Indian post colonialism welcomes British culture in certain aspects like, language, sports, concept of freedom and justice

The English culture left its permanent mark on the Indian mind and Indian post colonialism could not fit itself in the African model. India welcomed English education and looked at colonialism as a representation of  values like democracy, equality, and so on.  Sachin Tendulkar’s final speech at Wankhede stadium on November, 2013 was in English addressing Indians. Sachin quoted his father who asked Sachin to  “chase your dreams, but make sure you do not take short cuts.” This concept in itself  sounds hybrid born out of western education and exposure. The cricket critics have concluded that Sachin gave maximum exposure to the game in India. The standing ovation Sachin got from lakhs of people  on  16, November, 2013 stands as an example for the welcoming Indian  response to colonialism.  India looks at Sachin as a leader who has mastered the coloniser’s culture and has accommodated it to the nation/state model. Sachin’s typical Indian humility and the mastery of the western game and the language have signaled a new beginning to the Indian youth.

Mohammad Hanif’s 'A Case Of Exploding Mangoes' as a Return Home Novel of Justice Redressed

Mohammad Hanif’s A Case Of Exploding Mangoes as a Return Home Novel of Justice Redressed                                                                 

Abstract

Authors with global travelling and migrating experience develop a perception of their birth culture in a self-critiquing mode, and in the case of Mohammed Hanif, it is to critique the existing practices of justice in his home country. His novel 'A Case Of Exploding Mangoes' is a political satire. This paper brings in the argument of Amartya Sen   that every society builds its model of social justice or redressal system and tries to view Hanif’s presentation of social justice from this perspective. It highlights the point that the rising middle class is Europeanized to a certain extent in East Asian societies and have begun to bring in democratic values into their social systems. Hanif resorts to mythmaking as the facts regarding the real life incidents are not available and the paper attempts to see it as a feature of the Asian ability to create myths stressing on the ‘curse’ factor.  

Key-words:  niti,  nyaya, untouchability, Dalit, mythmaking, middleclass

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Return home novels have the advantage of looking back from a slight emotional distance and thrives in this displacement as this gives ample space for critique. Transnational living clearly defines one’s identity and its roots and some writers tend to think it is their duty to ‘reform’ the home counter. Mohammad Hanif’s novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes  has a ring of self-diagnosis of the social system to which he belonged and has moved out of and stayed elsewhere, nevertheless has not been able to keep his emotional and intellectual commitments away its clutches.

 Mohammed Hanif was born in Okara, Pakistan and graduated from Pakistan Air Force Academy as a Pilot Officer, but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. He has worked for Newsline, India Today and The Washington Post, and has written plays for the stage as well as the screen play for the critically acclaimed BBC drama What Now, Now That We Are Dead? His feature film The Long Night has been shown at film festivals around the world and he currently heads BBC’s Urdu Service and he lives in London.   

The novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes, a political satire, darkly humourous, discusses the story of man’s longing for power ruled by fear of losing it, presenting the story of a  Third World country engaged in political, social and cultural negotiation with the rest of the world.  Niranjan Takle’s article on Pakistani prisoners,  the cover story of The Week, April 1, 2012 issue, presents the details of prisoners in Pakistan jail and has reported about a prisoner called Surjit who was arrested when Gen.Zia-ul-Haq was in power. The man was charged with espionage, he was sentenced to death and the sentence was commuted to life in 1986. He is now 80 years old and has been a prisoner in Pakistan for over three decades. Hanif’s accounts of Pakistan’s prisons are accurate going by this news item.

In his introduction to The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen discusses Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, in which Pip says ‘there is nothing so finely perceived and finely felt, as injustice.’  A Case of Exploding Mangoes   can be compared to Great Expectations  that it too studies the “remedial injustices around us which we want to eliminate,” if we can borrow the phrase from Sen and apply it to this novel of Mohammed Hanif. The novel is a writer’s attempt “to achieve a perfectly just world.”   “Redressable injustice” is central to human arguments says Sen and goes on to diagnose injustice  in his book The Idea of Justice (Amartya Sen 2009, vii).

We also have to note that Pip is an imaginary character born in British imagination and after recently exposure given to the Titanic ship’s sinking in the media, we realize more intently the British understanding of the concept of justice as ‘consciously and impartially planned out rules’ and whether we can take this phenomenon as a global characteristic is in itself an argument. Because, there have been races in India that have accepted social injustice as ‘destiny’ and do not do anything whatsoever to demand redressal. Sen takes a model from European imagination which itself can be argued as a ‘return home’ feature. Throughout this book, Sen takes great pains to prove that every society has its system of justice not taking into account of the 25% of Dalits or the ancient tribes of India who have  been enslaved in the most cunning manner possible ingraining in their psyche that they can never be equal to the others.  

Sen departs  from John Rawl’s “rightly celebrated approach of ‘justice as fairness’” (xi) and explores the theory of justice from a philosophy of moral and political stand. His “principles of justice” are not “defined in terms of institutions, but rather in terms of the lives and freedoms of the people involved” (xii). He assesses democracy “in terms of public reasoning, which leads to an understanding of democracy as ‘government by discussion’” in the line of John Stuart Mill’s thinking. His approach views democracy “in terms of the capacity to enrich reasoned engagement through enhancing informational availability and the feasibility of interactive discussions. Democracy has to be judged not just by the institutions that formally exist but by the extent to which different voices from diverse sections of the people can actually be heard.”  Sen puts forward the idea of “global democracy and global justice” calling them “understandable ideas that can plausibly inspire and influence practical actions across borders” and “not just within a nation-state.” Amartya Sen presents the idea of justice not only as a tradition of Europe’s political history, but also as a part of “Indian intellectual history’ and also from other non-Western societies, presenting the idea of justice and the “powerful traditions of reasoned argument” as a global phenomenon (xii-xiii). He goes on to say: “It is my claim, rather, that similar – or closely linked – ideas of justice, fairness, responsibility, duty, goodness and rightness have been pursued in many different parts of the world...”(xiv).

