Rubina Ahmed

Language is the muscle and sinew of culture. It is a bond of solidari-ty and so is politics. If one of the most important aspects of democ-ratic politics is that it is non-oppressive, then the language of such politics should also be non-oppressive. How can lan-guage be democratic in this sense? How are the structures of domination - and hierarchy reflected in language? John McCamant (1991, 1992) has stated that domination is an all-pervasive relation-ship. An example of domination, where language is concerned, is devaluing and delegitimising by a dominant group of the use of the language of a subordinate group. Many indigenous people in the U.S. and other countries of the world are unfortunate victims of this practice'. It has been the historical experience of indigenous people, minority ethnic groups and immigrants to give in to the erosion of the use of their own tongues so as to learn the speech code of the dominant group. From the Ainu of Japan, and the Uromos in Ethiopia to the Bangalis in Pakistan, overt political repression or a more subtle economic and social manip-ulation have been used to devalue and delegitimise the language of the minority, or even, as in the case of the Bangali, of the numerically majority group. The then East Pakistanis were oppressed by the West Pakistani rulers and denied their rights to be educated in their own lan-guage in what could be considered a ver-sion of colonialism. It is considered by some critics that in the culture of East Pakistan, there is intermingling of the tradition of the Muslims with that of the Hindus. And the resultant reflection of Hindu tradition in the lifestyle of the common Bangali was considered by the West Pakistanis to be a contradiction to the tradition of Islam. For example, the sari (the dress of Bangali women) was looked upon as 'Hindu style' and the cel-ebration of 'Gaye Halud' during wedding festivals of Muslims was also marked as Hindu tradition. It cannot be denied that there exists a relationship between language, literacy and power. James Gee defines literacy to be the control of secondary uses of lan-guage (i.e., uses of language in sec-ondary discourses). Literacy allows a person to participate in society, but it is also associated with power; literacy is used to maintain interest in a previously existing structure of power. Literacy must be considered as a medium that consti-tutes and affirms the historical and exis-tential moments of lived experience pro-ducing a subordinate or a lived culture. It is, therefore, a political phenomenon, and it must be analysed within the con-text of a theory of power relations and an understanding of social and cultural reproduction. In undivided India, the Bengalis and other Indians were educat-ed in the British colonial system; the main purpose of which was to propagate subjugated people. After independence from the British, the Bengalis continued to be subjugated and oppressed in undi-vided Pakistan while the Pakistani educa-tional system continued to produce a subordinate culture. Education and manipulation of the educational system by politics has always been the tool of those in power who used to control the masses. As Friere (the renowned Brazilian scholar) says, teaching to read and to write is 'a political act, an act of knowledge and therefore a creative act. The people of East Pakistan were allowed to read and write in Bangla, but the politically more powerful West Pakistani policy makers dictated their educational policy. After the partition of East Pakistan from India, Bangla was not a compulsory subject in the English-medi-um schools inherited from the British. But in West Pakistan, Urdu was a com-pulsory subject in all the educational institutions. The West Pakistani authori-ties even attempted to change the script of Bangla, to a script that was similar to Arabic. The, languages and dialects spo-ken in West Pakistan, Urdu, Punjabi, Pushto and Sindi all use Arabic script since the partition from India. The logic behind this proposal to change the script of Bangta was that, since the Bengalis were predominantly followers of Islam, their language should reflect the lan-guage of the Holy Book, the Quran. This proposal was rejected by Bengali schol-ars, like Dr Muhammad Shahidullah and others who argued that the Quran does no state the followers of Islam have to be speakers of Arabic. The history of the Bengalis periodical-ly documents the events resulting from the power relation between politics and language. The objective of this article is to discuss the changes in the Bangla lan-guage and society through the ages brought about by the invaders' and con-querors' language and culture. Bangladesh was born initially out of the struggle for the freedom of language use and for the legitimisation of the indige-nous language over the languages of con-querors and colonisers. The Bangla language has a distin-guished literature and continues to be one of the most dynamic forces in South Asian arts and humanities. Bangla is derived from Sanskrit, the most eastern of the Indo-European lan-guages. It is written in a script that is a modification of the Sanskrit writing sys-tem. Bangla (or Bengali) is spoken by the people of Bengal, the area encom-passing present day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. For understanding the Bangla language and cul-ture, it is necessary to have some idea about the history of Bangla and the peo-ple of Bengal. For clarity and conve-nience, the history of the Bengali people is broadly divided into five periods: the early history, the Islamic rule, the British Period, the Pakistani Period and the Independent Bangladesh. Historians believe that Bengal was set-tled in about 1000 B.C. by Dravidian--speaking peoples who were later known, as the 'Bang'. Their homeland bore various titles that reflected earlier tribal names, such as Vanga, Banga, Bangala and Bengal. Bengal constituted the eastern part of the empire of the Buddhist Mautyan dynasty from the fourth century B.C. till the end of the third century B.C. For a period the local rulers were believed to be in control but in later years, Bengal, though politically independent, paid trib-ute to the Gupta Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. During the sixth cen-tury A.D. Bengal saw the reign of the Harsha empire which was followed by the Pala dynasty that ruled Bengal from the middle of the eighth century to the middle of the twelfth century A.D. The last Buddhist Pala ruler was overthrown by a tributary principality ruled by the Senas, a Hindu dynasty. During their brief reign, the Senas strove to revive Brahmanism as the religion of Bengal, a task that alienated many of the common people who had welcomed casteless Buddhism and who would soon wel-come equally casteless Islam in their aversion for the Brahmanical Hinduism of the Senas. Documented history states that during these times, the people of Bengal spoke archaic Bangla and practiced Buddhism or Hinduism. In the early thirteenth century, Bengal was conquered