EPIPHENOMENA: The Language of Command in Imperial India

In Season 2 - our FOUNDATIONS series - we’ll examine European philosophers from the 17th through the 19th centuries, to see how their views have shaped and defined our own… whether we realize it or not.

Today, a brief treatment of a point made in Bernard Cohn’s COLONIALISM AND ITS FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE: THE BRITISH IN INDIA. Cohn talks about the way the English taught and used a hyper-simplified version of Indian language whose only purpose was to allow British Imperialists to give orders to “menials” under their command.

By teaching English nobility who were new to India a rudimentary series of commands – speech as simple as the ability to say “plate” declaratively, knowing that would pass for the more three-dimensionally human communication “bring me a plate” (or, perhaps, even “PLEASE bring me a plate”, but that’s likely asking far too much) - the vast majority of actual communication between the English and native Indian people was reduced to a purely functional form that allowed for little or no actual exchange of ideas, interests, or anything at all the required nuance or complexity.

Put differently, the practical structure of communication in India practically assured that neither the English nor the Indians could ever come to a point of understanding the other as compelling, intricate, real human beings. An attempt to facilitate communication ended up stifling the exchange of anything at all like actual meaning.