We need more Indianised Writing in English

 We need more Indianised Writing in English

Dinesh K Kapila
English is now internalised in our vocabulary, for some, it is at a very basic use of words and for some to a more than reasonable proficiency. There are certain aspects which stand out though. Though we have internalised the language in many ways, the context, cultural or even geographical seems to be primarily still borrowed from abroad. We need to build familiarity with the region and country we live in. Be rooted so to say.
I was a Judge at an event organised by a leading newspaper along with a well known literary group. There were varied contests and my remit was to judge the Flash Story Contest. This was at a well known school in sector 27, and the school organised it very well.
The teacher in charge, Mrs Charanpreet, if I remember correctly, had taken a lot of pains over the cue cards and the accompanying snaps. I complimented her for the diligent way she had gone about it. The cue cards had themes such as The Silvery light of the moon falling through the branches to A message written in an unknown language in a bottle washed up on shore to lonely houses and windy nights have always made me afraid. Thirty two students, different schools, thirty two cue cards and snaps, separate themes and five minutes to absorb it and forty minutes to compose a story on the go. And from the senior classes, Class Xi and Class XII. The limit for the word count was 150 but the average was 185.
I heard each and every story carefully, the crafting of the story was average to excellent. But as I heard the stories, I thought where were we. Our stories have to be rooted in our cultural context, cultural idiom and even topography and history.
One writer was waxing eloquent on vineyards and the aroma and stretched out rolling fields, but where are these vineyards. In India only in Nashik and a couple of other districts, and the climate is not of Europe. Just how can it find its way into a story written by a student in Chandigarh and that too a story not rooted in France or Chile but a story rooted in India. As I heard this and some other stories on these lines, well it could be an orchard or a grove, mango, apple, lemon, teak, whatever, but surely not vineyards. Unless the story is located in Nashik.
Our summers are long, hot and dry. Our stories have to reflect this reality too in addition. Writing about a house in Punjab and then incorporating walking on snow and with icy winds was a bit too much. Then it has to located up in the high Himalayas but more accurately, it could be foggy nights, the fog creating a mysterious shroud of cloudy swirling waves or whatever. Flat plains, why not add the cattle going home from grazing, raising a thin layer of dust as they were guided home by an attendant, the reddish hued setting sun creating a vivid silhouette, unknown to the attendant but visible to me as I drove past. The ‘Godhuli’ as they say in Hindi. This was near Balachaur twenty years ago. This is where we have to mentally and spiritually locate ourselves. For any writing located or set in this region.
We have to read literature from the USA, UK, West Indies and Australia, English speaking regions, but while drawing inferences and insights about what makes life what it is, stay rooted within ourselves with confidence. This is what we are.
As I told the teacher, Harry Potter and the like and our nursery rhymes, all set in the UK, seem to influence hugely our thinking and our orientation. There was a young student, wrote a good story, my finding fault was with his say writing it was night and misty he was afraid but his brother Joseph or was it Jonathan, came over and he was no longer afraid. Now if a young Sikh student, as he was, was writing it, I can accept any usual name such as Sukhvinder or Manavpreet or maybe even Dinesh Singh but certainly not Joseph or Jonathan. I am certainly not playing the Sikh or Christian card here, simply that be genuine and true to your roots. This again brings me back to my opening thought, stay rooted and confident in what you are, who you are, let your stories resonate with the vividness and colour of where you live and work or study.
The School Boards and Teachers need to draw up a syllabus with just the right content, essays, books, short stories from the traditional countries we source from but add to it our repertoire of our own acclaimed Indian writing in English. This would be an appropriate way to initiate it. As regards Nursery Rhymes, while Humpty Dumpty or Hickory Dock is fine, why not add some nursery rhymes composed by our own fellow Indians. Or at least initiate the process.
We are proud to have our children or rather toddlers dress up as Pinocchio or Rapunzel, this is fine with me, alongside why not have characters from The Panchatantra. This would add that depth of a cultural context rooted within us. And select episodes in English from The Ramayan or Mahabharata, we cannot divide it into Hindi or Punjabi or whatever for the cultural context but rooting English in another cultural context. It has to be within us. Our context. We need to be familiar with the universal idioms and context while simultaneously developing an insight into what are we as a culture. And then reflecting it.
Does our syllabus adequately reflect the need and the incorporation of the typically Indian context and writing. This needs to be reflected upon. And we cannot ignore English as some say, rather demand, it has facilitated us immensely in trade and commerce and in crafting a certain Indian identity. We should rather Indianise the context and writings, within the boundaries of the language. A point for those in teaching and policy. I asked teachers of languages after crystallising my thoughts, all concurred incidentally.,
A Doctor I got talking to in Japan, a fellow Indian, said my son is ready to travel anywhere abroad but not in India. That deprives the children of learning by observations even while not realising it while travelling within India. Our words reflect a familiarity with the pastures of Switzerland or meadows while there is no mention or incorporation of deserts or arid parched landscapes or tropical forests, which we come across on our travel within India. Then we go hunting for the same context abroad rather than within our nation, though I know it’s also about poor infrastructure and costly hotels.
Today I attended a beautifully organised exhibition, on paintings and patronised by Mr Munish Jauhar. The painting of a woman selling flowers was so evocative of the culture it is rooted in. That is the success of such a painting. Our own culture and traditions add depth to such a painting. That is what we require in our writing too. A reflection of what we are as a people and culture.
PS A tangent !
A colleague was remembering his college days. Rather too romantically. I told him to write it out. He was reluctant., I wrote in a few seconds this - On a silvery night with a golden hue, the moon shown slight slivers through the shadowy branches of trees. I stood among them thinking of girlfriends past and present, of what could be but was not to be. Told him take the cue and write. He disowned his romantic thoughts. Discretion too is the way. !

