Chapter 3

Children

Inside the family, the Malayalee children would be given the lower indicants.  The affect of this would be easily visible. The reader may remember that the lower indicants that are used towards the children are the same as that used for the servants. And the same type of behaviour extended towards the Indian servants are generally shown to the children. It is not to say that there is no affection. For, the servants are also given affection. There may be affection, yet the positioning of the children would be markedly different from that given to the English child by his or her parents.

For one thing, there would be a general understanding that the child of whatever age, even final teens, is of minor social intelligence. Moreover the attitude would be that of not conceding any right of choice in any important matter, concerning himself or herself, even though, there may be perfunctory query of choice and wish. But, it is not expected to be in sharp contrast to what the parents and the elders wish and decide. At the same time, it may be understood that such children brought up in the shadow of a senior's discriminatory powers, would only exhibit in most of the cases, wishes and choice which are not at variance from that of the elder's narrow viewpoints. For, the elders also live in narrow social functioning areas, tied up as they are by their language.

It is easy to compare a child from an English background and that with one in a Malayalam background. Just see a child communicating in an English film with an adult, and then compare it with the communication of a child doing the same in a Malayalam film. The former would be found to be communicating with a natural pose of assertiveness, while the latter would be found to be doing the same from a posture of modest meekness, with a voice of tangled shyness or with a pose of rude offence.

Moreover, the way a Malayalee communicates with the children would also smack of the attitude to that of a servant. Usually, the defenceless serving classes are generally taunted by the superiors, as a means of asserting their superiority, for it helps in the usage of the lowest indicant words. Very rarely do a Malayalee give his hand for shaking, to a child. What is usually done instead of shaking the hands is to fondle the cheeks and pinch and pull it, in a pretended pose of affection. Many ask stupid questions, and go on repeating the same, to evoke a gesture of irritation from the child. Some pull the hair, or snatch the article, the child was having in his or her hands, and make the child go on a wild spree to retrieve it. And most persons would swoop the child from the ground and hold him or her in their hands, to the obvious disturbance of the child. This is the common form of accepted communication with a child. And these persons would find it might funny to see a man talk to a child in a serious manner, instead of giving mocking answers.

Suppose the child in a railway compartment points to a lonely house on a hill, and asks what it is doing there, the answer said with real seriousness would be: Oh, that is a house of a giant. He devours children. You should not go there.

Actually, this is the tone of the answers given to servants. Actually, no serious questions are entertained from servants. If at all they do so, then they are immediately kept in their position. And naturally, good servants never venture to do that.

Actually, in the feudal language, the parent is very superior and having a mental domination over the child in a manner not conceivable or understandable in English.  The parent is licensed to use the lower indicant words to his children, with both love as well as antipathy. Now, the children cannot retort in the same words, if they are haunted and hunted by a wicked parent. For, if they do it, the whole Indian society would only find fault with the child of whatever age. Unless, the child is of superior financial capacity.

Now, when such children are allowed mix with English speaking children, naturally there would be a crises of culture. Yet, the Malayalee children would benefit beautifully, and gain much confidence that never came from their own language.

In the usual case, non-English children living in an English nation would fast imbibe the general positive aspects of the English communication. This is because the native English-speaking children would naturally outnumber the others. And as such, there won't be much of a problem, or the need to worry on that count. But the problem starts when native English speaking children have to interact with the non-English speaking crowd, here in the example the Malayalee crowd, on a daily, continuing basis; or are outnumbered. In this group, there would be many persons, like elderly parents, who won't make any effort to absorb English. Moreover, these persons would be on a We are greater, our language is better binge. They would be a real nuisance. For, they would very easily use the lower indicant words to and about the native English-speaking children. In this case, the reader should bear in mind that this type of negative communication would not come from the English children. And the affect would be obvious, yet not fully understandable. It would be more confounding because this infliction would come with a very affable expression and demeanour.

And whatever attempts to distance themselves, the native English children do, would exhibit an element of rudeness, and in extreme cases, a feeling of repulsive arrogance would be felt by the Malayalees.

