As a carrier of our cultural memory, language is a precious heritage. The diversity of languages and dialects across the world is symptomatic of the multiplicity of the systems of traditional knowledge systems which have entered the web of multiple modernities resisting monolithic cultural imposition. Globalisation, unfortunately, has unleashed forces that tend to suppress minority voices and their languages. G.N. Devy rightly underlines the gradual extinction of languages of small communities, especially of Adivasis, whose language citizenship is under relentless assault (“Gain in translation”, July 21). But it is not only due to the state’s apathy to languages. The social acceptability given to languages with a pan-Indian appeal such as English and Hindi at the cost of regional languages by the communities themselves is equally to blame. According to UNESCO, even languages such as Garhwali and Kumaoni in Uttarakhand are in the category of endangered languages. City-born Paharis deem it below their dignity to converse in their mother tongue. A folk singer, Narendra Singh Negi of Garhwal, takes a dig at such people in a popular song, “Pahari, Pahari mat bolo mein Dehradun wala hun (do not repeatedly refer to me as a Pahari. I live in Dehradun”).
Winters are extremely hectic for Sushma Patel, a vegetable grower in Uttar Pradesh’s Chunar town. Her farm is in the fertile plains of Ganga where people grow three crops a year. But this is the only season when she can grow vegetables. And before that, she needs to manually dig out shreds of plastic and wrappers from her one-hectare (ha) farm. “This is all because of the nullah,” she says, pointing at an open drain that runs through her field, carrying sewage from the neighbourhood to the Ganga. “Every monsoon, the drain overflows and inundates the field with a thick, black sludge and plastic debris. We cannot even go near the field as the stench of sewage fills the air,” she says. But Patel has no one to complain to as this is the way of life for most people in this ancient town. About 70 per cent of the people in Chunar depend on toilets that have on-site sanitation, such as septic tanks and pits. In the absence of a proper disposal or management system, people simply dump the faec...
Comments
Post a Comment