CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING THROUGH MULTILINGUAL ABILITY; HOW FAR IT IS POSSIBLE IN THIS POST MODERN WORL

“The limits of my language are the limits of my world”

-Ludwig Wittgenstein-

I belong to a college where students from different corners of the world come in pursuit of pursuing their lofty goals. Indeed, I felt very sad when I happened to see my colleagues chatting with them, sharing their ideas and thus creating a world of their own where I am often viewed as an “other “to them.Paradoxically, I don’t feel cheated, when I login to my Facebook account which opens the global world comprises of hundreds of thousand languages speaking people before me. Interestingly,what is the Fact that distinguishes between my real world and virtual world? Is it speaking language? If yes, how far language can act as a successful media in promoting cultural understanding (Pluralism) and thus opening a way towards global citizenship (a step to Globalization)? This essay seeks to answer such questions in general and the role of languages in promoting cultural understanding in particular in the backdrop of historical and lifelong experiences that I had in my life so far.

THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON LANGUAGE

Culture is an environment that reflects a certain civilization and in which the civilized person moves. According to sociologists, culture is constituted by the combination of Moral principle, aesthetic taste, industry and practical logic. As far as, moral principle is concerned, moral principles is based on the ideas that the people who live in that particular society have, and such ideas are formed according to the environment that society produces and vice versa. Interestingly, every mutation that happens within the ideological environment of society will make some kinds of changes in the meaning of words(signified). For example, when the tides of modernization poured to the shores of Kerala, even the Marxist party which until then seemed to be following its strict ideologies encircled on the problems faced by labors, was forced to leave its strictness to an extent, likewise, all other indigenous cultures were also subjected to these sorts of ideological crisis. This fact becomes further clear in the case of “NaadoodiPattu[1]” when it was varnished with the name of”payayapatttukal[2]” which facilitated a bad representation to it in the mindsets of people, exactly, that was because of the negative meaning formed around the word ‘payaya’in the sense of the people due to the changed social fabric because of the changed ideology that leads the society.

THE INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE ON CULTURE

Indian medieval history provides us a clear cut idea about thissubtopic. That is, when the famous historian AL Biruni(973-1048)[3]reached in north India, he had to face some challenges, primarily the challenge of language as he did not know the language Sanskrit which was at time the language, lion share of the Indians used, similarly ,he had to suffer the brunt of hindutwa rituals as they believed in the superstitions like considering foreigners as a symbol of badness ,lastly, adding fuel to fire, no books dealing with Sanskrit grammars were available at that time for a better communication with them .but ,interestingly, due to his efforts of unimaginable magnitude, he could become successful in possessing proficiency in Sanskrit and now he is being commemorated as a noticeable contributor of sanskrit of all times through his valuable account of books in sankrit. Anyhow, asan apparent result of his acquaintance with Sanskrit and thus knowing hindutwa culture, unlike other historians, hecriticized his sultan,MuhammedGazni[4] on account of his devastations targeted at shrines of hindus as he studiedand became familiar with hindutwa culture through Sanskrit.

According to Kerala, it is Arab traders who firstly introduced a foreign culture tokeralites.After the sixth century, they approached Kerala as a finest destination to carry out their religious propagation rather than having trade with keralites. Following these overseas journeys of Arabs, various Sufi traditions reached in Kerala especially from Hadarmauth[5]. Due to the absence of text in Malayalam language at the time they reached here, they were perplexed before preaching their concepts, so they delved into finding appropriate remedies. This crisis finally led them to use Arabic letters for Malayalam words and this system[6] made possible their religious propagation in Kerala. As a result of this tendency, new art forms emerged in the cultural milieu of Kerala as to which we now call as Muslim arts[7].these arts created new type of cultures through the dress codes and songs used in such assorted artistic forms and culminated in the genesis of new culture[8].

COSMOPOLITANISM AND CULTURAL SYNTHESIZATION.

Ancient Arabia was a center of world trade as they at that time were most culturally vibrant and most of them relied upon trade as a unique livelihood. So, merchants hailing from breadth and length of the world attracted towards Arabia, thus Arabia become the meeting ground of various cultures having several languages. Interestingly, foreign traders were compelled to study Arabi in particular and some other languages spoken by majority of traders, in generalin orderto carry out their trades easily. Thisphenomena, brought about a distinct atmosphere in Arabia where different melodies ,traditions,forms,rhythms, and rituals took its roots and this interesting environment left in the lives of people a certain lifestylethat is said to be “composite culture”. This fact is apparent from the renowned collection of tales ‘one thousand nights’ written at that age as it vividly deals with various stories reflecting different cultures. Thus Arabic language spread across the world through merchants and Arabic language is now designated as a cosmopolitan language as it has the power to exist among different cultures. So it becomes clear that different cultures can easily be synthesized to a language spoken by majority of people very easily.

