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Language fusion

Photo: M. Karunakaran

What’s the good word Rita Kothari

We drink to Pepsi’s “Yeh Dil Maange More” and Coke’s “Life Ho To Aisi”. We host our American-born confused desi cousins. When Domino’s Pizza asks “Hungry Kya?” we order Chicken Tikka Masala. We made “Jab We Met” a hit phrase. There is no getting away from it. Hinglish is hip.

Rita Kothari, Associate Professor, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, wants to take a deeper look at this collision of languages. Backed by MICA, Rita is organising a conference appropriately labelled “Chutnefying English”. It’s hard to think of anyone who wouldn’t be interested in it. Where attempts to make Hindi a common language failed, bol-chaal Hinglish has succeeded. It has meant freedom, opportunities for copywriters. The Christian Science Monitor said, “The sheer numbers of Hinglishmen in IT makes it almost inevitable that some Hinglish words will get globalised.” Indians across the world feel connected by it.

“I am Sindhi,” Rita declares. Is that relevant? Apparently. She has documented the partition experience of the Sindhi Hindu community in her remarkable narrative “The Burden of Refuge”. “My book deals with the question of psychological violence — to identity, to language, to the sense of belonging,” she says.

Rita grew up in Gujarat, taught English at St. Xavier’s, ran the Katha Academic Centre. In 2003, she wrote “Translating India”, a scholarly tome on translation and bilingualism. In the next few years, she translated “Angaliyat” (Stepchild), the first Dalit novel set in rural Gujarat, translated stories by Gujarati women under the title “Speech and Silence”. The Conference will study how Hinglish has permeated channels of communication – ads, culture politics, call centres, corporate India, Bollywood and new media. Panelists will speak on hybridization and language-switching. There will be a discussion on Tamlish. If you’re attending, (http://conferences.mica-india.net), you could question ideas presented by Rupert Snell, Urvashi Butalia, Harish Trivedi, Mahesh Bhatt, Nandita Das, Prashant Panday and Prasoon Joshi, among others.

Rita has a few questions. “I want to see whether Hinglish could qualify as a unifying force as it is claimed to be,” she says. “Do people down south respond to ‘Dil Mange More’? How about the north-east?” “It’s not just words,” she points out. “When I say, “Mujko apna space chahiye,” I’m borrowing not just the word, but the very idea of space.” Is Hinglish a product of lack of competence in either language? Is it impure? Will such a language support the specificities of Indian culture? Does it reflect a post-colonial identity? Will great literature get written in Hinglish? Though the languages co-habit, do they share space equally? In sentences like “dil mange more”, the key word is in English. The less significant sentence builders are in Hindi. In cosmetic ads, words such as “glow”, “silken” are in English, not an equal partnership.

Then there’s the agenda topper: Is there a definition of Hinglish? Rita would like participants to debate, question and examine these and other questions. “They should come not from writers and academics but from hands-on experiences from industry, ads, media and films. I expect fireworks in the Conference.”

Democratisation of education is a big factor in the popularity of the language mix, she says. For students coming to the cities, the pull of mother tongue is strong. Lack of comfort with English is offset by their confidence in Hinglish. Hinglish, as is Tamlish, is the language of youth, widely used in blogosphere. “In my Institute, non-Hindi speaking students pick up code words so they can follow campus jokes.” Will Hinglish go from “cool” to comparative literature?

Is there an outcome that would make her happy? “Finding a social scientist/cultural theorist among participants,” she says. “Getting the industry to reflect, debate and historicise what appears to be a current, non-serious phenomenon. Hinglish is thought of as frivolous. It deserves serious consideration.”

Rita will be taking notes. She hopes to put the conversations into a book to be published by Penguin India.

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