LANGUAGE IN INDIA

FRAGMENTATION OF LITERATURE?
Emerging Varieties of Indian Literature
V. V. B. Rama Rao, Ph.D.

SHOULD LITERATURE ALWAYS BE WRITTEN?

Myths are many: some are a legacy, part of heritage, and some are of a recent origin, believed without question. There may be an attempt at sensationalism in raising a bogey-like myth.

Literature is the possession of a language community and there is no specific reason why it should always, invariably, be written at all. Oral literature handed down from mouth to mouth has remained down the centuries in many languages.

IS INDIAN LITERATURE BEGING FRAGMENTED?

The very idea that literature is being fragmented might be a bogey created by elitist, exclusive groups who may believe that the literature they appreciate is the only literature.

Some types of literature appeal and hold attraction to specific peoples among a single language community.

FRAGMENTATION OF LITERATURE IS POSSIBLY A MISNOMER

'Fragmentation of literature' is possibly an attitudinal misnomer for 'diversification' and 'democratization' of creative writing. With the advent of democracy, peoples who had hither to no access to the elitist writings, have been struggling to come up with their own creative capabilities. In any given language, more and more people are taking to the pen mainly with a view to venting their feelings against hegemony.

Fragmentation, perhaps, is a fear that literature is being broken to cater to particular peoples in a language community. In the Indian context, the depressed classes, the hitherto neglected classes are sometimes writing for a clientele, which is very limited. And then new genres are coming into play: what with the growth of literacy and borders of nationalities disappearing.

THE SEARCH AND YEARNING FOR IDENTITY AND RECOGNITION

Yearning for identity, personal or group-related, and individual insight is basic to creative expression. This is rightly recognized as a democratic right of a citizen. Even before democracy emerged as a form of government, creative self-expression has always been encouraged. In creative writing, the writer is free. Writers came up with Ramayanas of their own either as kalpavriksh or vishavriksh.

Literary values are manifold and values are not all equal. Good old John Ruskin's distinction between 'books of the hour' and 'books for all time' can be extended to all literature, in all languages. Literature of the highest order is universal: it is not of an age but for all time. Our epics and those produced in the West remain as long as the hills and the oceans live and man remains on this planet. The books of the hour have a different purpose altogether but they are also necessary, generally.

FRAGMENTATION OF INDIAN LITERATURE IS A MYTH

Literature has not always been the written thing. Oral literatures preceded the written discourses. Language is something primarily spoken. Oral literatures are sacred treasures and we see these being transposed into the written texts and discourses. In a country like the multi-lingual and multi ethnic plural society that India is, without oral literatures all of us would be the poorer. This literature of the oral tradition is something, which keeps us together.

Fragmentation of literature is a myth. Democratization and Diversification are reality. Growth and flowering naturally leads to diversification and diversification is always a good thing. In fragmentation there is breaking up and literature is something which cannot really be broken. Some writings appeal to some groups but this is not fragmentation.

There are several areas according to the writers, their stances and their message even in creative writing. The functions of literature may be varied in a scale from the most immediate to the everlasting.

ISSUES GALORE, FRAGMENTATION

Internalization of genres may delude one into the belief that writing is being fragmented. Feminism, subalternism, writing of the Diaspora, Minority and Oppressed classes, etc., are all real, vibrant and sustained self-expressions. In the international context, more and more voices are articulated and more and more ideas, opinions and, sometimes, even propagandist views are orchestrated. South African, Latin American, Canadian and Australian literatures have become subjects worthy of study in Indian universities too.

At home in our own country, the Dalits have been successful in forcing people to listen to them and so are the Feminists. Some of the groups may not have universality, but each group has a definite significance inside a geographical region or a country. But then the literature produced by these groups cannot be brushed aside for the simple reason that the feeling conveyed is authentic and artistic.

