LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 23:3 March 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

Poetic Encounter
Available in https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09TT86S4T

Poems
Naked: the honest browsings of two brown women
Available in https://www.amazon.in

Decrees
Available in https://www.amazon.com

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2022
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Opium War and Foreign Encroachment:
The Rise of New Rhetoric and Concepts

Somya Nayak, M.Phil., Ph.D.

The Opium War or the Anglo-Chinese war of 1839-42 is considered to be the most significant turning point in Chinese history as it is the first major confrontation between China and the Western world. Prior to Opium war in early 18th century the foreign trade was in China’s favor. Between 1781 to 1810, 26 million tales of silver flowed to China, however after that the balance began to slip other way. Opium made its way to China in 7th or 8th century; however it was mainly used as medicine, opium-smoking for pleasure began to spread in China from the 17th century and it resulted in serious sociopolitical menace. Initially Qing government anticipated that they can easily deal with the imperialist power and can ban the Opium trade. They took necessary step to stop the importation of Opium, there were serious discussions and deliberation among the Qing officials on how to handle this crisis. However, Qing government failed to deal with the imperialist power and eventually culminated the Opium war in 1840. The Qing government could not fight back and the military, technological and political weaknesses of the Qing Empire got exposed. Imperialist power gradually sapped the strength of the Chinese people who used to consider themselves as the most powerful race on the earth and Qing government became dysfunctional in front of the imperialist power. There are many academic articles and accounts on socio-political aspect of Opium War. Looking into the economic aspect, after the defeat in the Opium war, China had to sign the unequal treaty of Nanjing and had to hand over Hong Kong to imperialist power as war indemnities. Besides that the imperialist power also demanded six million US dollar, reopening of Canton as war indemnities. The economic consequences of Opium war has also been well researched by scholars and academicians. However no such research has been done on the linguistics aspect of the War. This article intends to probe how Opium War gave rise nationalistic sentiments, new ideas and concepts and how these new ideas and concepts are spelled out adding new slogans and eloquence to the language system.

The Chinese society and the people, like any other ancient Asiatic societies, have been proved to be very conservative and traditional with strong cultural beliefs and ideas cultivated for many generations that may be traced to the pre-Christian and pre-historic period. Being partially secluded from the rest of the world by its natural boundary, it has civilizational isolation from others. It developed and flourished independently in a unique way, thus whatever changes occurred in the Chinese language till the mid-19th century was mainly constrained to domestic causes. This has also made them quite proud about their past and established superiority complex as one would like to claim based on their civilization.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Somya Nayak, M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Asian Languages (Chinese)
The English and Foreign Languages University
Hyderabad-500007
somya15sept@gmail.com
Mobile: 8375988732
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.