The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Nepal has a PM, at last
Acid test begins for Bhattarai right away

Nepal got its fourth Prime Minister in three years on Sunday when its Parliament elected Baburam Bhattarai over Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress by 105 votes. This marks the return to power of Maoists 27 months after Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) resigned in 2009. Bhattarai is known as the moderate face of the party, and his elevation has been welcomed by the common people because of his academic excellence, clean image and efficiency (he is a former Finance Minister). Ironically, he might find the going tough with Prachanda for those very reasons, considering that the latter does not see eye to eye with him on many issues, although he backed Bhattarai’s candidature.

There will be hardly any honeymoon period for Bhattarai. In fact, the acid test begins right away. Parliament needs to enforce a new constitution by August 31 or face dissolution. Even if a three-month extension comes through, he will have to win the support of all political parties and prepare the first draft of the constitution by November-end. Not only that, he has also to come good on the promise to disband their 20,000-strong guerrilla army within 45 days of forming a new government. Prachanda had failed to return to power because he backtracked on this promise to demobilise the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), return the properties captured by the rebels during the civil war, and bring about peace. These issues have become very sensitive and Bhattarai cannot afford to slip up. Then he has also to deliver on the four-point deal on the basis of which the United Democratic Medeshi Forum voted for him.

Fiftyseven-year-old Bhattarai has been educated in India (Delhi and Chandigarh), but it will be over-optimistic to expect him to improve ties with India. Maoists have traditionally taken an anti-India stand even when there was no need to do so. Positions may be further hardened following the shrill accusation by the Communist Nepal Workers’ and Peasants Party — which boycotted the voting — that “Indian expansionism” influenced Nepal’s prime ministerial elections.

Hanging on to hope
Europe poses a threat to recovery

It is unbelievable that US Federal Reserve chief Ben Barnanke’s word carries so much weight with so many people. Last week what he said at the Jackson Hole conference of central bankers and private economists lifted the economic mood, which immediately got reflected at Wall Street and European markets. On Monday, Asia responded resoundingly. India’s BSE Sensex shot up 567 points. Belying expectations, Mr Bernanke did not announce quantitative easing (printing of more dollars). All that he said was the US economy would eventually return to full health. He asked the US government to come out with a long-term economic package and a short-tern fiscal stimulus — the Republicans notwithstanding.

Almost the same message – a fiscal stimulus by the political leadership — was delivered by others, including the heads of the IMF and the OECD, to other governments in the troubled European countries. Over-spending governments and over-stretched welfare programmes funded by debt have caused a euro zone crisis. Banks which have advanced loans to these governments would get a serious hit in case of a default. The PIIGS – Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain – need a rescue from their better-off European partners, mainly Germany and France, which are fighting who should fund bailouts while prescribing austerity measures to the indebted nations. But the health of the rescuers as also the future of the European Union is in danger.

While Ben Barnanke held out hope, others at Jackson Hole were less optimistic. “We are in a dangerous new phase”, said Christine Lagarde of the IMF, pointing to the political impasse in the US. The US economy suffers from three other ailments: high oil prices, raging unemployment and a depressed housing market. There is the wider fear that the European debt crisis could worsen, sparking 2008-type financial turmoil. China’s export-led growth is faltering. Japan is in an economic and political churning. India is busy fighting corruption as economic reforms are put on hold. In this dark world Ben Barnanke has pointed to light at the end of the tunnel. And many believe him.

Thought for the Day

Let’s face it, there are no plain women on television. — Anna Ford

ARTICLE

Crusade against corruption
Why Anna’s approach is questionable
by S. Nihal Singh

Anna Hazare has called it half a victory, but the manner in which he prevailed upon the government and Parliament to bend to his essential demands in principle after he had trimmed his initial impossible proposals is, in itself, a stupendous feat. In the political power play between the government and the Anna Team, the latter won hands down by a combination of a simple idea — fighting corruption — marketed with the aid of modern technology and intimidation — the hoary Indian tradition of a political fast — and a tactic verging on breaking the law such as gheraoing Cabinet ministers and members of Parliament with the central aim of forcing the authorities to listen to it.

Clearly, Anna Hazare struck a chord among large sections of the people, in particular the young, because everyone has been stung by the bane of corruption, in particular those who can least afford it. The Anna movement has shown that it is not good enough to say that the government is trying to cope with the problem and there is no magic wand to make the evil vanish. It is, in any case, an indictment of the political class cutting across the Congress and the main opposition BJP that it has been toying with installing a Lokpal (ombudsman) for 42 years without producing results.

