By Garga Chatterjee
In the recently concluded elections of Bihar, many propaganda jingles were produced and played by political parties. Many of them were in Bhojpuri, Magahi and other languages of Bihar. These were played in areas where nearly every voter is counted in the Indian Union`™s official census numbers as `Hindi`™ speakers. But strangely, in this officially Hindi-land, Hindi was not enough as the medium of political communication. A gigantic fraud is committed on the people of Bihar every 10 years by counting almost all of them as `Hindi`™ speakers as per census, even when they mention their own non-Hindi languages as their mother-tongue. This is something that is exposed when political propaganda is done using people`™s own non-Hindi mother-tongues. Frauds are good for census purposes, but in elections, mostly real people with real non-Hindi mother-tongues vote. Thus, in areas where there are no Bhojpuri medium schools but plenty of Hindi medium schools and almost every citizen is registered as a `Hindi`™ speaker, Bhojpuri was widely used for political purposes. So politicians know what this `Hindi`™ is, just like the priests at the temple of Delphi must have known that there was no real oracle.
Languages are not intrinsically `funny`™ – promoting them as such is an old conspiracy by dominant groups and their languages of hegemony. Hegemonic languages are never `funny`™.They are `neutral`™. When Lalu Prasad`™s language is made `fun`™ of and his `funny`™ videos go viral, what is at display is nothing short of linguistic racism. Millions of mostly lower caste people don`™t think its `funny`™. They hear the language and its content. They speak it, make love in it, swear in it, cry in it. That`™s a world beyond Lalu Prasad`™s `funny`™ speeches going viral. There is a caste difference those who make love in Lalu`™s language and those to `love`™ his `funny`™ videos.
The Union government at New Delhi refuses to publish the socio-economic caste census (SECC) data. What truth in those numbers does it fear? Lalu Prasad Yadav drove that point home, by quoting some shocking data ( that 51% people are manual casual labourers, 14% families living in one-room kuchcha house, 14% are landless households, etc) and rhetorically asked the people whether people with such pathetic condition were brahmins, thakurs or bhumihars or from the lower castes? His audience knew the answer. Everyone knows. Like caste and class, language, in the Indian Union, unfortunately, is another axis of exclusion, that is intimately tied to caste and class. Hence, like Lalu Prasad Yadav, one can ask, who are the people who know only Bhojpuri or Angika or Magahi and no Hindi. Are they brahmins? Are they thakurs? Or are they overwhelmingly from the lower castes? The forced uniform Hindu-ness is not unrelated to forced uniform Hindi-ness. Bihar voted against uniformity forced by erstwhile dominant groups. Bihar voted for itself.
Hindi-ization of public sphere and political idiom excludes the majority. This Hindi-ization in the context of Bihar is led by upper-castes (except with the marginal exception of Maithili speakers, where upper-castes along with others are trying hard to fight for their language). The dominant group, due to their links to the West and especially to the Hindi circles to the West (including, most crucially, Hindi literature and media circles) have also made Hindi an aspirational language. This works to the advantage of these already dominant groups, as the other castes lose the less unequal playing field they might have had, when it comes to Bhojpuri or Angika. The ultimate aim of this design is to rob the majority of their Angika, Bhojpuri or Maithili agency and being converted into mere appendages of a Savarna-Hindi leadership. Everyone knows what kind of political forces benefit from this trend. This forced minoritization of the majority was only partially broken in 1990 with the ascendency of Lalu Prasad Yadav to Bihar`™s Chief Ministership. The displaced elites, especially those hegemonic caste-groups whose strangehold on politics was partially broken in the 1990-1995 period, have been trying to claw back to power ever since. Hence, when Nitish Kumar was making the case for the Bihari vis-a-vis the Bahari, that statement can be read in multiple ways. Every text has a sub-text. Every speech, even when made in Hindi, may have a non-Hindi sub-speech within it. Not everything can be heard clearly from Anglo-Hindi perches of Delhi. Certain readings require compassion, humility and taking-off Delhi-mark imperial blinders. One such reading (or one may call it a `spin`™) is that RJD-JD(U) called for unity among the Angika, Bajjika, Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili speaking peoples against the forces of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. The result is clear.
Looking into the future, if people-centric empowerment is part of the RJD-JD(U) agenda, then that process cannot happenusing Hindi as the unform medium of communication from the government to the people and vice-versa. Bihar`™s own languages desperately needs basic infrastructure and recognition that can come from funds that were historically looted and monopolized by upper-caste Hindi-wallahs to extend their sphere of hegemony. People should be able to study at least in primary school, speak in the Bihar assembly, have forms and signs in Angika, Bajjika, Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili. This much dignity they deserve and has to be a part of any future social-justice agenda.