TEDxMumbai - Ganesh Devy - 04/03/10
Summary
TLDRThe speaker highlights the vital role of language in human existence, emphasizing its unique ability to externalize thoughts and create complex ideas, unlike other species. Language is portrayed as essential to human evolution, shaping consciousness and worldviews. The speaker also discusses the impact of colonization on language, the historical suppression of local languages, and the social injustices arising from linguistic dominance. Finally, the importance of preserving linguistic diversity in a democratic society is stressed, warning against the erasure of languages and the knowledge they carry.
Takeaways
- 🗣️ Language is central to human existence, distinguishing us from other species with its complexity and ability to externalize thoughts.
- 🐝 While animals like bees and dogs have basic communication systems, human language is unique in its capacity to express past, present, and future, creating entire worlds through words.
- 🧠 Language allows humans to conceptualize and describe things that aren't physically present, forming a continuous image of existence through words.
- 🌍 Every language represents a unique worldview, even if it consists of only a few hundred words, as language is a symbolic system that can express vast ideas.
- 🏛️ The idea of one original language, like the Tower of Babel story, is not scientifically valid. Languages develop in different landscapes and cultures.
- 📜 Languages do not naturally die; they are killed by domination, suppression, or when speakers are forced to adopt other languages, as seen in the history of Latin and colonial languages.
- 📚 Oral traditions and languages are often marginalized in favor of written ones, leading to the loss of cultural knowledge and identity.
- 📉 The reduction of languages officially recognized in India—from 1,652 in 1961 to 108 today—has caused the erasure of many linguistic communities and their cultural heritages.
- 🗣️ Imposing a dominant language on speakers of smaller languages causes 'linguistic aphasia,' cutting off people from their native tongue and cultural identity.
- 🌐 The suppression of linguistic diversity weakens democracy by erasing the diverse voices and worldviews that language represents, which is essential for true democratic representation.
Q & A
What is considered the most crucial difference between humans and other animal species, according to the speaker?
-The speaker considers language as the most crucial difference between humans and other animal species, as it allows humans to externalize thoughts and communicate in ways that no other species can.
How do human languages differ from the communication systems of other species?
-While some animals, such as bees, dogs, and certain fish, have forms of communication, human languages can convey much larger and more complex meanings, allowing humans to discuss the past, future, and create new worlds through words.
Why does the speaker say that language was a necessity for human evolution?
-The speaker argues that language was essential for human evolution because it allowed humans to communicate not only about the present but also about the past and future, enabling the creation of complex societies and cultural developments.
What does the speaker mean by saying that language is a 'complete worldview'?
-The speaker means that every language, even those with a small vocabulary, is capable of describing and covering the entire world, offering a unique way to experience and interpret reality.
What is the speaker's critique of the historical view that languages originate from a single source?
-The speaker critiques the idea of a single original language, as propagated by the Tower of Babel myth, arguing that languages developed independently in different landscapes, influenced by factors like climate and environment.
Why does the speaker believe that languages do not 'die' naturally but are 'killed'?
-The speaker believes that languages are killed when their speakers are dominated or suppressed, citing historical examples like Latin's decline after the fall of the Roman Empire. Languages are lost through social and political pressures rather than natural processes.
What significant change occurred in the 1971 census regarding the recognition of languages in India?
-In the 1971 census, it was decided that only languages spoken by more than 10,000 people would be officially listed, reducing the number of recognized languages from 1652 to 108, and effectively making many languages 'invisible' in terms of official recognition and support.
How does the speaker describe the impact of not teaching children in their mother tongue?
-The speaker warns that not teaching children in their mother tongue can lead to a condition akin to 'aphasia,' where children lose their ability to express themselves effectively, as their linguistic connection to their home language is severed.
What is the speaker's view on the dominance of a few languages in India?
-The speaker is critical of the dominance of a few languages, noting that 96% of Indians now speak only 4% of the country's languages. This shift, according to the speaker, represents a great social injustice and loss of linguistic diversity.
What message does the speaker convey through the story of Madhu and the dying language?
-The story of Madhu emphasizes the value of linguistic diversity and the tragic loss that occurs when a language dies. The speaker uses the story to highlight the importance of preserving languages, as each one represents a unique worldview and a part of human history.
Outlines
🗣️ The Unique Human Power of Language
This paragraph explores the profound role of language in defining human existence. Unlike animals with basic communication systems, humans possess a highly complex linguistic capability. This allows us to externalize thoughts and communicate about past, present, and future events. Language is not only a tool for communication but a necessity in human evolution, enabling the creation of worlds and experiences through words. The paragraph emphasizes that language is the foundation of human consciousness, enabling us to understand and describe things beyond direct experience. Every language, regardless of size or vocabulary, offers a complete worldview.