But the happy dénouement of the end of Anna’s fast on the 13h day should not obscure the hard lessons the two sides must learn. For much of the time, the Manmohan Singh government seemed rudderless and adrift compounding its initial blunder of arresting Anna and taking him to jail with ministers speaking in different voices unsure of a central directive. The lowest point was perhaps the Congress spokesman, Mr Manish Tiwari, charging Anna with being corrupt, a charge he later withdrew with a public apology. It seemed that the long absence abroad of the main power centre in the United Progressive Alliance, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and undergoing unspecified medical treatment left the Congress with no one to steady the ship.

It was only towards the end of an increasingly tense drama, with doctors monitoring Anna’s condition, that the Prime Minister picked up the threads to reach out to Anna and set in motion a process with the assistance of the man for all seasons, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, in cooperation with the BJP that resulted in Parliament passing a sense of the House pronouncement while allowing the government sufficient room for manoeuvre in accepting in principle the three Anna tenets of including the junior bureaucracy, a citizens’ charter and appointment of Lok Ayukats in states. In the process, the government respected the dignity and legitimacy of Parliament by refusing to bypass the established procedure of referring the problem to the Standing Committee.

The role of Mr Rahul Gandhi in the 12 crisis days after he left his mother’s bedside in the US to return home for the Independence Day ceremonies was curious. The only intervention he made in Parliament was through a 15-minute speech suggesting the institution of the Lokpal as an independent constitutional authority like the Election Commission — an idea worth studying — and pronouncing the truism that a Lokpal alone would not end corruption. He subsequently absented himself for much of the parliamentary debate on Anna’s proposals.

Despite Team Anna’s success in outwitting the government in every twist and turn the crisis took, it was skating dangerously close to anarchy and total disregard for the law of the land in instigating the public, suitably charged as it was in fighting the anti-corruption crusade, in order to pile pressure on the government to do its bidding. The most reprehensible was perhaps the conduct of the ex-policewoman, Ms Kiran Bedi, in declaring that “Anna is India and India is Anna”, a particularly hurtful throwback to the Emergency chant of “India is Indira and Indira is India”. She merely compounded this blunder by later mocking Parliament and parliamentarians as people who wore masks and spoke with a forked tongue.

So insistent was Team Anna in denigrating the government — Mr Arvind Kejriwal seemed to take on the role of the chief instigator — that it got Bollywood actor Om Puri to heap a string of abuses on parliamentarians, an exercise in vulgarity seldom matched in public discourse. But Anna himself became susceptible to the excitement of his success in wrong- footing the government by declaring from the stage to an audience of thousands that the Prime Minister was “a liar”. This is not the language one expects to hear from a Gandhian about the country’s highest executive authority. He did later apologise for the harsh words he had uttered.

In general, Team Anna’s approach to Parliament and parliamentarians was dismissive when it was not abusive. By virtue of the widespread countrywide support Anna evoked on the corruption theme, the Team’s effort seemed to be to abuse the very institutions of parliamentary democracy placing the mythical “people” above Parliament and the Constitution. This is a dangerous trend the Team must guard against because it will meet widespread opposition not merely from the political class but from a wide spectrum of thinking men and women.

Anna’s movement has also alienated sections of the population, particularly Muslims, Christians and other minorities and the Dalits on two counts: the role the BJP and its mentor, the RSS, has played in supporting and buttressing the protests with a suspected political agenda of its own and the Hindu imagery used by Team Anna in promoting its agitation. In order to retain the support of a pluralist nation, Anna cannot afford to give the impression that his movement is not inclusive. In his post-breaking fast address, he did invoke Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s name, but he has much work to do in convincing the people about his inclusive agenda.

Although there is no time limit for Parliament to come up with legislation on the Lokpal, it would be prudent for parliamentarians to debate and come up with a workable Bill with seriousness and dispatch. Anna has already given notice that he will continue to pile pressure on the government by undertaking a countrywide tour, with his new enhanced status as the pre-eminent Gandhian and dissenter.

MIDDLE

Valley of Happiness
by P.C. Sharma

A journey by road from Gangtok to Yumthang that snakes through high mountains, spawning gurgling rivers giving recurring glimpses of snow capped mountains, took me first to Chungthang, Lachung and finally to Yumthang — all the beauty spots of North Sikkim.

I drove to these places for the alluring prospect of seeing rhododendron flowers, Dopka nomads grazing their yaks, the sulphur spring and the fascinating range of Yumthang glaciers.

Yumthang valley bordering on Tibet opens a vista before you. Its expanse of undulating green fields, rimmed on either side by an unending range of glaciers, red rhododendron flowers, herds of black hirsute yaks — contrasting with the whiteness of the glaciers is a perfect mosaic of nature’s beauty that draws you to this heavenly spot. Nature has planted a sulphur spring at a serene and solitary spot — Yumeysamdong. The spring grips you in the warmth of its sulphurous water and leaves a tan which fades slowly.