Hanif located in London writes about his birth country looking at its administration  and its guiding principles from an egalitarian and democratic perception. He studies the authority organism and autocratic style of governance and its mental and physical configuration and rationale and continues to point out the unjust practices, and investigates into the ideologies at the back of these practices viewing them as fundamental and narrow. 

The novel elucidates how an Air Force officer, Colonel Shigri, takes revenge on a dictator who becomes morally responsible for his father’s death. He tries to use a democratic method of interacting with the power system,  by writing a letter to the dictator, to express his thoughts. This act is read as an act of rebellion and audacity by the hierarchical powers.   Grossly misunderstood by the default autocratic authority structure he is severely punished. It is the story of a non-interventionist man warring against constriction and the boundaries of despotism.

Mohammed Hanif brings an inner-view of a closed society in the manner of Amitav Ghosh’s  In an Antique Land (2009)  that portrays the Egyptian monotheistic society. Amitav Ghosh’s work, all said and done, has emotionally stayed away from the  Egyptian people more on the travelogue kind of writing.  Hanif’s novel also depicts another monotheistic society,  but  with a deep passion, involvement and a high sense of the need to reform. The strength of return home texts carry this immense dose of deep analyses of the home region, native - self, and the distant outlook collected as a result of staying out because of the displacement that adds poignancy to the narration.  Emotional story telling takes place only if the writer has felt the experiences in such a way that it becomes his personal, unforgettable disturbing experiences. Amitav Ghosh’s combination of travel writing and fiction narrated in a scholarly vein undermines the story element, though it creates a trans-national argument as it lacks the emotional subjectivity of a geopolitical location a story needs. Hanif is comfortable in his creation of the artistic plot, the division of good and evil and sometimes the narrator’s voice merges with the character’s voice giving much more authenticity to the story. The make-belief of the objective narration gives way to an unpretentious subjective story telling creating a war between good forces and evil forces. Hanif pictures autocracy as evil and democracy as good and argues that social injustices can be removed, only if nations practice democracy in their theoretical constitutions and praxis.

The cynical, western and sophisticated voice of Colonel Shigri deriding values of his society, iconoclastic in every way is the omniscient voice of the novelist as well. It is a kind of easy, intelligent narration in the manner of Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance (1974). The racy style of Robert M. Pirsig that discusses Kant in a casual manner: “This a priori  motorcycle has been built up in our minds over many years from enormous amounts of sense data and it is constantly changing as new sense data come in” (127)  is the kind of writing Hanif does.  It handles Muslim laws, Military laws and prison systems, all in the same ironic, non-committed manner with mild iconoclastic humour running throughout that  reflects in his choice of words too. There is nothing ‘Eugene O’Neill like’ about his writing in the sense no pessimism whatsoever. Shigri puts up with all the prison tortures and comes out bravely representing the common humanity’s need to succeed in life, the feature of a best seller text. Eugene O’Neill’s characters in Long Day’s Journey into Night,  his autobiographical play, portray  depressed people’s  sensitive approach to life representing the dramatic and tragic elements of life. The suicidal tendencies depicted by O’Neill are also displayed by Marsha Norman in her play ‘Night Mother. These American plays have been applauded critically as they have delved in to the psychological impact of the American Depression. The Asian society portrayed in A Case of Exploding Mangoes is on the other hand is giving a good fight back to the unjust system. The blind girl in the novel keeps inventing herself to suit the climate and does not lose herself in emotional depression. She helps fellow prisoners and feeds the birds. Hanif narrates more like Pirsig than the American playwrights mentioned.

Societies have not become truly classless in individual practices, though democratic institutions are in existence. Institutionalizing the democratic system has not resulted in the freedom of individual lives;  fair interaction does not take place between the power systems and ordinary citizens.  General Zia is caricatured by Hanif as the representation of authority and the character is created with a natural edginess. Hanif critiques this model of behavior and the dictatorial type of political model of governance and parodies it.  The “much photographed man” flashes his “unnaturally white teeth” and his moustache “does its customary little dance for the camera.”  The picture presented is comical with a reference to the General’s age and his inability to give a genuine smile and Hanif maintains the same tone throughout the novel.  “He is walking the walk of a constipated man,” says the writer later describing how the General walks to board a plane (1). The novel’s two alternate narrating voices – the voice of the omniscient, democratic, the epic storytelling  raconteur who links all the characters in mythological associations,  and the  narrating voice of the intelligent, suave and cool-headed Colonel Shigri – both critique autocracy and the tyranny it brings. Shigri thinks: “Heads of State, especially the Heads of State of developing countries, seldom get the time to sit back and admire their own achievements” (114).  Shigri represents the elite, English reading/speaking middleclass of the Third World with ideals of perfect, free liberal States, who laugh at the lack of self-criticism in their political leaders: these middle class intellectuals refuse to treat their democratic leaders as anything more than ordinary people and demand that they behave normally and with fairness.

The satire takes on the shape of a mock-epic,  in omniscient narration that reinforces Shigri’s voice throughout the novel, as the hero of the story, “The Man of Truth, the Man of Faith, the man who lectured women on piety on prime-time TV, the man who had fired judges and television newscasters who refused to wear a dupatta on their heads” is found the victim of losing his self-control and staring at the exposed “white flesh” of Ms. Herring from USA “with such single-mindedness” (117)  “with his eyes wide open and staring, like the eyes of a child who has wandered into a sweet shop to find its owner fast asleep (115). The General appears like a fool who is childish in display of  basic instincts and thus makes a mockery of all that he stands for.