THE WORLD BEHIND LANGUAGES.

Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) has said that there is a magical power in the words. According to Ibn Khaldun, the power of a society lies on the mutual cohesion between its members and he says that there is an intangible uniting power in the society rather than the elected authorities. Actually, it is language that indirectly unites people. Added to this, Derrida has a theory called “The metaphysics of presence” in which he says that there is an indirect power in discourses made up of languages.

Naturally, somebody will use language as a weapon to perpetuate their power where as somebody will render language as a means of escaping from the clutches of exploitations. In philosophical terms, language is a system of fusion between signifier and signified. Since, each word represents an idea, and that idea is formed out of the environment of a particular society, it is better studying languages in order to know that particular culture.

MULTILINGUAL ABILITY AS AN IDEAL TOOL FOR PLURALISM.

What is pluralism? Before interpreting cultural understanding and its various meanings, pluralism deserves mention here. It can be defined as a participant spot where people from different background present and are involved in active engagement with one another. As proved above that language is a power that unites the members of a society by controlling different elements in that society like rituals, taste, melodies and etc...Language can be compared with a window that opens it pales towards the world.

When colonialism reachedin Kerala by fourteenth century, the scholars of Kerala prohibited people from studying English realizing that it will change the approaches of people towards colonial powers and that would badly affect the united revolt against colonial powers. Proving that prohibition right, various English speaking intellectuals received higher positions offered by British government without taking their attacks as a serious matter. So, history too inculcates us that language is a thing that reflect the culture where it prevails and it has magical power to entice people towards its culture. In this respect, if multilingual epistemology is promoted well it will introduce people about new cults and cultures. According to Plato, the ultimate objective behind acquiring education is earning an ability to realize good and bad separately. So studying a new language will tempt the learner to think about that culture as he happens to primarily acquaint with that culture. This will avoid conflicts between different ethnic groups and prepare them to reach at a mutual understanding.

THE ROLE OF LANGUAGES IN GLOBALISING THE WORLD.

Compression of space and time is meant by the term globalization and a citizen who lives in accordance with that global setup is called as a Global citizen. If the whole world comes to study the main languages in terms of the number of the people using it, it will easily promote cultural understanding as they can easily negotiatewith each other and realize others taste and adapt to the likes of others easily, these adaptations and new ideas thus formed will facilitate a new composite culture constituted according to everyone’s taste where everyone will engage with their own duties that will never harm the taste or beliefs of his fellow beings. Exactly, this is the magical power of language that we have discussed so far. But, in this post modern era, every language poses a critical threat due to the outburst and spread of social Medias at an unprecedented rate. Signs, symbols, and emoticons are widely used in the social Medias so as to express emotions instead of using languages in its original form. Naturally, this conduct will jeopardize the existence of languages and following this critical situation, languages which act as a connecting bond between society and its people, will come off forever putting the future of world in peril. Being provoked by the timely alarms of intellectuals, lion share of people now come forward to mitigate the possible havoc by nurturing the habit of serious reading in the mindsets of children at their tender age. In addition to this, the whole humanity is obliged to do something to evacuate the world from the abyss of destruction, for accomplishing that goal, internships and workshops should be promoted, and translation of various books pertaining to different cultures must take roots in the social fabric rather than that of the academic landscapes. Transnational campus recruitments are to be encouraged and book fairs must become the order of the day. By relying upon these sorts of remedies, threats rising out of social Medias can easily be managed.

As history and lively experiences that decorated my life, show, multilingual ability is an ideal tool to promote cultural understanding and thereby global citizenship under the globalization,

Now, I roll out my days confidently because I perceived that if I know the languages that the foreigners in my college use I can easily enroll into their world where innovative ideas and fruitful thoughts are borne and also this ability will strengthen me with the ability of adaptation according to whichever environment I live in, in tandem with opening a world of opportunities and cooperation before me.

[1]One kind of song prevailed among the tribes of Kerala which was most often used while doing agricultural activities.

[2] The word “payaya” means old

[3]The First Muslim historian to reach in India by 11thcentury who had a historical book “Taareequl hind” mainly dealing with the Aryan invasion in India.

[4] There is no evidence showing the date of his arrival in India but he returned to Gazniya in AD 1030.

[5]A place in the South African coast of Yemen.

[6] This language is now known as Arabimalayalam and various religious texts were written in that.

[7] It is now known as Mappilakalakal comprises of daffumuttu and etc.

[8] Muslims in Malabar region of kerala is known as Mappilas

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