Agono Iralu
How many of us are bilingual? In a heterogeneous society one is compelled to be but we are not just bilingual, some of us can even speak three, four languages. This is a byproduct of the society we live and grown up in. Sometimes we can unconsciously switch from one tongue to the other without even realizing we do. When you look out beyond the ‘Chicken Neck’, you come across Hindi and the necessity in trying to communicate with a majority uneducated population of India. You do need Hindi else you’d be cheated and conned. I can safely say I speak and understand five languages.
This is part of the reason too why I am fascinated with pidgins languages. Like Nagamese which is a creole language among us because it has nativized itself among us. For example, especially among children of mixed parentage who speak Nagamese as a go-in between. Nagamese forms a chunk of structural communication in our society. An advantage too is that we can communicate with our neighboring state as well. However something significant about Nagamese, is how the language has managed to jump barriers of culture and languages among us. It is our own pidgin, even ethnic language. Pidgin English is an interesting approach to culture assimilations and their consequent overlapping in society, especially in nations that were once colonized. But for us we have nativized Nagamese, the pidgin, ‘trade language’ to breach those barriers and distance of village, tribe, region etc. In a way you can almost say, that we already had a ‘common language’ among ourselves (even before English came) imbibed into the society. It also forms a chunk of the contemporary version of the modern Naga identity today, defining its own culture too perhaps. The majority of schools in the North-east regions provide English-medium education (unlike the rest of India with less than 10% of state schools exercising English-medium education) and the youth population of today are English-fluent. Whether this has also been achieved through technology mediums such as mobile phones, text messages, internet etc, further spreading the influence of English. English is a lingua franca which has a lot of advantages in the outside world beyond India. However, I would say Nagamese can be considered more influential in communication, relationship-bonding or –building in our society.
Hindi
Hindi is indispensible in India because the majority of Indian population cannot speak or understand English. It becomes a useful tool in communicating in the streets and necessary if one intends to get oneself around in India. Of course if you are in south India then you should speak English or learn Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Tulu and Kodava according to the respective states.
Street lingo, slang Hindi or Bazaar Hindi is interesting and brings its own flavor to culture identity in an everyday life of a Hindi speaker. I find that it is a continuation through expanding or embracing of the language into the contemporary everyday life of people. Also, it gives a rich constituent to the language and not necessarily degrades it as such. Well, we can look at that from different angles of course. Let me try to emphasize what I mean to say through an example- take the national anthem, its language and poetic description/metaphors is actually not present in the everyday jargon. Well, that’s because it is written in a highly Sanskritized Bengali. In fact an average Indian may not know the meaning of ucchala jaladhi taranga although they are sung in the national anthem of India. Learning Hindi for me is a challenge because it is not my mother tongue (and I am not from south India either) and to distinguish or learn in depth Shudh Hindi, or proper Hindi as opposed to the street-Hindi is an overwhelming challenge altogether, forget trying to learn Urdu or Sanskrit. And this example here also punctuates the many diversities of India, seen from even a simple observation such as language.
My mother tongue
My mother tongue is Tenydie. I can speak Tenydie but unfortunately find difficulty in reading and writing Tenydie. I didn’t take up Tenydie in school for different reasons of upbringing and childhood migration. It is sad that English becomes more apt in my everyday vocabulary than Tenydie. I make an effort to learn and speak Tenydie, expand my vocabulary, learn deep-meaning words or expressions which may not find suitable translations in English. I try to understand culture through learning the language too, as it provides a window-view of my heritage. I appreciate my mother tongue because of these reasons, among others, and not forgetting how it gives me a strong sense of identity, root too. So however lacking, I try to compensate be learning stories passed down from oral tradition or taboos that once defined my identity.
There is so much to discover, so much more to learn and at times I am also unconsolingly worried that Time may have already erased some of them.
Some introspection
Language is a connecting thread among people, whether that is within one community or different communities relating to each other. Yes, English is the lingua franca. Yes, English has undoubtedly a higher hand in official red tapeism and its duties (also because we were once colonized too perhaps). But I appreciate the peculiarities of our different tongues and pidgin languages too. I translate it even as a uniqueness of our identity and how everyday jargons define us stronger than being framed on a canvass and decorated. It is reality and context that defines or transforms us. This can be subjected to positive outcome or negative, however superimposition is something completely out of context, I feel. So when I seek authenticity I search among the street lingos, slangs and laid back lives of village-existence, highway-stops, small-town feel. Language is a strong connecting this way and the importance of preserving or appreciating one’s language is really a form of preserving yourself or bringing out your uniqueness. When that is lost, a superficial film is replaced over it but definition still subjects Modernity, Globalization, superimpositions, assimilations. I wonder how many of us weigh it in this respect.
