FIFTH COLUMN

Language

By C K Lal

Few days ago, I had an opportunity to participate in a programme attended by representatives of the donor agencies on the one hand and high officials of the government on the other. Like all such programmes, it was ceremonial in nature—high on pomp and low in content.

Speaker after speaker went on haranguing in English, even though majority of the participants were Nepalis, and the stated purpose of the programme was to disseminate information about a project. Proceedings were dull. Every speaker wanted to impress foreigners rather than communicate to the local audience. Speeches were all high sounding—full of pious intentions, but utterly devoid of any information or even a reasoned opinion. I could sense that most participants were having difficulty in suppressing yawns.

And then Dr. Jagdish Chandra Pokharel took the podium. He is an Honorable Member of our Planning Commission and one expected him to follow the norm and humor the foreigners as most of our high officials do as a mater of routine. But he had a pleasant surprise for all of us.

Dr. Pokharel delivered his speech in chaste Nepali. Not only that, his delivery was honest, to the point, and utterly devoid of sermons of any kind. Only towards the end of his speech, he used English to say what he wanted to say expressly to the foreigners present there. When he finished his speech, the audience gave a spontaneous applause, not the labored one given to earlier speakers.

Dr. Pokharel has been to Hawaii, Harvard and MIT, so he had the confidence to use a language that he is most comfortable in. Lesser persons become victims of their own vanity and end up making a fool of themselves by laboring in a language that is not their own. It has been my experience that even people who are experts in their subjects start to sound like bumbling amateurs the moment they become conscious of their English in the presence of foreigners, specially white skinned ones.

It is even worse in the case of our decision makers. When speaking in Nepali, they are confident to the point of condescension. But when they switch to English, the language becomes sycophantic, tone becomes servile and the demeanor degenerates into groveling. The personality change brought about by the English language is drastic: it transforms local lords into international menials.

I think it happens because most of our social elite learnt their English in an environment dominated by the colonial mind-set. English brings their inherent inferiority complex to the fore, it robs them of their self-confidence.

The likes of Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, Dr. Tilak Rawal, Prithvi Raj Ligal and Mahesh Acharya should learn from Dr. Pokharel and refrain from getting into the trap of English language, specially when our donors or lenders are around. Using an interpreter is much safer, one can always attribute unwanted statements to the inadequacy of translation if anything goes wrong.