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During an epistemology lesson, the question of language, which is a way of knowing, came up. The teacher asked if language separated the peoples of the world. The discussion was long and it spilled out into an online forum. The replies were innumerable and obviously varied from person to person. There were even suggestions for all to use only one tongue. My conclusion was that language creates boundaries between speakers and non-speakers but language embodies generations of culture and history, so creating a universal language for all does not feel ethically correct for most of us.
I am from Bangladesh, a country, which not only fought for its freedom in 1971, but also fought for its language in 1952. Yes, we are a tiny, almost unknown nation, which fought for the right to speak in its own mother tongue. I feel a history lesson coming up so I will just go with it.
During the separation of the Indo-Pak subcontinent in 1947, ‘Bengalis’ became the denizens of East Pakistan only because the majority population was Muslim, unlike the neighboring state of India. We, however, had scarcely anything in common with the West Pakistanis - we were separated by thousands of miles, we spoke Bengali, they spoke Urdu, our traditional cultures were vastly different (rather, we were more similar to the East Indians, also called West Bengalis). However, West Pakistan decided to force the peaceable Bengalis to adopt Urdu as their national language, which they would use even in their day-to-day lives. This oppression was met with the angry protest of young Bengalis who bravely filled the streets with placards in hand. Murderous rounds were fired from the rifles of the West Pakistani police to subdue them. Their bravery evidently was not futile.
The then-East Pakistan had to fight for its right to speak in Bengali. Today, Bengalis, mainly young ones, never stop to think how fortunate we are to be able to speak our mother tongue without the constantly-looming thought of being punished for doing so. It is with a heavy heart that I admit that I do not embrace Bengali the way I should - I spent a highly defining part of my growing up in Scotland and I have always studied under an English curriculum. My usual diction is heavily studded with English words and my Bengali written abilities are close to average.
This is the same sad case for thousands of other young people of my generation. For many of us, Bengali is slowly falling out of reach. And yet, there are countless youths who are completely dissimilar to me. So in a way I feel there is a sort of balance between the West-influenced youth and the ‘hardcore’ Bengalis. But should we be fine with this? Should we be fine with any Bengali being non-fluent? But the change has already set in and it is inevitable. We cannot push away English only now that we feel our identity is being threatened because it is undoubtedly important on a global level.
Language is overwhelmingly empowering because it allows its speakers to interchange thoughts and ideas with one another, to share a wealth of knowledge. Language has brought me together with people from Chinese, Korean, Georgian, Swiss, Swedish and Thai cultures. Is this aspect of language not breathtaking?
Yet my aunt, an erudite university professor, points out that this newfound culture of speaking in English and using it as an international medium of exchange also exhibits where power lies in this world. Does this not reveal that English-speakers possess the upper-hand in all niches of the world? My aunt questioned why should a Bengali learn English just to communicate with an English-speaker who is visiting Bangladesh? Why cannot he learn Bengali instead? I feel that this will open up an entire abyss of issues so perhaps I should not go further. On an interesting side-note, Americans are learning Chinese in hopes of job opportunities in China after the recession.
It is true that much of the Western world possesses unequal power in the world economy and politics, but I feel that they have earned their position, regardless of what means were employed to do so. In many ways, I feel that having a universal language would be wonderful and it is also expected that one day very soon, all human beings will be able to communicate with each other. This would bring us closer together - there would be so much less exclusion. And yet it seems wrong in some way, probably because there is the dreadful fear of losing our own identities in the process of gaining equal ground. So perhaps we should decide what we want before we make arguments about a predominating language. We need to decide where we feel the balance lies, where the line should be drawn. Someone I know closely loves his mother tongue and yet strives laboriously for his works to be read by a world audience. Language can build new horizons and leaving things as they are now, those horizons will never be reached. So, what should we do next?
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Amiya
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Comments
Mutebi Bwakya | Jun 9th, 2011
Enlightening, to say but the least. Good stuff...
Amiya | Jun 29th, 2011
Thank you!
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