread over four states. Urdu,
found all over the subcontinent, is spoken by around 10% of Karnataka’s
62.5m people. Many people in border districts speak Marathi, Telugu,
Malayalam and Tamil. Even discounting the recent influx of
out-of-staters to Bangalore, Karnataka is hugely diverse. This all means
that Kannada, the state’s only official language, is spoken natively by
only about 65% of Karnataka residents. But the Ekikarana Movement, the
group of politicians and academics who (successfully) demanded a unified
Karnataka, was defined by language. To these protesters, Karnataka was
meant to be a Kannada homeland. How inconvenient, then, that the
districts they sewed together were so ethnically mixed.</p><div class="">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Karnataka_1956_Reorg.svg" class=""><img src="http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/images/2013/06/blogs/johnson/karnataka_1956_reorg.png" alt="" title=""><span class=""></span></a>
</div><p dir="ltr">Equating Karnataka with Kannada since unification has
been controversial, but certainly not uncommon. Karnataka Rajyotsava,
the holiday commemorating the birth of the state, is often used to
celebrate Kannada culture. The bicolour <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Flag_of_Karnataka.svg">Kannada flag</a>
is used on the holiday and other times during the year to unofficially
represent the state, even though it originated as the symbol of a
Kannada political party. To Tulu-speakers anxious for their own Tulu
Nadu state, anchored by the huge coastal city Mangalore, or
Kodava-speakers calling for a separate Coorg state, the holiday might
seem sour. And to the many non-Kannada-speakers in Bangalore, the
state’s diverse capital and India’s third-largest city (which we’ve <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/08/language-india">written about</a> before), the often deliberate, exclusionary focus on Kannada rankles.</p>
<p dir="ltr">All
this is exacerbated by the conflation of language and religious
identity. This is certainly not unique to Kannada or Karnataka. Hindi
and Urdu, two dialects of the language Hindustani, are the most
prominent example of this sort of partitioning of language based on
religious identity. Hindi is associated with Hindus, and Urdu with
Muslims. But language in Karnataka is instructive, too. Kannada cultural
identity is often wrapped up in Hinduism. Most premodern Kannada
cultural works, including writing, dance, sculpture, theatre and music,
are religious<span>—</span>mostly Hindu, with significant Jain
contributions, too. The area had been largely ruled by a succession of
Hindu kingdoms. (Muslim rulers in the region, including Tipu, a
prominent 18th-century sultan of Mysore, promoted Urdu and Persian
cultural works instead.) The land is covered with old Hindu and Jain
architecture. Sanskrit borrowings, so common in formal Kannada, are
often suffused with religious connotations. But it is certainly not the
case that only Hindus and Jains in Karnataka speak Kannada. And Muslims,
Christians, atheists and others have contributed much to past and
present culture in Karnataka. Still, it is hard to separate Kannada and
religious identity, especially when the ways to celebrate the language’s
cultural heritage are through the music, dance, and theatre mostly
created by Hindus, under Hindu kingdoms, for Hindus, and in reference to
Hinduism.</p><p dir="ltr"><span>The knots created by this diversity raise uncomfortable questions. Is it possible to be a Muslim (or Christian, or atheist) </span><span>Kannadiga</span><span>, not just a fellow Karnatakan, </span><span>when
the language’s culture is so suffused with other religious identities?
The very existence of Muslim native Kannada-speakers, of course,
supports one conclusion. But the state’s many native Urdu-speakers, and
the unavoidable saturation of Hindu religious culture into the Kannada
language, lean toward another. More fundamentally, is it exclusionary to
celebrate Kannada culture as a way to celebrate Karnataka? Many people
would say yes, of course it is: a third of the state speaks other
languages and have other cultures, so Karnataka must represent more than
just Kannada. But perhaps that is too unkind to the majority group in a
state created for them. If they can’t celebrate their heritage in their
own homeland, where else? How, then, to draw these distinctions fairly?</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>I recently came across </span><a href="http://youtu.be/6CWJMCqU5ow"><span>this music video</span></a><span>,
“Kannada Jeevaswara”, which was released last year to celebrate
Karnataka Rajyotsava and the “cultural heritage of Karnataka”. It was
sponsored by the Information and Publicity Department of Karnataka’s
state government. Like its predecessor “Ek Sur” did for all India, this
video uses catchy tunes and pretty scenery to propagandise a message of
Karnataka unity. The main message, nominally like “Ek Sur”, is unity in
diversity: we have many stories, but let us find common ground with
Kannada.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>Unlike many of these sorts of
cheesy cultural features, “Kannada Jeevaswara” has high production value
and well-written lyrics. Without my critical goggles on, I might have
even enjoyed it. But a few things stood out to me. The song is meant to
represent all of Karnataka: the images cover the state north to south,
coast to hills. It’s written about Kannada, though. (Even non-Kannada
speakers can hear how many times the language’s name is repeated in the
song.) There’s not even a wink to the state’s other native languages,
like Tulu, Kodava or Konkani, though they’ve taken video of the regions
where they’re spoken. And Hindu imagery appears again and again. Fine;
the state is home to incredible religious heritage, old and new. Still,
apart from a few flashes here and there, Islam and other major religions
are given short shrift even while the camera lingers on the state’s
tiny Tibetan Buddhist community.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>It would
take some skilled mental gymnastics to claim that this video, expansive
as it is, represents Karnataka. Perhaps it’s unfair to pick on a video
that was probably made with the best of intentions. I don’t think that
it was meant to be exclusionary. But I think it’s even more telling that
the government of Karnataka could so unconsciously equate Karnataka
with (only) Kannada and (mainly) Hindu identities. The current slogan of
the state’s tourism board is “</span><a href="http://www.karnatakatourism.org/"><span>One State. Many Worlds.</span></a><span>”,
a rather accurate summary of Karnataka’s diversity. If only it were
simple enough to leave it at that. As long as the state's minorities are
stifled in favour of a facade of unity, the sentiment is empty: "many
worlds", yes, but a splintered state. Karnataka's advocates must either
avoid celebrating the state's cultural heritage at all (an impossibly
sad result), or it must take its own tourism motto to heart. <br></span></p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/06/language-identity-india">http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/06/language-identity-india</a><br>
<span></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span><br></span></p></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>
University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------
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