A Tongue Tied

The Indian linguistic state was an in vivo experiment in political theory: it set up a blunt, linear equation between language and empire. We are all victims of its success. Kannada’s embattled, often hypertensive self-image—which these essays trace, indeed partake of in a reflexively aware sort of way—flows in part from this official transcribing of language as power and territory. The author navigates these swirling currents determined to find a gentle, liberal way to be conservative, a way to be rooted without being parochial or insular. He parlays his more journalistic concerns into this overarching theme to craft metaphors of loss: language as land, local culture as small farmer, actor Rajkumar as Kannada’s embodied god and archangel, his arthritic senescence a creeping, dark omen in a millenary tale. Sugata Srinivasaraju is a work in progress. We wish him godspeed. He must now honour his own critique, write in Kannada, and defy translation.