📜 The Evolution of Languages and Power
The paragraph discusses how languages evolve and the historical impact of power dynamics on language. The fall of the Roman Empire and the collapse of Latin, replaced by local vernaculars, is used as an example. It also highlights how European colonialism, especially through British influence in India, shaped the understanding and growth of local languages. Initially driven by a desire to communicate, the British introduced linguistic and knowledge systems, but this eventually led to the dominance of English. Over time, English became associated with power and knowledge, overshadowing oral traditions and leading to changes in Indian society and education.
🔢 Language Suppression in Modern India
This paragraph discusses the decline of linguistic diversity in post-independence India. The 1961 census recorded 1,652 mother tongues, but by 1971, only 108 were officially recognized. Languages spoken by fewer than 10,000 people were excluded from official lists, erasing the visibility and support for many languages. The paragraph emphasizes that when education is not offered in a child's mother tongue, it leads to cultural and intellectual suppression, equated to 'aphasia,' where communication fails. The result is a significant reduction in linguistic citizenship, with only a small percentage of Indians speaking the majority of languages, leading to a form of monolingual dominance.
🌍 The Importance of Preserving Linguistic Diversity
This final paragraph underscores the importance of preserving linguistic diversity to maintain true democracy and respect for diversity. It tells a story of how the loss of a language leads to the loss of historical memory and knowledge. The story of the 'Bow tribe' illustrates this, where the last speaker of a language passed away, taking with her 65,000 years of cultural history. The paragraph argues that democracies are becoming dictatorial, and if leaders only speak a few languages, they cannot truly represent the diverse aspirations of the people. The story concludes with a symbolic message: 'Every language is a unique worldview. Do not kill it.'
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Language
💡Symbolism
💡Worldview
💡Mother tongue
💡Aphasia
💡Diversity
💡Colonialism
💡Oral tradition
💡Language death
💡Linguistic injustice
Highlights
Language is a crucial distinction between humans and other species, enabling complex communication.
Humans can externalize thoughts and speak about the past, future, and distant places, unlike other animals.
Language allows humans to create new worlds and invent situations through words.
All languages, even those with limited vocabulary, offer complete worldviews, making them symbolic systems capable of expressing vast meanings.
Different environments shape different languages; there is no single 'original' language.
Languages do not die naturally; they are often killed due to dominance and suppression by other languages.
Colonial history imposed a language hierarchy, favoring written over oral traditions, thus diminishing many native languages.
In India's 1961 census, 1,652 mother tongues were listed, but post-1971, the official recognition of languages dropped to 108, excluding many languages from state support.
The lack of educational resources in native languages imposes linguistic aphasia, where children are denied the ability to learn in their mother tongue.
96% of Indians now speak only 4% of the languages, while 4% speak 96% of the languages, reflecting a drastic reduction in linguistic diversity.
The death of a language, like the Bow tribe language, results in the loss of historical memory and cultural knowledge.
The idea of democracy is compromised when linguistic diversity is ignored or suppressed.
Modern democracies risk becoming dictatorial when they fail to embrace the linguistic and cultural diversity of their populations.
The fictional story of Madhu symbolizes how native cultures and languages are swallowed by industrial and colonial powers.
Every language is a unique worldview, and preserving linguistic diversity is essential for true democracy.