The novel begins with the narrator of the story who with a twinkle in his voice states how he has been a part of an air crash and still alive, laying the plot of a detective story.  Within this framework of suspense and thrill, he builds a story of a political system that refuses equality and creates autonomous centers of unlimited power shadowed by deep fears. The novelist is laughing at history – a medium that cannot capture the real truths – and says:   “But this afternoon, history is taking a long siesta, as it usually does between the end of one war and the beginning of another” (3).   The job of finding out what could have actually gone wrong in the case of ‘exploding mangoes’  falls on the shoulders of fiction as facts fail. History has not  recorded the ‘real’ reasons for the death of General Zia as truths are either suppressed or that everyone knows only their part and may not be aware of other links. A historian might not be able to link all the threads, as facts can be hidden or simply forgotten or even not be aware of the connection between lateral elements. The writer has an advantage of imagination and creates a story where ethical links can be added that cannot be a part of the scientific historical programme. History will not believe in ‘crows’ as Hanif’s novel projects the agency of destiny designed by the law of causality. The crow avenges the injustice meted out to the blind girl Zainab. Her curses become the significant climax of the novel: “ ‘May your blood turn to poison. May the worms eat your innards’ ” (306).  All these ultimately come true, showing both  the power of the innocent and the capacity for mythmaking in Asian societies. It is the ‘curse’ of the blameless blind girl who is good at heart that brings down the fall of a cruel power system, the novel says. 

In one of the many versions of Ramayanam, the narrative voice analyses why Ram had to suffer so much in his life. The analysis goes like this:  Raman as a child is very naughty and is used to fling flint stones on the hunch-backed woman called who is the personal maid of Kaikeyi, his father’s third wife. The poor hunch-backed woman is not able to retaliate as he is the Prince, and day after day this ‘game’ continues. While Raman plays the ‘game,’ his friends laugh, and the poor woman silently curses him.  Ramayanam portrays  this woman as one  who  gives certain ideas to Kaikeyi that Ram ultimately leaves for the forest for 14 years leaving the kingdom to his younger brother. There is another well used analysis too:  Dasarathan kills the boy  Shravan at night mistaking him to be an animal, the only son  of  blind parents by mistake and they ‘curse’ him that the king will die of a similar loss of a beloved child. Later when Raman leaves the country to go to the forest as per his father’s vows and predicament, Dasarathan weeps at his death bed remembering the incident of the ‘curse’ before his death bereaving for his beloved Raman.

There are many such ‘curses’ that have to be tackled in A Case Of Exploding Mangoes: the torture chamber of the army does not investigate cases in a democratic manner and practices blind judgment without giving a ‘chance’ for the victim to justify himself. The authorities construct a false case involving the innocent Shigri who narrates even his tortures with a kind of an ironical glee that makes the meaning come out with more ferocity:

Even professional torturers must procrastinate sometimes, I tell myself. Or maybe it’s some kind of do-it-yourself torture system; you stand and stare at these instruments and imagine how your various body parts would respond to them. I try not to think about the amber light on the iron. Major Kiyani did say no marks (140).

The darkness of the solitary dungeon is better than the bathroom where he spent the previous night Shigri feels. He is shoved into a small room blindfolded and though his hands are untied he is not able to unfold the blind as the cloth is too tight.   He starts his ‘push ups’ and keeps his sanity. Hanif’s characterization of Shigri as a man of ironic humor is justified carefully by the writer throughout and Shigri thinks: 

One hundred push-ups; a thin film of perspiration is covering my body, and an inner glow brings a smile to my face. As I sit back with my back to the wall I think that Obaid could probably write an article about this, send it to Reader’s Digest  and fulfill his dream of getting one hundred dollars in the mail: ‘Aerobics for Solitary Prisoners’  (p.157).

The tone of the writer keeps him away from the location of the story capturing reality in a mock-serious slant critiquing regional political history from another position. This position is the privileged position of a language that is global, giving the needed confidence to the writer that reassures him that he is speaking to the world at large where there are more people who might view history of a particular region in the same way. Anglophile predilections by Indian English writers have been critiqued   by writers like Aijaz Ahmed who also writes in English and we can use these ideas to understand a Pakistani writer too.  Ahmed (2000)  says:

These enlarged uses of English in India, and of the metropolitan languages in virtually all the ex-colonial countries of Asia and Africa, are connected, furthermore, with the consolidation, expansion, increased self-confidence, increased sophistication of the bourgeoisie classes, in these countries, including its middle strata, especially the modern petty bourgeoisie located in the professions and state apparatuses  (75). 

 

Ahmed goes on to say how Anita Desai and Bharathi Mukherjee thus are viewed as the Indian voices representing the Third World literature.  He refers to these perceptions as “post colonial consolidations and expansions” (75). The writers writing in English attempt at getting a national readership and they base their works on treating the nation as one unit, and here they differ from the regional writers who keep the region as their cultural and spatial location. Ahmed  identifies  English as one of India’s  “own” languages (77).  Partha Chatterjee is yet another critic who views the situation in a similar manner. Reading Asok Sen’s  analysis of the   Bengal reformer   Iswar Chandra  Vidyasagar of the 19^th century British India,   Partha Chatterjee  (1993) quotes Asok Sen:

The new intelligentsia was stirred by various elements of western thought – the ideas of liberal freedom, rational humanism and scientific advance...For a middle class with no positive role in social production, the theories of Locke, Bentham and Mill acted more as sources of confusion ... the middle class had neither the position, nor the strength to mediate effectively between polity and production. There lay the travesty of imported ideas of individual rights and rationality (25).   

