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VOL. XXIII No. 10, September 1-15, 2013
Brindian or Hindlish?

It could be said of the English that if you took away their Latin, Greek and French they would have to speak in sign language. But although Purists have decried this allegation, this ease with which foreign words have been absorbed into the English language is one of its great virtues.

In the 18th Century there were so many Hindi words in the English language (as well as Tamil, Sanskrit and Urdu) that it could have been predicted that the English in India would eventually have been speaking Hindi and calling it English.

Even Edmund Burke admitted that as much as he would like to avoid these “New Abominations”, he could not, when talking of Indian affairs, be understood in Parliament if he did not use them.

First had come merchant words suggesting comfort and commerce. The master/servant relationship being so important, hundreds of words for all the infinite variety of tasks, and the servants to do them, were deemed, at that time, to be indispensable. Preoccupation with the social classes ensured the establishment of such words as Mogul, Nabob, Brahmin, Sahib (did the British, I wonder, ever know that it meant friend?), wallah, coolie, pariah, babu.

Then came the soldiers with their Army Ranks and their endless military terms. Words like gymkhana, shikar, bungalow, veranda, cummerbund, jodhpuri reflected the continued sense of privilege, and thug, dacoit, jungle, loot added another dimension to the heritage.

The foot-soldier, with his inadequate but poetic grasp of language, adopted khaki, cushy, dekko, baksheesh and the word phut which acquired an English onomatopoetic force most appropriate to its meaning. And, of course, there is blighty, the concept without which no British could think of leaving home.

Then the nostalgic words of the retired colonial who finds himself in a land he loves but is not at home in: amah, ayah, toddy, cheroot, chai, curry, chutney and all the other culinary words. Words like pukkah and purdah, dinghy, bandanna, bangle, calico, catarmaran, dungaree replaced others previously quite acceptable....Could a child put on this pajamas and crawl into his cot with quite the same degree of warmth if he wore a nightshirt and slept in a bed? How did we ever wash out hair before we discovered shampoo? What could we do without the chit and without tiffin? And without that so Irish-sounding soup mulligatawny?

Yet although Indian words now flourishing in the English language are a mere fraction of the words that have been taken in and later discarded, the golden age may still be ahead. For, with the interest in Indian philosophy ever increasing, the Englishman now not only knows words like yoga, sadhu, mandala, but he also understands concepts like nirvana, dharma, ahimsa, mukti.

These concepts being indispensable if words for them did not exist, he would have to make them up from his Latin or from his Greek. (Courtesy: Sri Aurobindo’s Action)

-Navoditte

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In this issue

Madras Week a Great Success
The Muddle that is The ASI
Madras Fifty Years Ago
Brindian or Hindlish
Beginnings of the Labour Movement
Goodness Mercy And Toughness
Looking Back on Madras Week
The Hindu Metrplus Theatre Fest
On Your Marks Geography and a Laugh!
Unlucky to Find a Test cap too Far

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Short 'N' Snappy
Quizzin' With Ram'nan
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