Transcripts
I'm going to speak about something which
is of very essence of to human existence
and that is language
if one thinks of one major the most
crucial difference between other animal
species and human beings it is language
it is true that bees have their
languages these have a kind of language
it is true that dogs do understand and
remember about 100 words it is true that
certain species of fish do have a
communication system which is fairly
world but the human communication system
can take in such large and complex
amount of significance that it is quite
amazing we are capable of externalizing
our thoughts like no other animal
species can do that we speak is not just
a matter of God's gift or an accident it
was a necessity in the evolution for us
to evolve this kind of communication
system in through which we can talk not
just about what is present but also
about what is the past and what is yet
to come
we can talk about distant things any
other animals can talk about only what
is present and what is within a short
span of memory but humans can invent
situations through words they can
actually create a new world through the
language that they have so if we do not
have language we are no human and I'm
not talking of languages but the general
language capability it is the word
through which we invent the world the
human consciousness works in a very
peculiar way we have of course the
experience of texture of the world of
things we have some experiences and we
do name them but there are things which
we do not directly experience nor we can
touch them nor we
can see them one can talk about apples
in Kashmir or snow in Switzerland
without being in Kashmir or in
Switzerland it is through the word that
the consciousness tries to grapple with
the external reality what one can what
one calls the phenomenal world and it is
through that that the consciousness
forms an image a continuous image of our
existence if we did not have the word we
would not have the world therefore every
language any language just any language
it's not just a French Spanish Russian
Italian and English any language is a
complete worldview even if that language
has only 300 words it can describe the
entire world it can cover the entire
world this is a scientific view because
a language is a symbolic system and
symbolism has the capability of
enveloping a lot more than the mere
quantitative measure of this symbol
through very few words you can express
everything but through very few words
you can experience practically
everything every language is a unique
world view two languages do not have
similar color terms in Marathi where
were called camisa those who are Marathi
speakers perhaps might our there's no
word for that in English the English
brought to us through the colonial
experience an idea of how languages grow
how they develop and at the basis of
that at the back of that idea was that
there is an original one language and
out of that one language many languages
come that there is the Tower of Babel
through which man could you know speak
with the divine and at one time the
tower collapses and many languages
languages through which man just cannot
speak to the divine that comes up this
is a peculiar historiography an idea of
genesis of language which is not
scientifically valid languages develop
differently in different landscapes
people in the desert people in these
snowy areas people near the oceans they
of different languages the climate's
contribute to that and therefore not one
original language similarly very often
we think that languages are like human
beings that they're born and therefore
they will die that is a logical fallacy
a language does not die a language does
not die a language can only be killed
languages die as we understand the word
die because sometimes they are over over
structured they die if the speakers of
that language try to dominate other
people if you remember the history of
the Roman Empire that's precisely what
happened the Empire collapse the Latin
disappeared and what the Latin people
used to call vernaculars they took over
and that's the that's the seed of the of
the modern European history when the
Europeans came to us they contributed
many good things in the field of
knowledge but they tried to talk about
our past and build a historiography for
us they tried to draw maps for us in
from their perspective of cartography
they they put together many takes and
scholars like Sir William Jones produced
produce a wonderful community of
scholars in said together a wonderful
community of scholars in Calcutta the
Asiatic Society
it was initially the quest to understand
initially when the British came to
Bombay and in surah prior to that they
used to hire Armenian interpreters they
wanted to communicate with people here
they wanted they wanted that some kind
of dialogue be established but the quest
to understand India the quest to
understand the Orient in general the
quest for establishing a dialogue slowly
changed
Nathaniel holla'd produced the first
grammar of Bengali and that was out of
genuine under
interest to understand how the Bengali
works but slowly the the command of
language became the language of command
slowly we here started believing that we
have to know the English language if we
have to have knowledge to some extent
that was right but we push this demand a
bit too far
people like Raja Ram Raja Ram Andhra
actually went to London and said they're
asking for teaching through English
Macaulay responded even if elphinston in
Bombay was saying that there are schools
in Marathi and Gujarati and good schools
the language became the language of
command it became a conquest and when a
language achieves this kind of conquest
then the mindset changes and one feels
that what that language has alone is
truth and therefore our oral traditions
started undergoing many changes in the
East India Company had set up the first
printing office in st. fort Williams and
they started printing languages like
Hindi Marathi though accidentally a
printing machine had landed in Goa but
used only for a short time for printing
kannada language and so we started
accepting the idea that what is oral is
a taboo and what is written has a
Protima call you as a matter of fact
many of our knowledge traditions where
oral knowledge traditions we speak in
the name of the Mahabharata and so on a
karamaneh genius to say that everybody
in India knows the Mahabharat because
nobody reads it it is oral and we all
know it so knowledge has no relationship
with writing as a matter of fact very
few languages in the world have their
own scripts and yet they can be major
languages English has no script of its
own it is still using the Roman script
but it is not way one cannot say it is
an underdeveloped language as time pass
and we came to the post-independence
period we decided that only the
languages that were printed should have
a political authority and therefore we
decided to set up linguistic states in
this country this is a unique feature of
Indian state that we have linguistic
states because we had inherited the
philosophy of nationalism here from the