This  formation of Indian modernity and Indian middleclass is to a large extent because of the colonial encounter and English  language and the new kind of knowledge it carried into India  and cannot be easily  removed from the variegated skin of Indian life and then discarded (Amit Chaudri as quoted by Krishna Sen 119).  Once again we can extend these remarks to suit the Pakistani intellectual climate too and view Mohammad  Hanif as yet another writer critiquing the nation/state from a western stand point.   Interestingly, Amartya Sen argues that we need not think either the East is responsible for the European Enlightenment or the West is responsible for the East’s reasoning abilities. Every society would have engaged in some kind of similar intellectual activity leading to the practice of justice, if we are able to search and explore for these details, Amartya Sen says (xiii-xv). 

Every society also would have engaged in some kind of autocratic attitude leading to injustice is what is revealed by Shura Darapuri’s historical positioning of Indian social practices today. Darapuri is the Head, Department of History, BBAU, Lucknow and his article in The Hindu recently, talks about caste discrimination surveys quoting from the book, Untouchability in Rural India authored by Ghanshyam Shah, Harsh Mander, Sukhadeo Thorat, Satish Deshpande and Amita Baviskar published by SAGE Publications, New Delhi in 2006. Accordingly, 27.6% of Dalits are still prevented from entering police stations; 12% of villages refuse permission for Dalits to enter polling booths or get them separate booths; in 48.4% of villages Dalits are denied access to common water sources; Dalits have internalized discrimination as their fate and they dare not raise voice against their tormentor for fear of punishment; they are kept out of key official positions through shrewd manipulations; only recently, on 15^th February 2012, at Daulatpur village in Haryana’s Uklana region, a Dalit youth’s hand was chopped as he drank water from a pot located in the upper caste premises. Untouchability (a word that is created by Indian English to refer to how certain poor people are kept away from social, physical and spiritual power centres – touching them will mar one’s purity and hence, they have to be kept away) remains a matter of shame and concern for India despite extensive provisions against the practice. Darapuri points out that “the caste system with graded inequality remains popular amongst those whose privileges are associated with it” though the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment keeps publicizing to the people about Sections 3 to 7 of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955,  and these facts are showing the discrepancy between niti  and nyaya. The article justifies in a way Amartya Sen’s argument that ‘every society would have engaged in some kind of similar intellectual activity leading to the practice of justice.’

Similarly, Mohammad Hanif’s novel becomes a search for justice in a society where the dominant groups function in an autocratic and totalitarian style suppressing voices that are different. Amartya Sen distinguishes between the two schools of thought – niti  and  nyaya. Niti relates to organizational propriety and behavioral correctness while nyaya is concerned with what emerges and how, and in particular the lives that people are actually able to lead. He also uses a term ‘Global Justice’ to refer to the non-regionality of these codes (xv).

Though in one sense we cannot refuse the significance of Aijaz Ahmad and Partha Chatterjee’s arguments about the role of middle class and English language in East Asian writing to day, on the other hand it is really well that the middleclass has used its intellectual and political space to search for justice.  Wherever they are located they return to their roots and try to observe, document, examine and comment on the reality of their birthplace as they perceive its historical narration and materialism from their own personal history. Mohammad Hanif’s Shigris – the father and the son – represent values like commitment to work, perfectionism, integrity and accountability. When these values are debased and desecrated, the knot of the story is created, tightening step by step by acts that dishonor personal space and violate private spheres of peace. The story chooses a mythical framework of curse and punishment as facts are not transparent for analysis and crimes cannot be reported to any public agency standing for impartial judgment.  As it happens, when there is no niti, that is no system for remedial measures, then there is no nyaya in society, that is no sense of right in the  actual lives of people. The novel insists on the need to establish systems in societies that are objective and rational to weigh actual history and regulate people’s lives.  When such agencies fail to exist, then providence takes over to correct the faulty mechanism where the curse of the humble and innocent brings down the mighty monarch. Whether it is the agency of Indian caste system or the Pakistani military system, if these systems do not have niti then they will encourage individual not to practice nyaya.  

Amartya Sen questions the role of reason in the practice of justice from a post structuralized perspective though his thinking draws its main argument from Kant’s analysis of reason. Whether reason can completely stay away from unreason is the challenge faced while we try theorizing justice only as the product of reason. The difficulty is to find systems of social justice that define its reasoning aiming at a higher objectivity, as one cannot devise any method without the use of reason. But one has to know “what reasoning would demand for the pursuit of justice” and should allow “for the possibility that there may exist several different reasonable positions” (xix).

Mohammad Hanif too creates a scheme for common impartiality by punishing the human being responsible for Colonel Shigri’s father’s murder who by burning twenty five million dollars stopped powerful people becoming rich with government money. The meaning of the word ‘justice’ expands into equality too in the modern usage.
“Equality was not only among the foremost revolutionary demands in Eighteenth-century Europe and America, there has also been an extraordinary consensus on its importance in the post-Enlightenment world” (Amartya Sen 291). Every theory of justice seems to have demanded equality of something Sen argues. Political philosophers like John Rawls, James Meade, Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel or Thomas Scanlon have all emphasized on the need for equality. “James Buchanan, the pioneering founder of ‘public choice theory’ who appears to be skeptical of the claims of equality  does in fact, builds equal legal and political treatment of people into his view of a good society” (Amartya Sen 292). The behavioural demand  in the current world society  is the practice of equality in society and Hanif suggests in his novel  that if it is not institutionalized by the government, then the people should introduce the system of the law of causality or meting out individual punishment and rectify the loopholes in systems or remove the inequalities and discrimination and create an egalitarian formula.  Though different theories have come up in egalitarianism, Sen argues there is a similar vein in them: each theory argues for equality in “some space” while refusing the other (295).

