‘Take liberties with English, don’t outrage its modesty’

It was an ambush. There is no other word to describe the panel discussion on ‘Taking Liberties with Language: How far can the English Language be stretched by Indians’ at the Tata Literature Live festival.

Panelists Jerry Pinto and Farrukh Dhondy took turns in savaging Chetan Bhagat, Shobhaa De and their ilk of commercial fiction writers, with all the grace of an African lion tearing into an antelope.

The antelope in this context was Bhagat who, by the end of the discussion, was reduced to a stammering, sweating ghost of his usually exuberant self. Shobhaa De had the good sense to stay away.

Neil Astley, editor of Bloodaxe Books introduced a short film of Jamaican and Scottish writers reading aloud their beautiful patois poetry, showcasing the malleability of English.

But once the discussion started and Dhondy set the tone by referring to Shobhaa De as the “woman who writes books for the mentally-handicapped”, it went downhill from there. Bhagat tried to be funny. “The British have left, they’re gone, it’s nice to keep using their language but it’s a pain to keep following all the rules.”

This goaded Pinto into a frothing rage. “I am the horrible gatekeeper of the English language,” he roared. “I don’t mind changing the language. What really gets to me is if you change it not with rigour and purpose but by the virtue of being plain lazy. Of course (Jamaican Poet) Jean Breeze sounds wonderful with her creole poetry, but she’s probably done fifty re-writes of her lines.”

Astley spoke of the “dilution of readable dialects” in England and how the English in the vernacular, with immigrant influences, was becoming the language of the working class, but Dhondy would have none of it. In a thinly veiled dig at Bhagat, he said, “All those who go to IIT have their language skills distorted by the education there.”

Bhagat by now was sweating considerably under his jacket. “My books don’t have Hinglish. However, young people do speak differently. It comes out of a sense rebellion.” He added, “If all Indian students studied in Etonian environments, they would speak very good English. Why blame them for their lack of ease with English?” He continued, “Only the language majors take offence. You don’t see physicists getting worked-up over someone not knowing Newton’s third law of motion.”

This resulted in an impassioned defence by Pinto. “Language matters because it is what makes us human. But if you take words and fling them around callously then they lose their original meaning. They die.”