GE ENGLISH – LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, CULTURE

Name – Harsh Choudhary

Roll no. – BAP18571
B.A. Programme
IIIrd Year
VIth Semester

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QUESTION 1 – The death of a language leads to the extinction of
culture. Do you agree? Discuss.

A language dies when nobody speaks it anymore. The cultural facet affects the whole native
group. Language loss is the natural attrition of skill in one’s native language. This attrition can
be displayed by a whole cultural group of by an individual thereby taking sociological of
psychological forms. A native group that does not pass on its culture and language along the
generations many suffer a language loss as the new generations may not speak the native
language. Effects of language loss can be psychological or sociological. In cases where the
language loss is experienced by an individual, psychological effects are displayed. These may
include an individual’s lack of identity in the society. With each native group having its own
cultural ways and traditions it holds up, a child who has suffered a language loss may have a
hard time identifying with certain cultural practises even resulting in affliction. Sociological
effects on the other hand are displayed when the language loss is experienced by a native
group. The people of a native group may fail to recognise each other.

The social effect of language loss can eventually lead to extinction of culture and tradition. In
the event that a native group no longer participates in cultural traditions that it had previously
held on. The cultural rituals of a people are carried out in the native language. Linguistic form
of language loss is the first step towards cultural language loss.

Cultural knowledge and identity are inextricably wound up in language. According to

UNESCO, “Every language reflects a unique world-view with its own value systems,
philosophy and particular cultural features. The extinction of a language results in the
irrecoverable loss of unique cultural knowledge embodied in it for centuries, including
historical, spiritual and ecological knowledge that may be essential for the survival of not
only its speakers, but also countless others.”

Language discloses cultural and historical meaning, the loss of language is a loss of that link
to the past. Without a link to the past, people in a culture lose a sense of place, purpose and
path; one must know where one came from to know where one is going. The loss of language
undermines a people's sense of identity and belonging, which uproots the entire community
in the end. In conclusion, the need to revive dead language is as necessary as it is to revive
culture among a people.

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QUESTION 2 – Shrilal Shukla’s Raag Darbaari is a critical attack
on the corrupt judicial and educational systems in Post-
independence India. Elaborate.

Raag Darbari is a fine example of dystopian fiction. It is a novel on declining values in the
village life of post-independence India. It exposes the powerlessness of intellectuals in the
face of a strong and corrupt nexus between criminals, businessmen, police and politicians
prevalent in the society. The novel is a satirical take on the plight of the common man as
society is made subservient by the corruption of the people in power. The novel highlights the
failing values present in post-independence Indian society. It exposes the helplessness of
intellectuals in the face of a strong and corrupt nexus between criminals, businessmen, police
politicians.

The novel is narrated from the point of view of Ranganath, a research student in history, who
comes to live with his uncle, Vaidyaji, in a village named Shivpalganj in Uttar Pradesh for a
few months. He learns how his uncle uses all the village institutions—the village school, the
village panchayat, the local government offices for his political purpose. The conduct of his
uncle and the petty village politicians is in stark contrast to the ideals that Ranganath has
learnt to aspire to during his university education There are several such incidents, one after
the other, that shatter Ranganath’s lofty ideals and faith in justice. He is a mere spectator of
the system – unable to make a mark or stand up for himself.

The town of Shivpalganj is just any village/town in North India run by not a system of
bureaucrats but one single person Vaidyaji who controls everything in the town from
education to politics to the police. Helping him out in his politics of power and supremacy is
his son Ruppan babu who holds his own in the school from where he never passes. Stuck
between the morass is Vaidyaji’s nephew, Rangnath, a research student come to stay in
Shivpalganj for improving his health. The novel is narrated from his point of view. Vaidyaji
is also the manager of the local school, which gives him the handle to procure and manage
funds. His two sons – Ruppan and Badri – manifest the duality of social and political power
wielded by the vaidya. Ruppan is called Ruppan Babu – the suffix is an expression of
obeisance and reflects the power he exercises on behalf of his father and often at his behest.

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He is the younger son, who is still in the school/college which his father manages, having
failed in his school board exams for several years, and is considered a leader among the
villagers.

The state’s bureaucracy, the author’s other main target, is satirised for its irrelevance to the
common man, inefficiency and close connections with politicians. Control over the co-
operative union, the village council and the college is key to controlling the village’s
economic and political life because in the early Sixties, education, co-operatives and
panchayats were the three main planks of village development.

The main characters happen to be Brahmins because in much of UP, the dominant castes in
villages were, and to a large extent still are, Brahmins and Thakurs. The title itself reveals the
political emphasis of the plot. Raag Darbari is the name of one of the most difficult raagas of
Indian classical music, but Shrilal Shukla has taken its meaning literally—the melody of the
court. In the novel, it refers to the tune sung by the courtiers of a local raja, that’s to say a
village politician. The expanding readership of the novel is proof of its continued relevance.
It has also been adapted for stage and television.

Shukla has highlighted the falling moral values in the Indian society in the post-independence
era through his novels. His writings expose the negative aspects of life in rural and urban
India in a satirical manner.

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