In practice too people demand for more space while refusing the other as Hanif argues in A Case of Exploding Mangoes. For example, in the hierarchic Asian societies, especially in the sub-continent of India, the media that claims to uphold the values of equality, justice and other democratic values does not practice these values. Robin Jeffrey in an article in The Hindu  “Missing from the Indian Newsroom” describes this  as “the media’s failure to recruit Dalits is a betrayal of the constitutional guarantees of equality and fraternity” referring to the deficient ‘equality’ from the Fourth Estate.   Hence  the “stories from the lives of close to 25 per cent of Indians (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) are unlikely to be known – much less broadcast or written about” says Jeffrey who is the visiting Research Professor, Institute of South Asian Studies and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. The article is based on the Rajendra Mathur Memorial Lecture delivered in New Delhi on 31 March, 2012.

Further, top Indian Higher Educational institutions have been responsible for the loss of 19 yound lives mistreated by autocratic attitudes of the Faculty and fellow students says S.Anand in his column “opinion” in the magazine Outlook, the weekly news magazine published from New Delhi. “Dalit students still face oppressing times in our educational institutions” he analyses the social discrimination and says “Reservation in India is actually a battle for the reclamation of human personality – something that is still casually denied to millions of Indians” (14).  Though the system of niti has been established in the constitution, the people of India do not practice nyaya and even the westernized Indian middle class that has questioned British imperialism in the academia through post colonial theories using the African and Australian model, has not seriously questioned Indian Colonization of the tribes into physical and spiritual slaves as they too have accepted this convenient slavery. Return home novels of India have not vehemently opposed the Dalit issues. Reading Mohammed Hanif’s A Case of Exploding Mangoes reassures one’s faith in human justice and fairness.

Social justice becomes an empty ideal in a society where “the guilty commit the crime, the innocent are punished” as Colonel Shigri says in the beginning of A Case of Exploding Mangoes summing up his story as “punishment before a crime” (5).  Fate comes to his help in the form of a crow to assist him in his revenge scheme and where history fails to record details myths are born about reality and Hanif weaves a mythical tale of revenge and punishment drawing on the curse of an innocent blind girl whose anger is understood by nature and who in turn helps her curse being fulfilled.  

“We want guaranteed access to basic services such as telecommunica­tions, energy, health and water. Moreover, we want to live in a world without war, with social justice, with equity, where men don’t domi­nate women, where children don’t have to work in cane fields or in factories, where children don’t roam the streets without hope.” (Reyes cited by Chandra Talpade Mohanty and  Sarah Miraglia).  Mohanty and  Miraglia  further say “Erasto Reyes reminds us of a vision for social and economic justice that fuels continuing struggles for liberation in the 21st century”(2012, 99).  Gender ideologies and representations are hierarchic and these scholars are recommending changes in established governance structures within institutional settings, and they argue for the development of strategies to eliminate subordination that they say leads to impoverishment of women  (99-100).  Mohanty says:

Treating the community as a homogeneous entity has serious conse­quences for the structure of a community-based group and the distribution of benefits. Without a nuanced approach to the community, privileged com­munity members are more likely to become the primary contacts (referred to as “elite capture”) for participatory projects (van Koppen 1998, Sultana 2009), perpetuating and/or exacerbating “naturalised” inequalities (Res­urreccion et al., 2004, Boelens and Zwarteveen 2005, Karim 2006) (Chandra Talpade Mohanty and  Sarah Miraglia, 108).

Writers and thinkers in Asian societies have begun to question Asian leadership styles. An interesting book would be Diplomacy: Indian Style written by K.P. Fabian where the author takes about famous Indian leaders who refused to listen to their sub-ordinates that led to human warfare and loss of lives and continual pain and suffering. Hanif’s claim is also on a similar vein that argues for seasoned, impartial democratic leadership. If such a leadership is not given it would impact the concerned person in some way or the other, the novel hints, warning  social systems to practice justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Adiga, Arvind. The White Tiger. New Delhi: Haper Collins Publishers India, 2008.  

Ahmad,  Aijaz.   In theory: classes, nations, literatures. London: Verso, 2000.

Anand, S. “The Killing of Shambukas.” Opinion. Outlook. The Weekly News Magazine. Volume LII, 15. April 16, 2012.

Chatterjee, Partha. Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1993. Print.

Chatterjee, Partha. Nationalist Thought and the Cultural World. United Nations  University. London, 1986. 1993. Print.

Darapuri, Shura. “Why have we banished our own brethren?” Open Page. The Hindu. March 25, 2012. Page 16.

Fabian, K.P. Diplomacy: Indian Style. New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 2012.

Ghosh, Amitav.  In an Antique Land.  Penguin India,  2009.

Hanif, Mohammed.  A Case of Exploding Mangoes. India: Random House, 2009.

Jeffrey, Robin.  “Missing from the Indian Newsroom.”  The Hindu. Monday. April 9, 2012.   

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade and  Sarah Miraglia. “Gendering justice, building alternative futures”. Alternatives to Privatization: Public options for Essentials in the Global South. Ed. David A. McDonald and Greg Ruiters. New York: Routeldge / Taylor and Francis, 2012.

Norman, Marsha. ‘Night Mother.  New York: St. Martin Paperbacks, 1983.

