S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R IND IA

How manydiversities?

text | BS Prakash

S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R W W W . I N D I A P E R S P E C T I V E S . I N

Indian diplomats, a tribe to which I belong,are fond of some phrases while explainingIndia’s reality to foreign audiences. These“quotes” by repetition are in danger of

becoming clichés but capture true Indian essence.The Sanskrit adage,

or the whole world is one family,depicts India’s external outlookdown the ages. “Unity in diversity”is another, to capture the manifoldmultiplicity within.

I too had spoken at lengthmarvelling at our diversity: Manyreligions, languages, cultures,cuisines... The uniqueness of acountry with more than a billionpeople often contradicting eachother in belief and customs, yetunited by “the idea of India”, a nebulous yetexistentially experienced concept.

I had some tricks up my sleeve to illustratethe point to foreigners. A `100 currency notealways nestled in my wallet, taken out with aflourish to show the different scripts – Bengali,

Kannada, Tamil etc – on it. Or a simplerdevice: Ask different colleagues in an Embassywhat they spoke at home – Hindi, Telugu orMarathi – demonstrating the true heterodoxy ofour land, to revel in others’ wonder as to howall these tongues were accommodated in one

Embassy. I did this for 30 years.But I was still amazed by what

I recently learnt on a visit toBengaluru. A friend and I werediscussing DR Bendre, a legendarypoet with a philosophical bent ofmind who had expressed profoundideas in the Kannada idiom of hisregion. “But he spoke Marathi athome,” remarked my friend. Wealso found that as many as five ofthe eight Jnanpith award winners

writing in Kannada were comfortable usinganother language at home!

Jnanpith is India’s prestigious literary award,a supreme recognition for an Indian languagewriter. The name is evocative of India’straditional reverence for wisdom: ‘Jnanpith’

Five of the eightJnanpith awardwinners writingin Kannada are

comfortableusing another

languageat home!

S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R IND IA

vibrant century-old literarytraditions in all theselanguages, with theirdistinctive scripts.

These languages aremore different fromeach other than Italian,French, Spanish andPortuguese are with theircommon script and roots.

Indians take themultiple tongues aroundthem for granted and mosteducated Indians are at leastbilingual, excluding English.What is remarkable, however, is thecomplexity of individual identity even withinthe ranks of writers who have reached thezenith of creativity in one language but arecomfortable with others.

translates as the seat of knowledge and onecomponent of the award is a bronze statute ofSaraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning.

The first award was given in 1965 and by2014, 49 awards have been made. Eight awardshave gone to Kannada writers, next only to the10 to Hindi writers.

Those writing in other Indian languagestoo have won the awards testifying to the

S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R W W W . I N D I A P E R S P E C T I V E S . I N

Indians take themultiple tongues

around themfor granted andmost educatedIndians are atleast bilingual,

excluding English

Here are some examples that illustratethe geographical, cultural and hence,linguistic plurality in just one Indianstate, Karnataka, and that too amongthe top literary giants in its mainlanguage, Kannada.

In 1967, KV Puttappa, known by hispen name Kuvempu, won the JnanpithAward for his epic poem

. He hailed from the hillyparts of the old Mysore state, ruledby the Maharaja of Mysore. A nativeKannada speaker, the book that won himthe honour is cast in a highly classicalKannada influenced by Vedantic thoughtand Sanskrit. But earlier, he had writtennovels in rustic idiomsthat create a universeof rain-soaked hamletsnestling in the hills and amulti-layered society oflandowners and farmers.

The 1973 awardwent to someone verydifferent in terms ofregion, dialect andpersona. Bendre, a lyricalpoet, known sometimesas Kannada’s Shelley,was educated in Pune, spoke Marathiand came from Dharwar, a town innorthern Karnataka.

VK Gokak, the 1990 awardee, camefrom the same region but with a differentbackground: a scholar and a vicechancellor in an elitist mould with a deepunderstanding of Indian civilisationalethos. In contrast, Shivaram Karant, whowon the award in 1971, was a multifacetedpersonality rooted in coastal Karnatakaand close to the town of Udupi (a templetown now famous for its restaurants).A genius with varied interests, Karantimmersed himself in every area ofknowledge, so much so that he wrote anencyclopedia in Kannada!

Folk theatre, , science,environment, drawing, agriculture: Therewas no aspect of living in his region that

S E P T E M B E R - O C T O B E R IND IA

did not get his attention. Karant’s mother tonguewas Tulu, a different language of the coast buthe wrote extensively, a novel a year, depicting ina stark manner, the hardships of the rural landaround him and without much attention to thestylistic aspects of Kannada.

In contrast is Bengaluru bureaucrat MastiVenkatesh Iyengar who crafted exquisite shortstories of simplicity and great beautybut spoke Tamil at home. Mastirepresents a long line of illustriousIyengars and Iyers who have been asfluent in Kannada as in Tamil wheretheir forefathers came from.

Other celebrated Jnanpithwinners are still with us. Girish

Karnad speaksKonkani andMarathi, cerebralnovelist andessayist UR Ananta Murthy hasbeen a professor of English.Both of them are strongsupporters of recognitionfor writing in otherIndian languages.

These examples relate toKannada but the larger point is

Jnanpithawardee

ShivaramKarant, whosemother tongue

was Tulu, wrotean encyclopedia

in Kannada!

about Indian plurality in general and linguisticvariety as one particular. It is apt to cite AKRamanujam, an inspiring Kannada poet andscholar, who died young but personified the richand multiple heritage that we inherit. Literarycritic Namita Gokhale quotes Ramanujamabout his own natural polyglot personality: “Bya curious perversity, I read Tamil constantly

in the Kannada area, Kannada inthe Tamil area, studied and taughtEnglish in India, and India andIndian languages in the US. (Inhis fictional autobiography, theprotagonist, an Indian with anAmerican wife teaching historyin a small Iowa college recollectshis childhood): ‘In my early years,I spoke Madras Tamil to Amma, Iswitched to Mysore Tamil with ourIyengar housemaids who cooked

for us; outside the house, I spoke Kannada withfriends. Upstairs in his office, Appa conversedin English… Thus, upstairs-downstairs, inside-outside, I grew accustomed to three languages.’”

“How many ? Three hundred?Three thousand?” begins a well-known scholarlyessay by Ramanujam. Remembering him, wemay ask, “How many diversities?”