By : Najaf zahra
“They came with their language and called ours savage. They taught us to speak so we’d
forget how to think in our own words.” In the entire history of the exploitation of mankind,
the century of exploration played a vital role. The white man started to discover new
places, navigating through seas and colonizing them from America, Africa, and India to
Australia. From settler colonialism in America and the mass execution of Indigenous
communities. Through sword, bribery and language, the exploitation was not just
economic they subjugated the subconscious of the colonies; India the golden sparrow,
serves as an example. The story of colonization continues as they replaced the native
languages and culture with their own because they knew how important it was. Colonial
powers deployed linguistic imperialism as a subtle yet insidious apparatus to dismantle
native epistemologies and impose hegemonic narratives. The language was used as a
soft cover for harsh control where colonizers made it hard for the colonized people to
speak up or stand up for themselves, and they did it so precisely that it took us centuries
to realize.
Language is not just a tool of communication, it is deeply interconnected to culture
and identity. Through language, one can figure out the cultural origins of the people from
where they belong. Colonial figures took command and focused on controlling the
languages of the societies they colonized. They imposed their languages replacing the
native languages of the colonized areas. Postcolonial thinkers like Gayatri Spivak, Edward
Said and Homi Bhabha explored that how language was used as a tool of invisible control,
they also emphasized how colonial powers could dominate over other nations without
needing constant force, by using their language. So, we can say that, “Colonialism
weaponized language not merely to communicate, but to dominate.”
When the people of colonized societies started speaking the colonizer’s language,
they began to see the world through the lens of colonizers because language helped
colonial powers to control the minds of the suppressed. Natives lost their culture, beliefs,
values, norms and mainly their identities because once an individual loses his language,
he starts to lose his sense of who he is and where he belongs. This made it easier for
invaders to dominate as they made their language “superior” and declared native
languages as “inferior,” through discursive construction of reality they constructed a
dominant discourse that favored them. Slowly they spread their own beliefs and cultures
in the colonized societies which made people lose pride in their own culture and thus,
language domination led to cultural weakness and submission. As Sashi Tharur said,
“The sun never sets on the British empire because even God couldn’t trust the English
men in the dark.”
Colonized people were often punished for speaking their native languages and
incentivized to leave it, so they started to attain the colonial language. The portrayal of colonial language as a language of superiority resulted in a feeling of shame and
awkwardness which people felt for their native language and culture, thus they started
admiring colonial culture. According to Frantz Fanon, “When a man loses his language
he loses his natural connection with his culture, his people, and his history.”
Colonizers didn’t always ban languages, they spread lies and misconceptions to
make native cultures weak and superstitious, and by using different methods they
painted their own culture as strong and wise. This brainwashing led some people to lose
pride in their culture and they started copying colonial narratives. Knowledge power
nexus helped colonists to achieve their political ends, they controlled people’s minds by
controlling information and education. All of this civilizational change was based on the
concept of white man’s burden, that it’s the responsibility of them to civilize the lesser
world.
As we now live in a post-colonial era, we must think outside the traditional shell of
Eurocentrism, and we should seek representation from all the segments, not just the
superior ones but the inferior ones. The voice of the colonized and dominated must be
heard now as it provides a critical perspective in understanding history. We need to
reconsider the enduring hierarchical relationship between the colonizers and the
colonized ones, seeking intellectual decolonization to reflect diverse, local perspectives.
There should be a space for alternative knowledge and voices which can enable the
critical rethinking of Eurocentrism, which believes that the West is the center of the world
and imposes its will through one-way diffusion to shape others in its image. We should
challenge this mindset by advocating for the view that respects and understands the
dominant views on their terms. There must be an end to the intellectual dominance of
the West and suppression of the rest, to create an equitable environment.
The author, Najaf Zahra, is a student of International Relations at the National Defence
University, Islamabad. This article reflects a critical understanding of the intersection
between language, identity, and colonial power structures. And how language imposing
tactics were used in colonizing other places, and its ultimate impact on global power.