O’Neill, Eugene. Long Day’s Journey into Night. London: Nick Hern Books, 2011.

Pirsig, M. Robert. Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.  England: Corgi Books, 1974.

Sen, Amartya. The Idea of Justice. England: Penguin, 2009.

Sen, Krishna. “Post colonialism, Globalism, Nativism: Reinventing English in a Post-Colonial Space.”  Identity in Crossroad Civilisations: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Globalism in Asia.  Ed. Erich Kolig, Vivienne S. M. Angeles, Sam Wong.  Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009.

Takle, Niranjan. “Senseless Sentences” Cover Story. The Week. April 1, 2012. Pages 32- 37.

Entertainment to Power

After holding the position of entertaining men, perhaps from time immemorial or millenniums ago, women have begun to take the role of authority.

The earlier structure towards power was through the ideology of bewitching men to rule them. The men got very alert about this deviation in social structure, that they defined it and gave it a name 'Maya.'  A man who is caught in 'Maya' would have to lose his power, the puranas explained in detail. The enchanting women living in Deiva Lokams bewitched powerful men and brought disaster.  The conflict between the male search for permanent authority and the female search to   rule these males has been a continuous process.

The family system also has this inner structure where the Mother used her biological power over her sons to rule over the system itself. The men recognised this 'real' power and created the concept of 'great motherhood' and appeased the female search for power. The mother became a recognised symbol of authority that the men were not publicly ashamed to bend their will to the will of the mother. It was termed as 'obedience and nobility.'

From this arrives the concept of  respecting only the mother and not the wife. The male ideologies created a framework of shame for any one who dared to respect his wife. The construction of 'Dasan' was based on this mental norm. If a man shows  affection to his wife, he was termed as Dasan or servant. The Tamil term is 'Penndati Dasan - the servant of his wife. 

This is the platform for the Mother - in-Law to dominate the Daughter -in - Law. The male saw the two attitudes search for power. It was an ideal situation for him to escape from the female's contention with him for power. He dropped hints and encouraged this war between women in the family system. For an ambitious young female such a system is very frustrating and she uses the female weapons of 'charm, tears, narration, drama and cooking' to bring the male under her control. Families become war fields where each species fights for survival.

All these structures are colliding now. 

The women have found other avenues for power. Educated women working in formal systems have platforms to exhibit their talents. Society has opened up doors where the female search for power is fulfilled.  How will this affect the family system? Can the family system tackle the equal distribution of power in the male and female? What will be the new model?

These are contemporary questions.

In search of an impartial God

Our deep beliefs and core values are on a self-protecting mode.  The 'self' has to be defended against imaginary attacks. It constructs the outside world as a space of enmity, and hence spends ample time building structures of protection.

To bring in the concept of the society's welfare as a core value, we have to rebuild our foundation ideologies.

The Gods have to tell us to take care of the world at large - the streets, the roads, the bridges, schools, hospitals and governments.

The attempt at the purification of the soul has to be extended to the purification of the concrete world as well.

Sartre's 'lie' in the centre - amidst honesty- has to be addressed. Our capability for a high level of self-delusion has to be studied. The collide of self protection and social welfare has to be analysed. 

Teaching today

Today the leaders in the class rooms are not teachers. The real leaders are android cell phones, latest laps, and 'attitude.' 

There is a big generation gap between the students and senior teachers. They come from a generation that knew getting a good job was difficult. The students belong to a world that has generated jobs every where. 

There is not much difference between the young teachers and students. Both belong to the world of visual culture. They are away from books and closer to the latest technology. They know assignments can be given to students and students need not be 'taught.'

This is the city scene.

The rural students are still dependent on the teacher. But the young teachers know about internet and give 'assignments.' Teachers do not want to teach. 

The Sixth Pay Commission has created a complacency among the College teachers that 'going to the class room' is not a big deal any more. The teacher has become  'rich'. Money wants more money. 

The class room has students from mixed backgrounds and the teacher has two reactions: either he is scared of the students or he detests the students. 

Where are the teachers who could command the love and respect of teachers? When did teachers begin to move away from books - either in print or in electronic format? What happened to the hero-worshipping students? Where is education taking the teacher and the student?

When we recruit teachers who worship 'power' instead of the 'class room' these issues become solidified. When teachers love 'money' more than 'books' the solidified issues freeze for ever.

Teaching now attracts people who come for the money. They laugh at knowledge. 

A leading aided College took the students for an educational tour. All the male teachers who accompanied them were 'drunk.' Half the class consisted of girls. More interestingly, the teachers encouraged some boys also to get 'drunk'.

Should we introduce codes for teachers? Can we equate teachers with other professionals?

Great teachers are 'only' great teachers. They 'lack' other motives like 'power, money and status.'

Their true status is in the superb classes they handle in the class room. Their true merit is in the welfare of the students. If a teacher can guide his students on the right path his purpose of life is fulfilled. Society has to identify such teachers and put them in the class rooms.

Tholkappium verses 23-26

23.  ட  ற ல ள வென்னும்  புள்ளி  முன்னர்
க  ச  ப  வென்னும் மூவெழுத்து உரிய



This verse describes consonant assimilation.

The letters 'da, Ra, la La' follow the consonant sounds 'ka, sa pa'.

Example of words in Tamil:  'kadka, kaRka, selka, koLka'. This assimilation happens in a natural manner.

Commentary

consonant assimilation happens when the sounds of the two consonants merge.

ILampooranar says if the spoken form of the sounds do not naturally assimilate, then in such places consonant assimilation will not take place. the merging of sounds happen only if the language users do it. Such a merge happens usually within the above mentioned framework of 'k' merging with 'd' etc.

