Language as a Weapon

Language as a weapon? of mass subjugation? Language is one of the crowing glory of human kind. A unifying force for communities, it also is one of the more divisive factors in our cultural life. Look at the French - English rivalry. or closer home the hostility to Hindi in south? Why does mere choice of language strike such emotional chords? Maybe it has to do with language being the ultimate symbol of cultural heritage. Where language is not merely the communication tool for cultural ideas, it IS a cultural expression itself.

Language serves to stratify societies. Listen to Prof Higgins expostulate the same in "My Fair Lady". Or more recent times read 1984. An interesting idea there. When we think, we think in a language. So What if certain words (symbolic of ideas) are simply not there in a language? What if state ( or society) prevents us from introducing such ideas in language terms. Will over a period of time we see a gradual withering of such ideas?

Forms of language serve to differentiate people. English court had French as the official language for quite a while. Mughal Durbar in Delhi had Persian as the court language for long. It took an Amir Khusro to evolve Urdu - a mix of Persian and Hindustani (the language of the masses) to bridge the gap. Hindi Channels today strive to maintain the Allahabadi Hindi as the standard bearer. It took an AajTak to popularize a much more eastern Bihari style to Hindi to differentiate itself from the traditional elites and posture itself as a channel for the masses. So its obvious that linguistic abilities can serve to stratify societies even where the language is otherwise common.

Jacques Derrida in his theory of Deconstruction mentions how language is a barrier to communication. When communicating through words we are slowing our thoughts down to the flow of the words. Mind which is so much more capable of faster action is essentially slowing down. Hence language itself is sometimes problematic. If we extend the same to inner thoughts - While we may not be saying anything, is the mind slowing down while thinking because we 'think' in a language. Will thinking in way devoid of language be much faster?