Now, under no circumstance, should the reader assume that this aversion to mix with these characters is a unique English reaction. For, in India also, dignified persons move away from the nearness of persons who use lower indicants. There is actually a general reluctance on the part of all persons to openly use these words, and to use it only in the absence of the relevant persons. Moreover, if anyone does use it, to the disturbance of the other, it could end up in real violence. But in the illustrated situation here, there would be a tendency to use it at random, on the understanding that the other group would not understand it. Yet as I mentioned earlier, somehow the sense of derogation is conveyed, by some means, not necessarily by body language alone. There may even be an element of some sort of mental waves, which do come as a sort of wireless signal, as in the case of a cellular phone. This is a theme that will be dealt in a slightly more detail in the concluding areas of this book.

When I am on this theme, I would like to narrate one incident that I had when I visited U.A.E, for pursuing one of my writing projects. I befriended one young man, from Maharashtra*, in India. He was good in English communication, but his mother tongue was Konkani*, connected to the Konkan* coast of India. As a Maharashtrian, his state language was Marathi*, and as a person whose house was near Bombay, he was also good in Hindi. He was the manager in a shoe store. Under him were some Malayalees, and some Philippines. The lady staff under him werefrom Philippine. Inside the store I heard only English, no Malayalam or Philippine. I asked him why. His reply was that he had given specific orders not to do so, as it was a company policy not to allow any staff to use their native tongue other than English in the work area. I then asked him to clarify on this policy. He replied that if the native tongues were allowed, then they would speak something derogatory right in front of others, without the others understanding the full implication of what was uttered.

I understood the feelings that created this policy. And later, when I was in another business establishment, I saw some of the lower staff using real derogatory terms, and indicant words about some of the senior female staff, a thing that they would never do in their native land. So much for the social intelligence of the policy maker in the Shoe Supermarket Consortium. But it may be kept in mind that the persons who were running this consortium were Indians by nativity, though there were then of British domicile. And it only shows their keen understanding of what happens, if the native languages are allowed to roam free in areas, where politeness to everybody is the key.

This tension of the disturbing verbal and physical communication would be a real issue in places where certain non-English speaking groups tend to form exclusive towns. For example, places like China Towns, Italian Towns, Punjabi Towns, Sindi Towns etc. would be real breeding ground for these types of viruses. When an English speaker comes to these places, he would really feel a real change in personality, as it reflects on the others in the area. And another thing is that in any area, for example, where Indians dominate and one hears the Indian languages, one may really see faces of India. Yet, the poverty and dirtiness of Indian streets may be not so evident for the place exists right in the middle of an English country. But in social behaviour, and interpersonal relationships, the deeply hierarchical features may be seen, though only as a shadow of the real intense thing that exists in India.

It needs to be emphasised here again that these problems come only when Indians, or any particular feudal language group of persons, conglomerate in an area for living together. At the same time, if they live in a widely dispersed manner, among a huge number of English speakers and others, with the imbibing of the real character of the English language, the problems associated with the viruses in the native languages would have vanished. And in many cases, they would then exhibit exemplary social characters.

And another reaction that confronts the English native speaker is to be stated here. When, they find an individual non-English native amongst them, they may wholeheartedly extend him or her, all help. But, when they are confronted by a group, who they perceive to be of a terrible social attribute, then, they would turn, what can be defined as, racial. They would give a wide breadth to the newcomers. Basically, it all springs from the fact that while they would improve a non-English man's individuality, the other way round would not happen. For, the others come with the program of domination and suppression, when the right time comes; and to be obsequious, till that is achieved. In every word, and gesture English would improve the non-English man's social perception. Yet, as mentioned now, the opposite would not be possible from the understanding in the native vernacular.

One thing in this regard, the policy makers of English nations should note is that a very significant negative factor has now appeared on the horizon. That is the arrival of satellite Television. Earlier, after a few years of domicile in an English nation, the immigrant population lose their vernacular character in an unnoticed manner. Now, right inside their bedroom, the native social environment daily comes, through the channel televisions. I can assure them that this is a threat not to be viewed with negligence. For, right inside the English nation, persons continue to imbibe the far distant feudal programs, and the same ferocious, social negativity gets activated daily.