<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-heading">Return of language politics</h1>
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Prasenjit Biswas | Shillong </p>
<span>April 24, 2017 | 01:26 PM</span>
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<p>Can language become a
dominant factor in polarising politics of our time? Seemingly Assam
education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s positioning of Assamese as a
compulsory medium of instruction up to Class X is based on a sentimental
ownership of the language and not by sound educational logic. As the
choice of a language should be left to students and their parents, the
minister is withdrawing options for them by declaring a kind of
mono-lingual authority for Assamese that does not augur well for the
multi-lingual state of Assam.</p>
<p>Of course, the minister left two small options — one, Bodo for tribal
areas of Bodoland and Bengali for the Barak Valley. The overwhelming
emphasis on Asomiya is reminiscent of the earlier emphasis on Sanskrit,
which was later given up and revised. The issue here is not just about
policy-making but also recognising linguistic diversity in Assam and
allowing free choice of a language as a medium of instruction.</p>
<p>It is important to understand why the imposition of language and
using it in a certain way becomes the hallmark of state policy towards
the minorities. It won’t be out of place to mention that recently the
West Bengal government in North Bengal initiated a committee to research
into the status of the Rajbangshi tongue as a language and proposed to
recognise it in the context of North Bengal. The West Bengal government
intended to address the question of the Kamtapur demand by recognising
Rajbangshi language.</p>
<p>Unfortunately no Rajbangshi scholar is included in the committee and
only scholars with a particular language and scientism were included in
the committee. It has scholars like Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, Ananda
Gopal Ghosh, Subodh Sarkar and Bijay Sarkar, all of whom are known for
their theoretical inclination to undermine languages that are minority
languages as part of Bengali.</p>
<p>The two cases of Assam and West Bengal run parallel to each other. In
the case of Assam minorities are subjected to a compulsorily learning
the major language of the state. In case of West Bengal a recognition of
Rajbangshi as a language qualified to become a medium of instruction
sounds far-fetched, as many of the these scholars believe that
Rajbangshi is a dialect of Bengali. Again in Assam, tribal languages
which are used as a medium of instruction will now face a fear of
extinction if Assamese has to be compulsory up to Class X. In both
cases, there is a clear attempt to bulldoze minority languages.</p>
<p>The question is, why should a state policy be so biased that it has
to establish superiority of language of the dominant cultural identity?
What is the compulsion of the ruling group to secure the dominance of
the dominant language while the languages of marginalised groups are
left to languish and probably to die out? This act of immiserisation of
marginalised languages constitute the policy of ensuring dominance of a
ruling elite often formed on the basis of language, religion, caste and
tribe.</p>
<p>The other question is can the ruling elite be homogeneous in language
and culture? Seemingly Biswa Sarma and the West Bengal government are
carrying out an implicit agenda of setting up dominance of the language
of the majority. The justification for such a language policy remains in
the linguistic division of states and provinces in India. Similarly,
the recent approval of the President of India for ministers and top
officials to speak only in Hindi creates a similar situation in
Parliament and the high echelons of power.</p>
<p>It is definitely important to understand how a particular state
treats its linguistic and cultural minorities as there is no alternative
to giving a fair and equitable treatment to minorities at every level
of our national life. If we have to build up a national identity based
on “unity in diversity” as a principle, it is to be recognised that a
majority linguistic group in one state is necessarily a minority in
another state. The way minority languages are denied a fair treatment in
West Bengal, it has its immediate backlash in states where Bengali is a
minority language. Needless to say it will induce a sense of alienation
and iridescence for those perceived majority languages in places where
they are in minorities.</p>
<p>In case of Assam’s multicultural and multilingual mosaic, imposition
of Asomiya as the only medium of instruction has a bitter history of
falling apart and fostering mistrust. Similarly in North Bengal, leaving
out smaller linguistic groups while giving a partial and
not-so-acceptable recognition of Rajbangshi as a language, creates
mistrust for smaller groups like Rabha, Bodo, Dhimal, Santal and others.
This kind of a skewed policy of recognition to some and disrecognition
to immediate others creates a double trap. On the one hand, it creates
challenges for a language as it gets identified with dominance and on
the other, it leads to appropriation of smaller linguistic groups. In
the context of Assam, such a skewed policy creates a lot of unease among
Non-Asomiya linguistic groups, as they are constantly threatened by
such linguistically aggressive state policies.</p>
<p>The government remains insensitive to cultural and linguistic
diversity. As there is an increasingly racist, linguistic and
culturalist fundamentalism fanned by state policies, the latest diktat
by the governments have a serious fall-out. In bigger countries like the
US and Canada, there is an official policy of multiculturalism that
India never has. It has been emphasised by the Centre that the
Constitution guarantees fundamental rights of freedom of conscience and
recognition of everyone’s religion and language and prevent
discrimination on the basis of race, caste, sex and religion, which is a
foolproof arrangement towards cultural and linguistic equality. As
things emerge, the government and the ruling elite and the state policy
become the biggest source of casualty in this constitutionally-given
mandate of protection and propagation of minority cultures.</p>
<p>The justification that comes from Assam government for making
Asomiya, Bengali and Bodo compulsory for schoolchildren, is the reason
that children are forgetting their mother tongue in private schools.
While this aspect of policy framing is for the good of future
generations, imposition of a dominant language on other language groups
causes an equal obstruction to learning of their mother tongue. In the
Brahmaputra valley, where there are many tribal languages, the policy
needs to be corrected by a rider that children from tribal groups will
also have the right to learn their own mother tongues. This recognition
of tribal languages will be in line with various articles of the
Constitution, while the imposition of a state language on ethnic and
linguistic minorities goes against the grain of Constitutional intent.</p>
<p>The policy of the West Bengal government to give a political
recognition of Rajbangshi as subsidiary language but without situating
it in its proper historical and cultural context creates a deeper sense
of anxiety and alienation among Rajbangshi speakers. The rationale for
such a onesided decision stems from a majoritarian sense of belonging to
a dominant language as part of a democratic power game and reduces
language to a mere political tool of statecraft. One needs to remember
that language is the finest expression of human essence and hence entry
into any language is taking part in a form of life. If the interest of
building up a unified nation is to be formed, the governments of Assam
and West Bengal need to be extremely sensitive to the ground reality of
tribal and minority languages. Bereft of this, turning language into a
tool for politicisation is a polarising act that has a terrible fall-out
in breakdown of common and shared faith in living together in mutual
co-existence.</p>
<p><em>The writer is an author and a philosopher based at the North
Eastern Hill University, Shillong. His latest book is Bet Thought and
Consciousness, Notionpress, 2017</em></p><p><a href="http://www.thestatesman.com/features/return-of-language-politics-1493020551.html">http://www.thestatesman.com/features/return-of-language-politics-1493020551.html</a><br><em></em></p><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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