Tamil beautiful speech

[John Bernard Bate]

Jim and Vershawn (and fellow Discours-ers),

First, Vershwan's questions:

>How does this relatively new speech genre effect or is effected by everyday
>speech? And is this represented in the literature of the country?

Wonderful!  One of the best ways to describe this 'beautiful Tamil'
(centamil) is to say that it is distinctly NOT like ordinary speech genres
(which are, of course, highly differentiated based on region, caste, class,
gender, forum, etc.).  Another way to say it is that centamil is a oral mode
of discourse modeled on the written word, and in particular the _archaic_,
'literary,' written word.  So, imagine what it would be like if our
politicians necessarily spoke like Shakespearean kings!  And also imagine
that if you didn't study Shakespeare -- pretty tough stuff requiring a
certain socio-economic positioning to begin with -- you wouldn't be able to
participate in formal political discourse.  What is really neat about the
history of this form of speech in Tamil, though, is that it emerges around
the 1940's or so and the full-scale politicization of a Tamil nationalist
group (the DMK, for now) in formal democratic politics.  They had a
distinctly anti-brahmin/anti-Hindi/anti-Sanskrit/anti-North India agenda.
Precisely at the moment when elite politics was breaking down in favor of a
mass politics, i.e. just when anybody and everybody could get involved, the
upper caste/class members of this nationalist movement began to speak in a
language which only the very privileged could speak.  It was partly a way of
instantiating a great literary tradition of thousands of years in the spoken
word, a literary tradition which was being propagated as the very emblem of
the Tamil civilization.  But the use of an 'elite' form of discourse to
speak to the 'masses' was one means of maintaining upper caste/class control
of the political process.  This all the while propagating a discourse of
'revolution' and 'democracy.'  The ironies -- as in all nationalisms -- are
thick.

And one more thing: have you read Jay Fliegelman's _Declaring Independence:
Jefferson, Natural Language, and the Culture of Performance_ (Stanford,
1993)?  A wonderful read which I highly recommend to all on this list.  But
one thing I find striking there is that at the very moment when the 18th
century Americans were facing a mass electorate and a 'public,' per se,
speakers such as Patrick Henry were shocking the aristocracy by speaking not
in the Ciceroian high style but in the 'vulgar.'  This use of a 'natural'
language to speak to the masses has been a vital part of American oratory
ever since (despite massive oratorical transformations).  We might say that
it was the opposite strategy from the Tamil nationalists; but that might be
way oversimplifying the two situations.

And now Jim's question:

>I wonder if there is in Tamil Nadu anything comparable to what
>appears to be "troping on" traditional lament forms by Hindu nationalist
>rhetoricians like Rithambra. [....]
>Do you suppose this is common at least in RSS-type speech, Barney?  I
>believe Rithambra's speeches are in Hindi; are speeches from the Hindu
>right in Tamil perhaps radically different?

Jim, as far as 'troping' is concerned, the very use of the archaic literary
tongue iconically instantiates that 2,000 year old literature cum
civilizational complex that is the emblem of Tamil nationalism.
Furthermore, in the use of peculiarly Tamil poetic conventions and the thick
resonance with various kinds of literature, speakers cast themselves as a
literary creators in their own right.  They inhabit voices of the past,
poets, kings, and gods, and thereby inhabit a particular model of power that
is then mapped onto a political field: literate vs illiterate, politicians
vs the 'masses,' my party vs the other party, me vs some other speaker, etc...

I'm only a little familiar with the Hindi/Hindu/Hindutva rhetoric from Anand
Patwardan's film "Father, Son, and Holy War" (a must-see, btw, for all you
rhetoricians out there).  But during my own research (1992-95) I tried to
stay as far from RSS/VHP/BJP/Hindu Front and their ilk as I could.  They are
trouble, and I was having enough trouble as it was.  In Tamilnadu they are
not the mainstream political entities they are in the Hindi belt (N.India),
and so I didn't really feel compelled to cover them -- they are more
'fringy' in Tamilnadu, to invoke a current phrase on this list!  I was also
living in a very mixed class/caste/community neighborhood, and such groups
were highly frowned upon by my friends and neighbors (such groups were more
popular in higher class, Hindu neighborhoods).  Despite causing some very
serious trouble/violence in some places, in most of Madurai their meetings
were very sparsely attended (more cops than anyone else.).  I did steel
myself to attend one meeting, but it didn't happen because someone set the
stage on fire before they could get going!

But I can tell you one thing: at least formally, the Hindu right, like
Congress, Communist, and (almost) everyone else in Tamilnadu these days,
uses 'beautiful Tamil' on the speaking platform.  Though a highly marked
form of speaking, it is the unmarked 'public' language, even for Hindu right
wingers.  But there are undoubtedly other tropes at work in their speeches
of which I am blissfully ignorant.

Thanks for the questions,
Barney
_____________________________
Bernard Bate
5311 S. Woodlawn, #1
Chicago, IL 60615

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