English, a Great, Great. . . .
Grand Daughter of Sanskrit
We, Indians don’t treat English as a foreign language; it is our language; Hindi and English are two sisters who can’t part from each other.
By Mukesh
Sharma
Once Hindi
and English were sitting together in the waiting– lounge of Indra Gandhi
International Airport, waiting for their flight to Frankfurt (Germany).This
blogger was also sitting next to them. All of a sudden, a verbal ‘flight’ broke
out between two hon’ble ladies. Here are the excerpts from that interesting and
knowledgeable ‘spat’ for the valued readers:
English: Is
wearing Sari comfortable? Doesn't it
look savage in the modern world?
Hindi: Sari is not savage. Covering from head
to toe, sari beautifies the woman
body; it not only makes her attractive but also respectable in society.
English: what do you mean? Am I not
respectable?
Hindi: I am sorry if my words have
offended you. I didn’t mean that. Just think, you would realize Sari suits the female body not tight-fit
jeans. You see there is scientific reason behind each custom/tradition in
India. Ancient India was fully developed and civilized at a time when the rest
of the world was rather non-existent or savage.The Rig-Veda was composed 5000
years ago; Charak Sahimta’s tenets are still valid; pandit would tell about solar or lunar eclipse just by sheer
calculation in ancient India. There are scores of examples of pristine glory of
India. Better, you read the book Discovery
of India by Jawahar Lal Nehru, our
first PM, very well acknowledged and acclaimed by the western world.
English: That’s great! But self praise is no
recommendation.
Hindi: These are hard facts authenticated
by the research works and findings by Western scholars. Can you believe the
most of the European language are genetically related to Sanskrit which is the
parent language. In other words, you are also a great, great . . . . grand daughter
of Sanskrit. And I am also a daughter of Sanskrit. In this way, you are my
sister.
English: Oh my gosh! You Indian are second
to none in making tall talks and tall claim. Do you know, we, the Britisher,
ruled over India for 200 years; the sun wouldn’t set in, in our British empire as
we had humbled the most part of the world from East to West.
Hindi: The Britisher were not a superior
race. If you wish to know the truth, read the eye opener book entitled Bharat Me British Raj’ by Sunderlal
which was banned when brought out during British regime.
English: You are talking nonsense. I can’t
believe your cock and bull story.
Hindi: But truth is truth. You must
accept the truth, my dear sister.
English: Ok, tell me the whole story today.
Hindi: It is historical fact that the
Britisher were slaves of the Roman for 400 years. They used to speak Celtic. English was not their mother
tongue.
English: I can’t believe! But go on, tell
me entire story about myself.
Hindi: My darling sister, I don’t mean
any disrespect to you. But one must respect the truth.
English: Ok, go ahead!
Hindi: Contrary to common perception, the
original native speaker of English were Angles
& Saxons; they were Germanic people; they were savage and they belonged
to warrior class. In 450 A.D., when the great Roman empire had become weak, Angles & Saxons captured a part of
land which was under the subjugation of the Roman; they named that part of land
as ‘Anglaland’, just after their name,
and their language was known as ‘Anglisc’ or ‘Englisc’; later ‘Anglaland’ became England and ‘Anglisc’ became English. In fact,
English was the language of the savage or warrior class. Angles & Saxons would
have never thought even in their wildest dream that one day their mother tongue
would become an International language.
Angles & Saxons |
English: Unbelievable! But you continue.
Hindi: English is not a language but it
is a cocktail of languages. It has borrowed words from almost all the languages
of the world as the English were seafarer; they would visit many countries for
business reasons and would also adopt the words from the native language of
that country. That is why English is also called a piratical language. With 18
variations of English across the world, it stands as the most corrupted
language in the world today e.g. American English, British English, Canadian
English, and so on.
English: Interesting!
Hindi: If you get back to 5000 years ago,
you would discover that the most of European languages are genetically related
to Sanskrit; it is respected as a parent language; even Britannica encyclopaedia
endorses this fact depicting the tree of Indo-European family; even western
scholars admit this fact. One of Indian scholars has also drawn a diagram
showing the origin of different languages from one parent language Sanskrit. You will have fair idea about
the origin or birth of English.
English: Grunts!
Hindi: You see, we all Indians get,
genetically, attracted towards English; we love English; we respect English;
even Art 348 of our Constitution says English shall be the official language in
High Court and Supreme Court. To Indians, English is not simply a language but a cohesive force that keeps the multilingual Indian society together from Kanya
Kumari to Kashmir. We, Indians don’t treat English as a foreign language; it is
our language; Hindi and English are two sisters who can’t part from each other.
English: Thanks for showing me the mirror,
my darling sister, Hindi.
Hindi: Come on give me a hug.Here is a gift of
Sari for you - from an elder sister to a younger sister.
Please accept it.
English: So nice of
you my respected Didi. I have no
words to say thanks to you. You also accept the gift of this jeans which I
purchased for myself.