Power and the Silencing of Activists

Mythology and performance play roles in Oonga, the novel version of a 2013 movie with the same name, which won a 2021 Neev Book Award. The real-life dystopia of corporate plunder and the clash of ideologies lie at the heart of the novel, its storyline delivered in fragments that echo the fracturing of the land, torn up and left bleeding by the mining company. Sometimes fiction can help disseminate the truth about real-world events. There is an epic journey, victory and celebration here, yet the vibration of the metal signboard signals ominously that the story isn’t over.

In a different vein, consider this article by a linguistics professor, which also raises questions about power structure and caste and the privileging of some languages in India over others.

Excerpt:

While the variation in a language in terms of a formal and informal variety or a written (or literary) and a spoken (or colloquial variety) will be an illustration of division of labour in terms of different varieties having specific domains, the relegation of a particular variety as not fit for formal or official use or a refusal to grant it recognition as an official language would amount to discrimination.

Curiously, the author argues for using English, the language of colonial rule, as an equalizer, in particular one that doesn't carry ancient caste baggage:

Our policy towards English is ambivalent to the core. On the one hand, English is the invisible language to the framers of the Constitution except the allowance that it can continue to be used for all the purposes that it was used prior to the transfer of power (apart from the express provision to use it in the superior courts). On the other, it is not spelt out what the policy towards it should be in terms of promoting or not promoting it in education. While officially, English is treated as an invisible or untouchable language, it continues to dominate the public sphere and having no access to good English is often the determinants of social mobility, wherefore the underprivileged find it impossible to catch up as the state has no obligation to provide education in English for them.

Now consider that the author of the article, Hany Babu, is currently in jail in India, caught up in a strange sweep that includes spyware, leaked phone data, accusations of “Maoism” and the targeting of activists. Professor Babu was arrested on 28 July 2020 and has been in pre-trial detention now for over a year. Here too, the dystopia has occurred in real life. Here too, the story continues.