Feature

Reflections on English

Rifat Munim Dip

Have you ever talked to anyone studying English Literature or someone from an English medium school? And then let us talk to someone intending or studying Bangla Literature, or preferring Bangla medium. It is quite easy to notice a mark of difference between students of Bangla and English medium. There is a discernible extent to which I differ as a student of English literature from someone studying Bangla. Apparently it seems that language poses merely facile problems if there is any. Many of us regard it as something that the student, grown up or not, freely opts for and there exists no difference except some superficial ones. But my experience as a student of English literature strongly suggests that the influx of a foreign language and culture works, in practice, just the way round by marginalizing other languages and cultural forms.

To clarify it, I would like to tell you about an illuminating conversation that took place some five years back. I was preparing for my admission test in Public Universities. One of my friend's father asked me about my subject I was about to choose for graduation. I told him if it was Dhaka University, I would like to choose Bangla literature. To his utter surprise, he explained all the quandaries I might have to face if I take Bangla. He emphasized no less on cultural position of a Masters in Bangla than on Economics. At that time, I pretended to oppose him. Surprisingly after our admission was over, I myself failed to notice when I started walking tall as a student of English literature. But take one thing for sure; my world was shaken by my experience after the newly obtained title was added to my identity. Whenever I tell someone that I am a student of English, especially on the occasion of getting myself acquainted with someone, his/her face brightens and our discussion soon diverts to the magnificent prospect of my career. Think of the stark difference: both disciplines deal with literature, yet we all are hailing English as the means of a prospective career. Is it really the case in the job market? On the other hand, it reflects how ideas regarding the position of English are organized in those tendencies. It then appears that people hold a very special idea about my subject not because it is literature, but because it is English literature.

Even if you are not a student of English, all your acquaintances, your teachers, different institutions like schools, colleges, universities through their enforced patterns, the job market, and last of all so many advertisements in print and electronic media, roadside posters, tiny or giant billboards -will unmistakably impart you the importance of English related courses or exams like IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, SAT, and many more varieties offered in plenty by private institutions, not to mention some famous coaching centres whose business solely depends upon providing similar courses. All these materials serve to infuse in you the unquestionable role learning English plays in building your life and career. You might not have learnt to use it, but you must learn how to accept the power of it. Last month I watched an advertisement in an Indian channel that advocated some books, CDs by a guru who was shown to be talking to some younger people. They came to him as a last resort to rid themselves of the feeling that they are not smart; because, they do not know how to use English properly. One can easily observe that a guru, versatile in and beyond worldly matters, has been transformed into someone well versed in teaching English. This transformation may be related to a large group of professionals in our parts of the world who earn their livelihood by teaching English. Given this fact, it is easily conceivable why such an Indian guru should universalize the relationship between Englishness and smartness. No doubt, these advertisements are aimed at doing business; but they can never succeed unless they are addressed to some already prevalent ideas or cultural discourses regarding English.

What really happens when we Bangalees speak in English to communicate? Can we not convey the message in Bangla anymore? It is obvious that we, among ourselves, do not make use of English merely as a means of communication. We use it because we are well aware that English gets attached to one's personality like a badge, a sign of a social life, an insignia that helps the user jump up the ladder forming the social scales. Practicing English always gains in an imperative tone. To attempt to isolate a language from its culture is part of a politics we often overlook. All linguistic codes or sign conspicuously bear the mark of the culture it is derived from. A second or any foreign language can never operate through a country where a favorable culture does not exist for the language to be contained in. That is why English as a language is always tied up with forms of Western cultures in matters of clothing, habits of talking and thinking. A number of modern phenomena (like the scientific discourse) instilled vigorously in our ideology, exert the dominance of occidental knowledge in medicine, physical and life sciences, social sciences, philosophy, religion, literature and so forth. Professor Fakrul Alam discusses some of these issues elaborately in his Daniel Defoe: a Colonial Propagandist.

Law enforcers need not interfere in this affair by implementing coercive measures. Instead, a powerful discourse subservient to occidental superiority is shared and nourished by people inside our country who belong especially to the middle and higher classes. An Englishman need not be assertive about the superiority of English literature; that job is well done by Bangladeshi citizens like my friend's father. This is the space Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist, would call hegemony, a political stance whereby someone consciously or unconsciously subscribes to the authoritative group or discourse.

Some of my acquaintances asked me to write about this during February. They vaguely implied that the vulnerability of our national language should only be talked about around 21 February. Such an idea sounds odd to me as I do not face the shrinking value of Bangla only during February. In case of Bangla literature, the degree of vulnerability is more alarming. Students nowadays, when it comes to literature, more aptly decide on English literature than we did. This marginality of Bangla language and literature should be addressed as frequently as possible in order to resist the engulfing effect of English, and retrieve the lost splendour and affluence of Bangla language, literature and culture as a whole.

Khulna University.

He could be your Lawyer !!

A man went to his lawyer and told him, "My neighbour owes me $500 and he doesn't want to pay up. What should I do?"

"Do you have any proof?" asked the lawyer.

"Nope,"" replied the man.

"Okay, then write him a letter asking him for the $1000 he owed you," said the lawyer.

"But it's only $500," replied the man.

"Precisely. That's what he will reply and we will have the proof we need to nail him."

The Kind Lawyer......

One afternoon, a wealthy lawyer was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw two men eating grass by the roadside. He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate. "Why are you eating grass?" he asked one man.

"We don't have any money for food," the poor man replied.

"Oh, come along with me then."

"But sir, I have a wife with two children!"

"Bring them along! And you, come with us too!" he said to the other man.

"But sir, I have a wife with six children!" the second man answered.

"Bring them as well!"

They all climbed into the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limo. Once underway, one of the poor fellows says, "Sir, you are too kind.

Thank you for taking all of us with you."

The lawyer replied, "No problem, the grass at my home is about two feet tall."