The Language of Power by Bell hooks

Chosen quote: “It is not the English language that hurts me, but what the oppressors do with it, how they shape it to become a territory that limits and defines, how they make it a weapon that can shame, humiliate, colonize.”

The following quote is extracted from “the Language of Power” by Bell hooks, who doesn’t subtly throw in her idea but is very antagonistic with describing how the English language has been altered to becoming an occupation, limiting force rather than just a language. Hooks mainly focuses on highlighting the impact of this reshaping on individuals practicing or speaking indigenous languages, which some are now considered to be a minority or actually completely extinct.  

Similarly, the text “How English Ruined Indian Literature” by Aatish Tasheer delivers a sense of imperialism as English, a language of conquest and domination is said to have circumscribed those who don’t speak it or converse in ruptured or “broken” non-standard English in a sphere of limitations. Both authors deliver the sense of trauma, agony, and frustration felt upon the lotting of the individuals’ languages being replaced with another against their will. This concrete site of the suffering of the enslaved black Americans and indigenous Indian individuals as portrayed by both writers is unveiled as they believe in the fact that the rendering of a language embodies a lack of resistance and power against the English supremacy. While the contextual delivery of Hook’s text seeps into historical aspects, Tasheer’s article contributes to social aspects evident in a noteworthy statement “English is not a language in India, It is a class.” and obviously since language, as viewed by both writers is a communication tool, English through oppression is instilled; considering the fact that if one individual converses in their own vernacular, dialect or even language is either rejected outright, derided, misunderstood or even punished for not mastering the oppressors language which truly asserts that English, the language with greater prestigious might, has gained authority. Both authors agree that this unfortunate phenomenon has silenced, censored and marginalized the primacy of the non-English speaking voices.