by the Turkish armies, who introduced the Persian language and Islamic culture. Persian was used in the royal courts and enjoyed the prestige of being the language of the elite. The people of Bengal were flexible enough to adjust to the new socio-cultural values of the invaders. There was massive conver-sion to Islam that began in the thirteenth century and continued for hundreds of years. Conversion was generally collec-tive rather than individual, although indi-vidual Hindus who became outcasts or were ostracised for any reason embraced Islam. Islamic egalitarianism, especially the ideals of equality, brotherhood, and social justice, attracted numerous Buddhists and lower caste Hindus. In the course of converting to Islam, the people of Bengal learned Arabic, the language of the Quran, the Holy Book of Islam. Schools of religious education called 'madrasa' were introduced to the Bengali society. The madrasa taught Arabic and the students received special training in Islamic theology and law. The language used in the royal courts was Persian and the Bangali accepted the Persian lan-guage because it was expedient and allowed the speaker access to the domain of business and the political domain of the royal court. Persian and other Turkic languages of the invaders permeated the local society and, gained popularity as more people came to speak the language. Not only those converted to Islam learned Persian, the Hindus also learned the language, as it qualified them to interact with the rulers. As a result many Persian words were absorbed by Bangla, the language of the people. Modern Bangla retains words with Persian roots that have survived through the ages. For example, water is called Aab in Persian and poetic Bangla, table is Maze in both languages and door is Dar, while wrapper is Chador. Bengal was loosely associated with the Delhi Sultanate, established in 1206, and paid tribute in order to maintain autono-my. In 1341, Bengal became indepen-dent from Delhi and the Turks ruled Bengal for several decades until the con-quest by forces of the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great in 1576. Bengal remained a Mughal province until the beginning of the British Raj in the eigh-teenth century. Through ages, con-querors have imposed their language and culture on conquered peoples and historical documents have chronicled the same occurrence h Bengal, the lan-guage of the Mughal courts was Persian and the people of Bengal connected to the courts used Persian which was con-sidered to be die language of the cul-tured literate class. Under the Mughals, the political integration of Bengal with the rest of the sub-continent began, but Bengal was never truly subjugated. It was always too remote from the centre of government in Delhi. Because lines of communication were poor, local gover-nors found it easy to ignore imperial directives arid maintain their indepen-dence. The Bangla language continued to develop as it absorbed foreign words and expanded her vocabulary. The language of the Bangali people reflects the diverse cultures and languages of the various conquerors of Bengal. In Bengal there was an integration of a variety of lan-guages : Bangla, Arabic, French, Portuguese, Persian and other Turkic languages. Bangla is an excellent exam-ple of the process of acculturation. In the relatively mobile and class permeable Bengali society, the indigenous language, Bangla, absorbing words from other lan-guages and cultures, over time, becomes empowered enough to serve the full needs of the people. In the sixteenth century, Europeans began to arrive in Bengal. The Portuguese established their first settle-ment in Chittagong in 1517. The Dutch arrived in 1602 followed by the British in 1650. The French and Danes would fol-low. The first Roman Catholic settlement in Bengal appears to have been estab-lished by the Portuguese. They first set-tled in the seaport of Chittagong and were active in slave trading and piracy. It has been documented that clergymen and missionary teachers were sent out from Goa (India) to stations in Bengal and Arakan. They established schools, churches, and hospitals to strengthen their enclave and spread Christianity. In 1607, the native leaders of Bengal began to persecute the Christians. The Portuguese continued to benefit from their association with Bengal until 1632, when the army of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan crushed Hoogly; the Portuguese headquarters in Bengal, causing them to depart. As the Portuguese settlers began to mingle with the local Bengali people, vocabulary from the Portuguese lan-guage was absorbed into Bangla. With the arrival of the Dutch in Bengal, die Bangla Language started to borrow from Dutch. Bangla reflects more borrowings from the Portuguese than the Dutch lan-guage. The British ruled in Bengal for 190 years and developments and changes that occurred during this period continue to have observable impact on the politics, economy and society of the present day Bangladesh. In 1600, the British East India Company (BEIC), a private company involved in trade, was formed during the reign of emperor Akbar the Great. Later, Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain granted a charter to BEIC. The Company shifted the centre for trade from Delhi where the Mughals were powerful, to far-away Bengal in the East. In 1650, the Company established a factory on the Hoogly River in western Bengal and in 1690 founded the city of Calcutta. This was the begin-ning of British colonisation of India, which continued till 1947 when the British House of Commons passed the India Independence Act and the two independent domains or territories of India and Pakistan were created. By the late seventeenth century, the British had become the dominant European power in Bengal because of the decline of the Portuguese and the comparatively relative weakness of the French, Dutch and the Danes. As admin-istrators, the British introduced British law, institutions and customs that provid-ed a firm base for the Bengalis to admin-ister their own affairs. But the British failed to provide the people of Bengal with a viable modern economy. By encouraging the production of raw mate-rials to supply British factories, they stim-ulated agriculture while they reduced their incentive for native industry by introducing cheap British manufactured goods. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a system of liberal English-lan-guage schools based on the British model was established in the eastern Bengal, the region that is Bangladesh. In the nineteenth century British India, language was not only a medium of education; it was also a lot of imperial power. Since Great Britain was a super- power at that time, the British could spread their language or rather impose it on other colonies. During the office of Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of British East India Company, Calcutta in West Bengal became the capital of British India and would remain the capital of British India until 1911.