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Yesterday I was flatly told by a young lawyer from a small UP town background that English speakers in India have a great start in life. I was stumped. Then I was hugely embarrassed.

Speakers of Hindi, Punjabi, Pahari, Urdu, Haryanvi, Marwari, Braj, Awadhi, Maithili, Bhojpuri have no chance unless they acquire proficiency in English. How sad.

French, Germans, Russians, Chinese have no proficiency in English.
Same is true for large parts of the world.

We need an Indian rennaisance just as there was a Bengal renaissance in 19th century, which also produced great Masters and revolutionaries. But English language & culture did act as catalyst.

Very valid observations sir. Since I have also interacted with school kids over the years, I have also noticed this and now it's gained gargantuan proportions. I also came across mature authors who name their characters the same way. I give them a hint but mostly they insist on going their way
So be it. I have also written a book which is set both in India and America, so I have a smattering of Indian names like Sifar, Haani, Shoonya etc., and a few American names. At one recent event in a top Chandigarh school, i was judging an event and the Teacher-in-charge allocated was praising the participants by exclaiming 'C'mon children give him/her a big round of applaud' after each n every performance. I didn't know where to hide. And I hope and pray that she was not their English teacher. Phew.....

This is so relevant. I hv found Ruskin Bond's works to be a superlative example of contextualised english fiction for our children

Hardeep ji, you hv to visit schools, much to your horror and our collective misfortune, to observe the English of the English teachers and collect many more such anecdotes.

Valid comments.
There is a counter movement to grammatical English speaking, which underlines the importance of communication of meaning at the cost of 'Propah English as She is Spoke' !

I already have many horror stories which i might publish some day . When my son was studying in class 4 and his class teacher sent me a Message where she had interpolated 'their and there'. Her sentence went like this' The students should not bring 'there' books tommorow as 'their' will be Annual function practice. And there were atleast 5 to 6 such errors in the paragraph. I was aghast and this time again I could not find a place to hide. (I might have a screenshot somewhere of the above). For a moment I also thought that maybe my own English needs a new version 2.0 update.

Hardeep you and I need to upgrade ourselves to version 16 like I-phones

We all make mistakes and i still do but coming from an English school teacher.....phew.

Dineshji---in the context of your request for stories exhibiting our Indian context----I would like to send you a copy of my award winning novel-----"IF THE BLUE LOTUS SINGS"--- based on the true controversial 2015 event of the NABAKALEBARA of the Lord Jagannath!
I would appreciate your feedback!
This novel has also been turned into an Odissi dance drama in MALAYSIA!

Well written and spot on too... guess also a reflection on our education system as to whats kids are taught in their schools at younger levels and integration of own cultural awareness.