http://www.livemint.com/2010/03/07222145/Dalits-look-upon-English-as-th.htmlPosted: Sun, Mar 7 2010. 10:21 PM IST
Economy and Politics
Dalits look upon English as the language of emancipation
Dalit activists argue that English not just opens up job
opportunities, but also helps ease the caste and power constraints
that come with speaking regional languages
Pallavi Singh
New Delhi: I dream of an English full of the words of my language.an
English in small letters and English that shall tire a white man's
tongue an English where small children practice with smooth round
pebbles in their mouth to spell the right zha.
When Meena Kandasamy wrote these lines, almost like a petition,
pleading that her roots be allowed to flourish in English, she was
just 18 and fresh from the unusual loss of her poetic name: Ilavenil.
Aspiring for change: Tamil poet Meena Kandasamy is one of a growing
band of Dalit intellectuals who look at English as a key to progress.
The Tamil name meant "spring" but often became the subject of ridicule
for the young Dalit poet when many said it sounded like the name of a
train. "I winced in horror and wept on my pillows. Within my own
state, this name was a clear giveaway of my Tamil origins: it was
devoid of Hindu/Brahminic/Sanskrit roots. I wanted a name people could
accept," she recalls.
She later adopted her nickname Meena to escape the predicament, and in
response to any question posed to her in Tamil, she spoke in English.
"I want this new tongue to accept me. I expect it to appreciate my
sensibilities, admire my culture and, above all, be accommodating,"
she says.
Kandasamy is one of a growing band of Dalit intellectuals who are
rooting for English, arguing what was once a language of imperial
power is now a language of emancipation.
Though a borrowed language, she says, English earned her recognition.
Poems in Kandasamy's first book Touch, written in English and
published in 2006, have been translated into five languages. "It
doesn't operate with the Dalits alone. English takes your voice to a
larger level and helps in your search for solidarity...(with)
like-minded people, people who want change."
Kandasamy's engagement is part of an emerging struggle in the journey
of English in India: the Dalit aspiration for progress and a growing
demand for schools teaching the language.
In Coimbatore, the second largest city in Tamil Nadu, a massive
English training project is under way. A seven-month-old programme
designed by the British Council under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA),
a flagship programme to put every child in school, is training
teachers in government-funded schools to teach communicative English
better. The real beneficiaries, says Alison Barrett, head of the
council's Project English for State Partnerships, are children from
marginalized sections who attend such schools.
"English is a way of accessing socio-economic advancement. English, in
this country, means a language of power, and if you don't give them
English, they cannot access power structures and effect changes in
socio-economic policies," says Barrett.
In Tamil Nadu, where a strong Dravidian movement in the early decades
of the 20th century thwarted the Union government's plans to impose
Hindi as the country's official language, the English Project has
brought within its fold 125,000 primary school teachers and five
million children in a short span of seven months.
Thiru. S. Kannappan, SSA's joint director in Tamil Nadu, who is
involved in planning, implementation and monitoring, says the project
came at just the right time, when learning levels in the language in
state-run schools were ebbing—only around 22% children in the schools
in Tamil Nadu can read easy sentences, a recent report by education
activist group Pratham says.
Dalit activists argue that English not just opens up job
opportunities, but also helps ease the caste and power constraints
that come with speaking regional languages.
Far away from Tamil Nadu, in Uttar Pradesh, Dalit thinker and author
Chandrabhan now calls for the worship of the English goddess—a symbol
of Dalit emancipation.
"Not only is the English language spoken everywhere in the world,
respected by the people of all the nations and easily learnt, but the
people of the English nation are also impartial and unbiased—and to
whichever nation they go, they do not indulge in the base acts of
casteism or communalism," says Prasad, who declared 25 October as
English Day in a ceremony in New Delhi last year, coinciding with the
birthday of T.B. Macaulay, the British administrator who introduced
English education in the country.
"English can fill the gap," says Alka Gupta, founder of the British
Academy for English Language in New Delhi. "It is like Bisleri
water—you may go for anything to eat but you do need water. Whatever
be your personal qualification, you can't go far without English."
This is the concluding part of the series
pallavi.s@livemint.com
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