Of changing equations
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Some interesting reads in Kannada
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Nammodane Namma Nudi
K.V. Narayana, Lohia
Prakashana
Apprehensions are galore that the future of regional languages is bleak. Though such an apocalyptic prophecy seems far-fetched, there are several issues related to languages that need serious consideration. Kannada is facing fresh challenges for its survival that are far different from those it encountered in the post-independence days. As a language and as a culture Kannada now stands outside its secured fortress and is threatened by a number of factors like migration of other ethnic communities, a new economic model, arm twisting by globalising forces, apathy of the government and opportunism of the educated middle classes.
The author of the book, K.V. Narayan, a distinguished Kannada scholar and linguist, has collated his views on a number of issues that bedevil Kannada in these uncertain times. The writings raise fundamental questions pertaining to the fate of Kannada, which are seminal for its survival and growth at a time when local cultures are being ravaged by the might of the dominant forces that try to standardise everything, eliminating diverse cultural nuances.
The complete sell out of the middle classes and the nuave riche to the demonic process of globalisation has altered the equation that Kannada has had with English. The "Masks of Conquest" of the colonisers were creatively used by the Kannada genius to enrich itself in the past. But now, as the author records, while on the one hand Kannada has to establish itself as a force against the hegemony of English, on the other, English is seen by the downtrodden as a means of climbing up the social ladder. One who is serious about a language's future and also concerned about the fate of the downtrodden is left in an ambivalent state unable make an easy, simplistic choice.
Such a deep engagement with the present state of Kannada stresses the need for making changes in semantics and syntax. The author's stand that words from English must be directly incorporated into the Kannada vocabulary is refreshing when seen against the banal literal translation of terms which do not connote anything naturally. This is a welcome position as it can make Kannada vocabulary copious and enable it to travel outside its present confines. The author rightly recognises that the problems confronting Kannada at the linguistic level are due to political stirrings and the enormous sweep of technology. The demand for teaching English from the first standard is decried as no evidence supports the belief that learning a language for a greater number of years ensures fluency in it. The changes suggested in the script that can accommodate the needs of technology have far-reaching consequences that may change the face of Kannada in the written form. However, the case made for dropping Ru from the alphabet citing other such transformations and easy adaptation to computers is not convincing and needs to be debated in depth. As recent developments have amply demonstrated, major debates about languages may become venomous if there is no autonomy for other minor native languages of the region to survive without any suppression if Kannada, itself a subaltern in relation to English, Hindi and Sanskrit, acts as a domineering force. The recognition of the ontological, organic link between biodiversity and plurality of languages is a significant insight that calls for the preservation of both in these times of avaricious consumerism.
RAKSHITH M.R.
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