Tholkappiar describes this principle based on the usage of the people's pronunciation. he later develops more complex principles of the merging of consonant sounds.

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24. அவற்றுள்

ல  ள  ஃ   கான்  முன்னர்  ய வ  வுந்  தோன்றும்


This verse says that  the sounds 'la, La, q' will merge with the following sounds like    'ya, va'.

Commentary

Consonant assimilation also has its dimensions. Even the softer sounds that cannot be classified as consonants also merge with each other.

Example: 'kol yaanai,  veL yaanai,  kool vaLai,  veL vaLai'

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25. ங  ஞ  ண    ந  ம  ன  வெனும்   புள்ளி முன்னர்

தத்த  மிசைக  ளொத்தன  நிலையே


This verse too explains consonant assimilation.

The soft consonants like ' nga, nja, Na, na, ma, na' merge with the preceeding consonants like 'ka, sa, da, tha, pa, Ra'.

Commentary

ங,   ஞ,   ண,    ந,   ம,   ன       - nga,   nja,    Na,    na,    ma,    na

க,    ச,      ட,    த,    ப,    ற       -  ka,   sa,      da,     tha,    pa,    Ra


Example: தேக்கு  [thaekku],  மஞ்சு [manju], வண்டு [vandu], பந்து [panthu], கம்பு [kambu], கன்று [kanRu]
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26. அவற்றுள்

ண ன  ஃ   கான்  முன்னாக

க ச ஞ  ப  ம யா  வ  வ்    வேழு  முரிய


This verse defines the merging of more sounds like 'Na, na'.

Commentary

The sounds 'Na, na' merge quite well with the consonants like 'ka, sa, nja, pa, ma, and va'.

Example:  வெண்கலம் [veNkalam] , புன்கண் [punkaN]  , வெண்சாந்து [veNsaanthu] , புன்செய்  [punsai]

Tholkappium - verses 1-22

தொல்காப்பியம்

Tholkappium – The Ancient Text

எழுத்ததிகாரம் 

Ezhuththathikaaram – Volume  on Letters

Ezhuththathikaaram consists of nine Chapters. They are

1.      நூல் மரபு Nool Marabu [The Tradition of Letters]

2.      மொழி மரபு Mozhi Marabu [The Tradition of words. ‘Mozhi’ refers to words and not always ‘language.’]

3.      பிறப்பு இயல் Pirappu Eyal [The Chapter on origin of sounds from the human body]

4.      புணர் இயல் Punar Eyal [The Chapter on assimilation of letters]

5.      தொகை இயல் Thogai Marabu [The Tradition of discussing missed matters in the earlier chapters]

6.      உருபு இயல் Urubu Eyal [The Chapter on declension]

7.      உயிர் மயங்கு இயல் Uyir Mayangu Eyal [The Chapter on assimilation of vowels with vowels]

8.      புள்ளி மயங்கு இயல் Pulli Mayangu Eyal [The Chapter on assimilation of consonants with consonants]

9.      குற்றியலுகர புணர் இயல் Kutriyalukara Punar Eyal [The Chapter on shortened ‘u’ assimilation with other words]

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Chapter I

நூல் மரபு 

Nool Marabu – The Tradition of the Letters

‘Nool’ normally refers to a book. But here it does not refer to the tradition of the book; instead it refers to the tradition of letters.

1. முதல் எழுத்துக்கள் 

எழுத்தெனப்படுப் படுப 

அகர முதல னகர விறுவாய் 

முப்பஃ தென்ப 

சார்ந்து வரல் மரபின் மூன்றாய் கடையே 

Muthal Ezhuththukkal – The First Letters

 Ezhuththenap paduba

 Akara mudhala nakara viruvaai

 Muppa thenba

 Saarnthu viral marabin muunrang kadaiyee

Letters are those beginning from

‘a’ to ‘n’ in the end

They are thirty in number, it is said

Without the three ‘associate’ ones.

Commentary

Tamil letters are divided into two types: Uyir [life] and Mei [body]. Uyir consists of twelve letters and Mei consists of eighteen letters. There are three Sarbu [associate] letters.

The translation of ‘Uyir’ as ‘Life’ is a controversy. The word can also be translated as the spirit which lives in a body.

Tholkappiar uses a detached, scholarly tone throughout his treatise on Tamil grammar. He never claims to have ‘found’ out the rules. The rules have been in existence for a long time and hence he says ‘Muppa thenba’ or ‘muppathu enba’ that is, ‘it is said thirty.’ There no autocratic finality in his tone and we note a high sense of objectivity, scientific precision and a consciousness that keeps a high alert on claims. He does not want to prescribe rules, instead points out mildly ‘this is what has been practiced’ by the deft reference to scholars or social practices.

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2. சார்பு எழுத்துக்கள் 

அவை தாம் 

குற்றிய லிகரம் குற்றிய லுகரம் 

ஆய்தம் என்ற 

முப்பால் புள்ளியும் எழுத்து ஓர்  அன்ன 

அவை யாவையெனில் 

குறுகிய இகரம், குறுகிய உகரம் 

மூன்று புள்ளி ஆய்தம் 

குறுகிய இகர உகரங்களும் 

வரி வடிவத்தையே பெறும் 

Saarbu Ezhuththukkal – Associate Letters

Avai thaam

Kutriya likaram, kutriya lukaram

Aaytham entra

Muppaal pulliyum ezhuththu oor annae

The associate letters are:

Shortened ‘e’ sound

Shortened ‘u’ sound

Three pointed aaidham

Shortened ‘e’ and ‘u’

And normal ‘e’ and ‘u.’