THE EMERGENCE OF FREE-VERSE IN INDIAN LANGUAGES AND FRAGMENTATION

I can speak from my own experience. Two years ago I brought out two volumes of Telugu Free Verse produced between 1985-1995 in English translation, compiled, edited and translated all by myself. I included about two hundred and fifty, almost all, of the poets. These poets are of varied stances as varied as Feminists, Dalits, Revolutionaries, those of the Right, Left and the Middle liners, age-wise, up and coming, very young and very established and veterans. One thing is common to them all; they wrote free verse untrammelled by metrical regulations and rigor.

A free flow of expression with feeling and commitment to the concept of quick social change, besides a picturesque or sonorous expression characterizes Free Verse. Never before has there been such ebullience in poetic expression as came to be after the advent of this genre. That it has come to stay for long is incontrovertible. Categories and Labels are, most often, imposed constructs and need not be of paramount importance.

Their utility is limited, transient. They, sometimes, merge into one another. The whole thing ultimately boils down to attitudes and perceptions. Authenticity could be the watchword to assay worth.

THE RASA OF LITERATURE

The broad spectrum of rasa, (remember, we cannot go far from our aesthetic heritage, however 'advanced' we are) of imaginative expressive excellence, of sonority and sensitivity are to be experienced by the individual readers with their own insights playing the decisive role, receiving and sharing the conveyed and communicated experience. The spectrum' wavelengths stand diverse and magnified.

The highest function of literature is to give the greatest of things, sweetness and light, symbolised by the Bee gathering and making - honey and wax (as against the Spider), in Jonathan Swift's Battle of Books. Some or even many of the books now being published may get recognition as valuable for all time.

At first sometimes new ideas may appear as catchy bandwagons. But not all remain limited to bandwagons - some aggregate and grow strong as Movements. The Dalit and Feminist movements in India are cases in point. Similarly, a concept like Post-Modernism has given a new dimension to regional literatures in our country too. Variety and Diversity cannot be Fragmentation. Fragmentation of Literature is a Fallacy. Literature is one and shall remain one, no matter produced where or when.

IS IT FACTIONALIZATION? CLASSES WITHIN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE

Then comes the alarming trend of 'factionalization' of language. In any language spoken extensively over a large geographic region, there are bound to be dialects and regional varieties not to speak of the cultural varieties and professional registers using language in their own ways. But in almost all languages, there would be a normally accepted standard language to which all varieties aspire, in a general way. Language, primarily is the spoken thing and spoken basically to communicate. As long as the purpose of communication is fulfilled there is no problem with the varieties, professional registers, social classes and dialects.

No language as a whole is superior and no language is inferior. However there are classes built into it and a standard has to be evolved in literary language in terms of its acceptability by the educated. Dialects by themselves are not unacceptable as long as they perform the primary purpose of communication. In English there is a standard kind of used by the educated, which may not be strictly called King's English or Queen's English. The various kinds of English are all acceptable in their respective geographical areas like American or Indian English.

A SPECIFIC ILLUSTRATION FROM AN INDIAN LANGUAGE AND ITS LITERATURE

Speaking specifically of Telugu, a language spoken by around sixty and odd million people in the south of India particularly and almost all over the world by some NRIs generally, it has many regional varieties and dialects. Mapping the main ones, the speech of Telangana, Rayalaseema, North Coastal and Central region of Andhra presents a striking diversity. For political reasons some of the areas have been grossly and unfairly neglected and nature, herself bountiful though she generally is, has not been very fair to certain parts of Andhra.

After independence, thanks to the changes in the political and social set up, democratization has come in a big way. Political equality is ensured but along with it not much of social equality could be assured uniformly in the entire linguistic region.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROCESSES AND FACTIONALIZATION

Of late the injustice meted out to Telangana area is being forcefully brought out before the powers that be. Apart from the political overtones to their demands, people in the area are agitating for the recognition of their language. The print media and the daily newspapers are encouraging 'Telangana short story', 'Telangana poetry' in a big way as a duty to a large chunk of the people. This is good sign that there should be regional parity but that should not lead to 'factionalization'.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE OF INTELLIGIBILITY

Writers would be well advised to keep in mind the principle of intelligibility to all readers in the speech community as a whole approximating to some kind of accepted standard. Fighting for their rights is legitimate, noble and necessary. But there is no justification for the demand that their regional variety should be recognized and accepted as a standard literary language.