The humans that inhabit this valley are not much accustomed to mixing with the outsiders from far away towns and cities. Steeped in Buddhism, holding prayer wheels in their hands, robed in the most colourful dresses adorned with jewellery of Tibetan beads, high on their famed beverage “Swe chhang’, sipped from ‘toonghas’, the bamboo containers, growing rice, corn and millets, breeding goats and yaks, they live in this valley which is a world of their own.

The men have striking features, long flowing manes, tall, robust physiques cutting figures like those of Tibetan warriors of yore. The women wearing exotic hats and elegant Bakhus, all figures of exquisite grace and form, ruddy cheeks of the children, toothless smile of tiny tots all are there to make Yumthang a valley of human splendour and abode of beauty.

I met them in a field which was cleared for the occasion. Pipons, the local chiefs from Lama community, welcomed me with traditional courtesy, presented me ‘khadas’ (scarf), loaded me with vegetables, eggs, fruits and the inevitable ‘Chhang’ which, as a mark of respect to my hosts, I sipped. I made some humble offerings to greet them. The bonhomie that was generated was more elevating than the spirit that was consumed.

In this setting, the sight of a few policemen, myself included, looked odd and made me think whether the peaceable people of Yumthang need police at all. Perhaps they do not. Nor, perhaps, any other form of governance either. They are governed by their own centuries old custom ‘Dzumsa’ which regulates their lives, teaches them how to settle their disputes and bond with each other and live a life of harmony and religion which is Buddhism.

I could communicate with them with the help of my PSO who could speak in their Tibetan dialect. Communication was deficient but understanding was near perfect. They asked for nothing. Nature and their custom have given them all that they need.

Religion guides their path, Buddha enlightens their souls, the rivers, snows and yaks bring happiness to these folks of Yumthang.

How happy is this valley.

OPED — SOCIETY

Tribal languages in a death trap
A fifth part of India's linguistic heritage has reached the stage of extinction over the last fifty years. The contexts of modernity and development have spelt doom for hundreds of language systems.
G. N. Devy

Estimates suggest of the 6000 currently spoken languages in the world, half will be lost in the next 200 years, and 90% by the year 2050.

The existential suffering of the peoples whether identified from outside, or through self- identification as "marginalised, minority, indigenous," bears common features in all continents.

The indigenous have been facing deprivation and dispossession of their natural resource base- denial of access to quality education, healthcare and other citizenship rights apart, they have come to be seen as ' a problem for the development project of modernity.' Going by any parameters of development, these communities always figure at the tail end. The situation of the communities that have been pastoral or nomadic has been even worse.

Considering the immense odds against which these communities have had to survive, it is not short of a miracle that they have preserved their languages and continue to contribute to the astonishing linguistic diversity of the world. However, if the situation persists, the languages of the marginalized stand the risk of extinction. Aphasia, a loss of speech, seems to be their fate.

It is a daunting task to determine as to which languages have come closest to the condition of aphasia, which ones are decidedly moving in that direction and which ones are merely going through the natural linguistic process of transmigration. It may not be inappropriate to say that the linguistic data available with us is not fully adequate for the purpose.

The missing tongues

In India, Sir George Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India (1903-1923) - material for which was collected in the last decade of the 19th century-- had identified 179 languages and 544 dialects. The 1921 census reports showed 188 languages and 49 dialects. The 1961 census reports mentioned a total of 1,652 'mother tongues,' out of which 184 'mother tongues' had more than 10,000 speakers, and of which 400 'mother tongues' had not been mentioned in Grierson's Survey, while 527 were listed as 'unclassified'. In addition, 103 'mother tongues' were listed as 'foreign'.

In 1971, the linguistic data offered in the census was distributed in two categories, the officially listed languages of the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, and the other languages with a minimum of 10,000 speakers each. All other languages spoken by less than 10,000 speakers were lumped together in a single entry 'Others'. That practice continued to be followed in subsequent enumerations.

Considering how complicated the census operations are in countries that have large migratory populations, and particularly how much the accuracy in census operations is dependent on literacy levels, it is not surprising that the data collected remains insufficiently definitive. What is surprising, however, is that as many as 310 languages, including all those 263 claimed by less than 5 speakers, and 47 others claimed by less than a 1000 speakers, should have arrived at that stage. These 310 'endangered' languages were counted among the 1652 'mother tongues' listed in the census of 1961, however debatable the methodology followed in that particular census may have been. In other words, a fifth part of India's linguistic heritage has reached the stage of extinction over the last half-century.

Moreover, the method of survey adopted over the last three census enumerations allows scope for overlooking any further depletion in the numbers. One fears that this may not be the situation in just one country alone, that this may be so practically all over the world, since the contextual factors responsible for language decline in one country also form the context of modernity in other nation states in the world.

