Linguistic Identity

Language is usually a very strong aspect of your identity, or the way in which you would define yourself. An Indian would most probably identify herself firstly as a Marathi speaker, Oriya speaker or Manipuri speaker. Language or the mother-tongue is thus very much a part of the regional identity. Rita Kothari in her book Translating India: The Cultural Politics of English, points out how the formation of these regional identities on the basis of language was initially a reaction to colonialism. The decision to go back to the mother-tongue as a way of resistance to the domination of the colonial ruler was a part of our nationalist movement. Kothari states: “Indians have traditionally perceived themselves as Oriyas or Gujaratis—an all-pervasive regional identity has always been the strongest. However, the sharpening of ‘regional consciousness' that manifested itself through an affiliation with the ‘mother tongue' was one of the reactions to colonialism. The perception that the ‘mother tongue' best served as the community conduit had taken hold of a Bankimchandra in the nineteenth century, and a Gandhi in the twentieth” (27). Writers like Bankimchandra Chatterjee and Michael Madhusudan Dutt decided to stop their creative work in English and start writing in their native Bangla, in the interests of the nation and the nationalist movement. This identification along linguistic lines was further strengthened when India was reorganized along linguistic lines in 1950. This administrative move helped to strengthen the regional languages and their literatures. However, the relations between the Indian languages were not always smooth. The decision to make Hindi the official language was seen as an attempt to impose the language of the North on the non-Hindi speaking South. Tussles between speakers of different languages in the same state, like that of Konkani and Marathi in Maharashtra , also occurred. It is also a fact that not all Indian languages share the same power and prestige; some are more equal than others. For instance, Bengali and Marathi are primarily known for their vibrant literatures. There are more translations from Bengali into other Indian languages than in the reverse direction. A language / literature like Manipuri or Sindhi does not seem to have the same status as Bengali or Marathi.