European countries and once we set up
the linguistic States we had a big gap
law to how to count our languages in the
1961 census as I had asked that question
does anybody know how many languages in
1961 census the Census soared 1652
mother tongues 1652 mother tongues
claimed by the people in this country in
71 as the census was getting ready in
the next door there was a war on the
language issue Bangladesh became as in a
separate country and after 71 these the
figures of census we're not revealed it
was decided that only those languages
which are spoken by more than 10,000
alone will be listed and the list of
1971 census was 108 languages and the
hundred and 9th was all other languages
so from 1650 two languages we had
reduced the official number of languages
in this country 208 that's roughly
killing at least making honour
officially making them languages without
any citizenship almost 1400 of those and
speakers of those languages are made
invisible generations in this country
because if the language is not included
in the age schedule if it is not listed
in the census then no state machinery
can support education in that language
primary schools colleges universities
are just not possible no funding is
available for that just day before a
study the Prime Minister has said there
is right to education for everybody but
mind you it is not right to education
through the mother tongue
and when you do not teach a child the
language that the child learns at home
then what you impose on that child is
called in the Greek language aphasia
that's almost if I were Anupam Kher I
would put my tongue out and show it
clipped you cutting the tongue of the
child is the mother tongue and aphasia
of course is when the when the
communication between you know between
the brain and the speech organ fails
when the either there is something wrong
in the motor system or with the speech
organs you're not able to speak but it
is not aphasia of this kind we are
imposing as a nation aphasia on speakers
of almost 1400 languages that's the
sentence it's a I mean it's ironic that
I'm using that word sentence we are
taking away the sentence and that's a
punishment and what we are encouraging
is a kind of monolingual cacophony you
will be shocked to know that today 96%
of Indian speak 4% of languages and 4%
of Indian speak 96% of languages this
was not the situation 50 years back the
number has has gone down at the 1961
census we have 46% Indians speaking
those languages so we have reduced 42%
of Indian population from linguistic
citizens in this country to no
citizenship pattern and we are
encouraging the rule of only a few
languages I am NOT against those
languages I respect all languages alike
but there is a great social injustice
involved in it and there is a great rape
of knowledge involved in it a linguist a
linguist a friend of mine said to me
that one day she saw a woman and the old
woman was talking to a sparrow so in the
under man's so this silicon watabe the
linguist asked her why why are you
talking to sparrow the old woman said I
am the only speaker alive of my lang
and if I do not speak - nobody else
understands if I do not speak to this
Sparrow what will happen to my language
this bow the woman from bow tribe both
the senior she died on the 26th January
on the Republic Day this year and with
her death in history of 65 thousand
years of that language has gone and gone
with that is the knowledge and the
memory historical memory that language
held and this is the fate of so many
other languages in the country we are
pushing those languages to that fate
democracies all over the world are
becoming dictatorial we don't have to I
do not have to state it I come from
Gujarat many of you visited the United
States everywhere democracies are
becoming the tutorial through democratic
apparatus and in a country like India if
we have people who rule us who speak
only one or two languages will they be
able to reflect the aspirations of the
people truly will they be able to
reflect the world views of the people
truly if a democracy means respect for
diversity
then how can democracy exist by killing
diversity therefore we have to learn to
listen to silence I am rather sad in
saying this our century 21st century
action of voices all over the world so
while we think that we are getting
connected we are actually ready gating
this was we have to listen to this I'll
the Bombay party this a little story I
want to tell I will go back to the tiger
presentation it was from the core Co
area this story is written by mahadeva
the bangla writer you know perhaps that
the bomb that the surah thrower aligned
was led by the british by taking away
the core KU forest when the forest was
taken away very bad poor quality of land
was given to the tribals they could not
cultivate it and therefore they
therefore the yield say he started no
coming down generation after generation
they became victims of hunger starvation
by starvation death the government of
mirage appointed a committee and said
what can we do it is a genetic disease
called sickle-cell here that is the real
situation the story begins here and that
is the the maja Davis story the stories
like this when the cork ooze knew that
they are going to die they decided to
die a death of dignity and therefore
they made a special heart and when a
person was to die the person was to go
there and wait for death somebody had
Jennifer had heard that cuckoos are
dying the Geneva scientists had heard
that there is a liquid which can be
injected in the body and somehow these
people can be saved and so on so the
fellow came he injected this liquid in
the body of the last survivor whose name
was Maha do this Madhu Boyd was injected
that the scientists went away to his
conference in Geneva to report on you
know water findings Madhu is waiting in
the heart waiting for his death and he
he hears at a distance the whistle of a
train is the Calcutta is the horas or
train and suddenly his historical memory
stirred he feels the fragrance of the
the timber that the British had chopped
from the area so he decides to jump jump
onto the train and the Train brings
somehow to Bombay in Bombay hadoo sees a
very strange sight a strange thing which
she had not seen for a long time he sees
food in Bombay and he starts eating and
he eats everything he eats in the food
available in Bombay he eats the boot
building he eats the Raja by a tower he
eats the new building being built by
somebody called Mukesh Ambani and
because of that that fluid injected in
his body Madhu grows tall in stature and
his head touches almost this almost
touches the sky then Madhu's thirsty so
he bends down and he drinks the arabian
sea and then rises again lifts his arms
and plucks the stars in the sky and
starts writing in the sky the history of
mankind again and the first sentence in
that histories every language is a
unique world view do not kill it
how tolerance let diversity live then
alone democracies can be democracies
particularly in a country like India
thank you ladies and gentlemen
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