04:00 pm
Heightening Contradictions: Mumbai and English
As you may have heard, Barack Obama has suggested that we all learn a second language. Buddha knows I’ve tried, but now with much success. I now know a bit of French, Russian and the artist formerly known as Serbo-Croatian, but when I try speaking one, I usually end up mixing in the others.
The rest of the world is, of course, way ahead of us on this front. Still some argue that since the rest of the world has to learn English, why should we learn other languages? There are three answers to that question. The first, that we are better world citizens when we can speak other languages, is very idealistic but doesn’t really motivate people. The second, that everyone is going to have to learn Chinese instead if we keep flushing our economic strength down the toilet, may motivate some, but that’s really more a question of fixing what’s wrong at home.
But a third argument often gets overlooked: that other people don’t want to learn or use English.
Granted, that isn’t true in say, Iceland, but it certainly is true in Paris (well actually that’s not entirely accurate — it’s not that they don’t speak English, it’s that they want you to mangle French). But in other parts of the world, English is losing its place:
India’s capital of commerce speaks in many tongues but from this month, when it comes to official communications within the municipal authority, English will no longer be one of them.
The move was pushed through without debate by Shubha Raul, the mayor, who is a member of Shiv Sena, a political party that encourages the nativist pride of Marathis and chastises Indian immigrants who fail to behave like good guests in the city.
No city official is against Marathi communication — although Marathis make up less than half of Mumbai’s population the language is understood to some degree by many long-term residents. But some officials say that while the Marathi of the bazaars is easy to understand, the officialese version of the language is confusing, and a poor substitute for English. Like the Academie Francaise in Paris, city bureaucrats are increasingly on guard against English loanwords, even when they are more widely understood than the Marathi equivalent.
Ah yes, the Shiv Sena, a party headed by a man who emulates Hitler and favors ethnic cleansing. Real winners, those guys. They’re big believers in the idea that all political decisions should be not about consensus, but instead about heightening contradictions in society so as to bring on conflict.
And promoting a single dominant language is all about conflict, not consensus. Take a look at what happened in Sri Lanka, where English was downgraded back in the 1950s. As public education reverted to Sinhalese, Tamils grew increasingly unhappy. Soon, Tamils — for this and other reasons — felt more and more like second-class citizens. As that festered, Tamils started to attack Sinhalese, and Sinhalese started targeting Tamils. Next thing you know, everything had gone to hell, the Tamil Tigers were teaching the world about suicide bombing, and Sri Lanka was mired in decades of civil war.
Yes, that’s an oversimplification. But it does make a broader point: promoting a language for reasons of national pride is one thing; promoting it (or downgrading others) in order to trump minorities is quite a different kettle of Goan prawn curry. Mumbai has been on slow boil for years. And the Shiv Sena would like nothing better than to turn up the heat.