Chapter 1

Introduction

A man who lives for a long time in Tamil Nadu*, the Tamil state in India, and speaks Tamil* for so many years, builds up a Tamil look. A man, who lives in Kerala*, achieves a Malayalee* look after many years of residence; and a man who lives in England, among Englishmen, acquires an English look. A Negro who lives in the United States of America has a physical and mental personality, which is remarkably different from a Negro who lives in a free African country.

A person's language affects his physical appearance and also a lot more. In fact, language is a software, which pervades the whole of human society and its thought process in a much wider and deeper manner than is understood at present.

It is my contention that it can affect not only the anthropological aspects of a man, but also a lot many other factors like his social structure, social standing, dressing, inhibitions, daring, emotional stability, town planning, economic prosperity, poverty, efficiency, intelligence, administrative structures, history, leadership, collective intelligence, collective behaviour, employer-employee relationship, concept of pecking order and almost all themes that one can think of in connection with human beings.

Later, one may even take this theme into the realm of the animal kingdom, also.

To put my contentions in a nutshell, I would claim that the software running programs in a language could have a more effect, with much more resilience, than any other social factor ever discussed. It is more powerful than religion, more powerful than labour relations*, more powerful than patriotism, religious affiliations, and even family connections.

It may be seen that English, and English speaking societies, do have a rare level of liberalism, intelligence, neatness, efficiency, sense of decency and honesty, and certain innate strength about them. But the times are changing. The concept of global village is being put forth by the elite of the newly emerging nations. And it is only a matter of time before these persons bring with them the effects of their languages into the English nations, and cause much consternation to the English societies; and at the same time, leaving them with no clue as to what is going wrong with their perfect societies. For, with the arrival of these exotic communication software, a new unknown type of negativity would be seen to envelop the individuals, and also the whole society, and lead to the splintering of age old conventions which have otherwise withstood the onslaught of time. And a number of happenings and behaviours would be seen to take place, which may perfunctorily, and also with much shallow understanding of issues, be explained as racial hatred, colour discrimination etc. Moreover, both the causative factor, as well as the effects of these incidents may be seen to have a domino effect*.