The Casualty of Globalisation

moving notes

Globalisation has brought entire world under a single umbrella and in the process a couple of languages prospered at the cost of several others

“I speak three languages, write in two and dream in one,” says Kamala Das the noted bilingual poet. It is inevitable for the modern man to learn many, at least two or three languages, to survive and succeed in this world. However, every person feels at home with his mother tongue. One can have a felicitous expression in one’s own mother tongue and the use of another language does have its limitations, however proficient they may be in it.Globalisation has brought the entire world under a single umbrella, and forced the dominance of one or two languages that resulted in threat of obliteration of many languages.

The greatest irony in the history of man is that even the intelligentsia of a language like Telugu, which is spoken by more than 18 crore people in the world, may become a casualty of globalisation. And at present the treatment given to it by its own folks is a strong reason for it. Although, the yearning of the people of a single language for a separate state is not unjustifiable, one should have to discern the treachery of the vested politicians who exploited the sentiments of the vulnerable people and misled them in a way that resulted in a disaster for half their population.

People whose mother tongue is Telugu are spread throughout south India and the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1952, which was the first state to be formed in India on the basis of a language. Half of the Telugu people are outside of the state and they have been struggling to retain their mother tongue fighting against education in the other vernacular languages like Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Andhra Pradesh got bifurcated exactly at this time, when slowly and steadily their fight for identity has been gaining in strength, that cannot be overlooked by the respective state governments.

It is essential to divide a big country into states for facilitating the effective governance but the criteria of language for the division proved to be a gross blunder and in due course mother tongue has been the worst casualty of that mistake. It is the right time for introspection and all the people whose mother tongue is Telugu should work hard to retain their cultural identity irrespective of the political boundaries. And the central government should provide them all the facilities.

The problem of education in mother tongue has to be tackled effectively at this juncture. Equal opportunities should be given to all castes and classes of people. There is a need for moulding the language to suit contemporary times. The difference between language in the books and common usage has to be minimised, as a lot of rich terminology is confined to the dialects without procuring currency in the form of popular writings like journalism and literature. Though the official language board was constituted long age, it was not given any power to supervise the implementation. Further, the writers and linguists should create new words from the roots of Telugu words for many scientific and technological terms.

‘Nadusthunna Charithra’ a monthly journal had been a forum for the Telugu language promulgation since 1993. It started as a small journal on the socio-political issues of Andhra Pradesh and soon transformed into a journal of the language. It supported Telugu people living in the other states by discussing their needs, agitations and also their efforts to retain their education in Telugu. The journal inspired all such people and got them unified. It is this journal, which educated the Telugu people in the erstwhile AP state that there are their fellow Telugu people not only in the other states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha but also in the other countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. It published many articles on the usage and grammar of Telugu language.

By publishing the autobiographical stories of many tribes and nomads like 'Yerukula' and 'Sugali' it established the diversified culture of the people. Many people living in the other states were encouraged to write their experiences like Nandyala Narayana Reddy’s 'Iruladoddi Kathalu', stories about the people living in a sylvan valley in the outskirts of the city Bengaluru and the stories penned by the writers from Hosur and Bellary. The writings were like eye openers to a world, which was completely unknown until then. Many essays identifying the right Telugu words for the scientific and technological terms and enumerating the words, which had lost currency were also published. It is not an exaggeration to say that the back editions of 'Nadusthunna Charithra' constitute documentation of the varied culture and civilisation of Telugu people.

However, the bitter truth is that 18 crore people could not sustain even a single literary journal. The development of literature does depend upon the support of the journals. Unless the establishment of at least half a dozen literary journals that encourage experimentation in quality and quantity, and pay the writers at least judiciously and number of readers increase any discussion becomes mere boasting and redundant. Even a journal like 'Nadusthunna Charithra' could run for more than 15 years because of the financial support extended by a single man, SPY Reddy, an industrialist and Parliamentarian.

Samala Rameshbabu, the editor of the journal had to cease publishing a year ago due to financial troubles and his ill health. But his zeal for the development of Telugu language knows no bounds, and so he revived it with a different name, 'Amma Nudi'. Now it is up to the Telugu people from both the states and across the world to join hands and work towards a better future for their mother tongue(The writer is a bilingual short story writer, novelist and poet, writing in both Telugu and English)