1.7 The Decline of Indian Languages

1.7 The Decline of Indian Languages

Along with inventions of new communication techniques, the colonization of India has also led to the diminution of historic languages of India. While some rulers’ influence brought in new opportunities for the development of literature in India, others led to the undermining of the Sanskrit system. The succession of Islamic rulers: Arabs, Turks and Mughals, indigenously gave rise to new languages such as Urdu, as their native languages (Persian and Arabic) merged with the Indian languages such as Sanskrit and Hindi. This expansion has majorly contributed to (if not caused) the rise of new styles of poetry, music and dance along with calligraphy and art.

Another colonial impact is caused by the British rule over India. This however, has led to the demoralization of the Indian cultures and traditional languages. Prof. G.N. Devy’s book ‘After Amnesia’ explains that the British rulers felt “it was their historic duty to ‘educate’ India” and ‘civilize’ their ways. The British system divided all knowledge into individual subjects. That was their way of handling the immense amount of information and collective memories that existed in all these centuries. The Indian way of remembering all the information was rather different; the knowledge was complete when many subjects and activities were integrated and coexisted harmoniously. For example, as a child learnt the art of pottery from his/her parents, he/she simultaneously, learnt the types of soil available, each of their properties, the ratios of raw materials mixed together with water, the optimum temperature and time required for the pots to be baked, and also how to construct a small kiln. There is no doubt that British delivered knowledge of great value and made India familiar with many different thoughts and ideas however, it did not encourage the merging of or exchange between Indian and European knowledge. This led to Indian intellectuals being discouraged resulting a decline in the use of Indian languages and the practices of traditional arts. Prof G.N. Devy writes:

Figure 1.7.1 An image of a text written in Urdu

‘The aim of the British educators of India was purely pragmatic. The aim was not to ‘educate’ Indians so that they become cultural equals of the British. It was to educate Indians just enough to make them ‘useful’ to the empire. However, the culturally demoralized Indian intellectuals were willing to accept British culture as superior to the decant Indian culture, and so had no difficulty in embracing the ‘fairness’ of British education, administration and law. This acceptance led to the belief that European culture was an ‘open system’, and that participation in it on a basis of mutual exchange was possible if the intellectuals met the minimum requirement of excellence. This wishful idea of participation and exchange needs no countering in the light of the continuing and one-sided dependence on western ideas available to India through English language’

As said earlier, the new ‘developments’ in language themselves have caused the decline in use of olden languages which encourage more interactions and memories to be created. Technology is another major invention which has discouraged the act of storing memories in the brain and conveying them orally or through physical activities. What used to be part of a person’s minds is now in stored in small chips without any personal emotions, opinions or arguments.

One of Prof. G.N. Devy’s theories say that in the future humans and the world in fact, is going to be in the state of aphasia. Memories are going to be evaporated leaving no trace of personal emotions as technology will be ahead of us and start to takeover the human minds leaving the brain ‘hollow’...