Encouraging the voice of Telangana as the voice of the people is legitimate as long as it is not very difficult variant from mainstream language. If, as a section of the people demand, this variety of language (dialect appears to be, for some reason, a derogatory word for many) has to be 'given' equal footing (read prestige), real difficulties arise in understanding literary texts. The argument of our brothers there in that region is that since they try hard to understand the lexical items in the 'standard' variety, shouldn't others try too to understand their (Telangana) lexical items? The argument sounds right at first hearing but when it comes to the readers, the difficulties are obvious.

REGIONAL SPEECH AND REGIONAL LITERATURE

If we go a little deeper into the subject, understanding a poem or a story written in that variety, which is limited to that region, becomes difficult to the extent that the reader has to skip the pages in helplessness and despair. Newspapers have some kind of standard and if they begin glossing the terms and if writers of literary texts themselves do this as a matter of service, things might look up.

MAKE WRITING INTELLIGIBLE TO ARGUE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Literary writers particularly would do well to understand that to take the reader forward with them to understand their tribulations they have been subjected to for generations and for no fault of theirs, they must see that their writing is intelligible first. There would be no point in trying to reach a small section of readership in their own region: their effort should be to reach out to the rest of the Telugu-speaking world and to the non-Telugu as well through translation. It is common experience that literary texts written in regional varieties of any language are not amenable to really good translation as those written in a 'standard' language.

Again I speak from own experience. I had to translate a powerful short story by a new writer of considerable merit writing in the Telangana regional variety of language for a reputed national organization, which tries to promote regional stories by translations into English. The very title was difficult to understand to begin with. The story is about the lowest of the low who make a living by attending to rituals associated with the offsetting of things like black magic and occult practices. Written in the language of the rural folk and related to some regional ritual practices and so on, n the story is loaded with words, which needed a local person of the same class as the characters in the story to explain. Such a kind of writing needs other help from the writer too by way of explicating the details.

THE USE OF REGIONAL VARIETY, AND THE LIMITS IT IMPOSES ON A WRITER

Readers do know that there are regional varieties and they are ready to make allowances but then only to a certain extent. A literary writer who holds on to a regional variety throughout is likely to lose his reader altogether. The regional variety can be used sparingly and judiciously either to retain the flavor or bring out the special characteristic of a character and so on but not to the detriment of the very activity of reading.

It should be accepted in this context that some films and some fiction have made use of these varieties only to poke fun, ridicule, run down or denigrate a people. The objective and sensible reader would hate such kinds of writing too. I did come across writing (by some writers), which does not appreciate the fact that the reader finds it difficult to follow the large chunks of writing steeped in the expression of a particular regional variety.

THE KEY - JUDICIOUS LIMITATION

Use of a regional variety of the language in a literary text can be acceptable as long as it is judiciously limited and does not lead either to confusion or a total breakdown of communication. If there be only a few lexical items with glosses, the writing would not be unreadable. Too many glosses, again, would make the page look awkward and make it look too pedagogic to be creative writing. If almost every fifth or tenth word has a limited circulation in a particular region, the writing would not get the expected response.

Parochialism would be no help to a creative writer, on the other hand it would be counter-productive.

A reasonable 'standard' language makes for intelligibility. A creative writer would do well not to mix up his duty as a writer with an obtrusive ambition to secure economic and social justice by sticking only to a regional variation of the language. It is not right to 'factionalize' literary language, no matter how noble the motives are. Factionalism (the use of this strong word is regretted) would be detrimental to the production of great literary texts.

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