Global aphasia

Language loss is experienced in India not just by the 'minor' languages and 'unclassified dialects', but also by 'major' languages that have long literary traditions and a rich heritage of imaginative and philosophical writings. In speech communities that claim major literary languages such as Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada and Oriya as their 'mother tongues', the younger generations have little or no contact with the written heritage of those languages, while they are able to 'speak' the languages as 'native speakers'.

It may not be inappropriate to assume that people all over the world are paying a heavy cost for a globalised development in terms of their language heritage. This linguistic condition may be described as the condition of 'partial language acquisition' in which a fully literate person, with a relatively high degree of education, is able to read, write and speak a language other than her/his mother tongue, but is able to only speak but not write the language she/he claims as the mother tongue.

The reorganization of Indian states after Independence was carried out along linguistic lines and the languages that had scripts were counted. The ones that had not acquired scripts, and therefore did not have printed literature, did not get their own states. Schools and colleges were established only for the official languages. The ones without scripts, even if they had a great stock of wisdom carried forward orally, were not fortunate enough to get educational institutions for them. However, a guarantee for providing patronage was enshrined in the Constitution, Article 347.

Thus, language loss, linguistic shifts and decline in the linguistic heritage cannot be blamed on the structural factors alone. There appears to be another and more overwhelming factor at work, and that is the development discourse in a rapidly globalising world. One notices now in India, and in other Asian and African countries, an overpowering desire among parents to educate their children through the medium of English or French or Spanish in the hope that these languages will provide a certain visibility to the children when they grow up in the international market of productive labour.

This desire has affected the schooling pattern in favour of an education through an international language not witnessed in any previous era. The argument in favour of providing children education, at least at the primary school level, for a healthy development of their intellect is indeed an incontrovertible argument. However, the contrary argument which holds that children not educated in their mother tongues do not achieve a full intellectual development deserves to be reconsidered. If literature is considered to contain the most complex usage of language, one would assume that children who do not get education in their own language will not be capable of fully appreciating, let alone producing, literature in the given language. Historical evidence however shows that such an assumption is not well-founded.

Looming phono-cide

During the early years of the nineteenth century, an interesting debate occupied the centre- stage in the social reform movement in India, in which the Bengali intellectuals kept asking for education through the English language medium, while an English officer like Elphinstone held that the schools in Indian languages would be desirable. The argument came to an end when in 1835, Lord Maucaulay's Minutes on Education recommended that English would be the medium of all serious education in India. Quite remarkably, it was since then that literatures in modern Indian languages showed a significant creativity.

These arguments are not intended to take away any substance from the view that mother tongue education is the most suitable for young learners. I am only pointing to the fact that a lack of access to the mother tongue education is not enough of a cultural condition to destroy human creativity. The more significant condition is of having no hope for survival of a community.

When a speech community comes to believe that education in some other language alone is the way ahead for it for its very survival, the given community decides to adapt to the new language situation. It would be pertinent therefore to consider if there is something inherent in the dominant development discourse in the contemporary world that requires diminishing of world's language heritage, that demands a kind of a phono-cide. And, if that is the case, which is a task for the analysts of political imagination and economies, the future for the human languages is frightening. The communities that are already marginalised within their local or national context, the ones that are already in minority within their cultural contexts, the ones that have already been dispossessed of their ability to voice their concerns, are obviously placed at the frontline of the phono-cide.

Conservation or preservation of languages needs to be seen as being significantly different from the preservation of monuments. Languages are, as every student of linguistics knows, social systems. They get impacted by all other contextual social developments. Language- as a social system has an objective existence in the sense that dictionaries and grammars of languages can be prepared, and languages can be transcribed, orthographed, mimeographed, recorded on a tape by way of documents and objects; but, essentially language does not have an existence entirely free of the human consciousness. Therefore, a given language cannot be as completely dissociated from the community that uses it. Quite logically, therefore, preservation of a language entails the preservation of the community that puts that language in circulation.

Ecology of language

Between the collective consciousness of a given community, and the language it uses to articulate the consciousness, is situated what is described as the "world view" of that community. Preservation of a language involves, therefore, respecting the world-view of the given speech-community. If such a community believes that the human destiny is to belong to the earth and not to offend the earth by claiming that it belongs to us, the language of that community cannot be preserved if we invite the community to share a political imagination that believes in vandalizing the earth's resources in the name of development. In such a situation, the community will have only two options: it can either reject the utopia that asserts the human right to exploit the natural resources and turn them into exclusively commercial commodities, or it can reject its own world view and step out of the language system that binds it with the world view.

It takes centuries for a community to create a language. All languages created by human communities are our collective cultural heritage. Therefore, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that they do not face the global phono-cide let loose upon the world.

Director, Tribal Training Academy, Tejgadh, Gujarat, and founder-trustee, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Baroda, Dr Devy has authored many books.