These have the same form

Commentary

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3. குறில் எழுத்துக்கள் 

அவற்றுள் 

அ  இ  உ 

எ  ஒ  வென்னு மப்பா லைந்தும் 

ஓர்  அளபு இசைக்கும்  குற்றெழுத்தென்ப 

உயிர் எழுத்துக்களில் 

அ, இ, உ, எ, ஒ  என்னும் ஐந்து   எழுத்துக்களும்

ஒரு மாத்திரை அளவு ஒலிக்கும் 

குற்று  [குறில்] எழுத்துக்கள் எனப்படும்.

Kuril Ezhuththukkal – The Shortened Letters

Avatrul

‘a’  ‘i’  ‘u’

‘e’ ‘o’ ennum appaal ainthum

Oor alabu  isaikkum kutrezhuththenpa

In uyir letters

‘a’  ‘i’  ‘u’

‘e’ ‘o’  the five

Sound for a second

Called kuril letters

Commentary

In uyir letters we have five letters - ‘a’  ‘i’  ‘u’ ‘e’ and  ‘o.’  These letters have short sounds that are expressed each in a second. They are referred to as Kuril.

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4. நெடில் எழுத்துக்கள் 

ஆ  ஈ  ஊ 

ஏ  ஐ 

ஓ  ஔ  என்னும் அப்பால் ஏழும் 

ஈரளபு  இசைக்கும் நெட்டெழுத்தென்ப 

ஆ, ஈ, ஊ, ஏ, ஐ, ஓ, ஔ  என்னும் 

ஏழு  எழுத்துக்களும் இரு மாத்திரையளவு 

ஒலிக்கும் நெடில் எழுத்துக்கள் ஆகும் 

Nedil Ezhuththukkal – The Long Letters

Aa  eii uu

Eaa ai

Oo au ennum appaal eazhum

Eeiralabu eisaikkum nettezhuththenba.

‘a’ ‘i’ ‘u’ ‘e’ ‘ai’ ‘o’ ‘au’

These seven letters

Sound for two seconds each

They are Nedil [long] letters.

Commentary

The seven long letters - ‘a’ ‘i’ ‘u’ ‘e’ ‘ai’ ‘o’ ‘au’ – are pronounced by an extension of sound. Each letter uses 2 sounds. Hence they are called long letters or Nedil.

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5. Nedil Ezhuththukkal – The Long Letters

moo  alabu  esaiththal  oor ezhuththu entreai.

Single letters do not sound for three seconds.

Commentary

In Tamil, a single letter should not be sounded longer than 2 seconds.

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6. Nedil Ezhuththukkal – The Long Letters

Neettam veandin av alabu udaiya

Kooty ezhuuuthal enmanaar pulavar.

If length is wanted the same measured sounds

To be added to writing  the scholars say.

Commentary

Interestingly, Tholkappiar has composed this verse carefully as it carries the example for a lengthened letter ‘u.’   The  word  ‘ezhuuuthal’ has a long sound – ‘zhuu’ and to add on he brings another vowel here – ‘u’ and ‘ezhuuthal’ becomes ‘ezhuuuthal.’  Now the letters sound for three seconds:  ‘zh’ + ‘uu’ + ‘u’ and in Tamil it becomes one letter – ‘zhuuu.’

Giving examples for theory within the verse is an effective strategy he uses throughout this structural discourse.

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7. Maaththirai – Measure of sound

 Kan emai nodi ena avvae maaththirai

Nunni thin unarnthoor kanda aarae.

Eyelashes blinking, fingers clicking time

Is referred to as ‘mathirai’

So say the learned scholars of yore.

Commentary

‘Maathirai’ is a word related to another word called ‘mathiram’ meaning ‘measure.’ Tamil scholars traditionally have measured sounds and have given a physical representation of batting of eyelids and clicking of fingers to explain the organization of sound structures.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

8. Uyir ezhuththukkal – Vowel Letters

Au kaara iruvaai

Pan iir ezhuththum uyir ena mozhiba.

It is said letters till

‘au’ are the 12 Uyir [vowels] letters.

Commentary

‘Tamil vowel letters are: a, ‘a’, ‘i’, ‘ii’, ‘u’, ‘uu’, ‘e’, ‘ee’, ‘ai’, ‘o’, ‘oo’ and ‘au’. In Tamil language, letters are classified into ‘life’ and ‘body’ separately called ‘uyir’ and ‘mei.’ These two forms if joined together become ‘uyirmei’ or human being. When life breath centres a body it comes alive. Similarly, when ‘uyir’ enters ‘mei’ sounds come alive and language becomes dynamic.

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9.      Mei ezhuththukkal – Consonants

Na kaara iruvaai

Pathinen ezhuththum mei ena mozhiba.

It is said letters till

‘na’ are  the 18 mei [consonants] letters.

Commentary

These 18 letters cannot function on their own. If  body is without life breath, it cannot function. Similarly, these letters cannot function without uyir letters. But, rarely, ‘uyir’ letters can function on their own. At such instances, they are called single letter words.

……………………………………………………………………………………

10. meiyyoodu eyaiyinum uyir eyal thiriyaa

Though ‘Uyir’ joins ‘Mei’, the quality of ‘Mei’ sounds do not change.

Commentary

Though the soul reaches a different body, the soul retains its quality. According to the quality of the soul, the body functions. Similarly, according to the ‘Uyir’ letter, the ‘Mei’ letters function. Even if they are re-separated, their original qualities remain the same.

க்   [Mei]  + அ  [Uyir]   = க [Uyirmei]

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11.  meiyin alabe aria ena moliba

மெய்யின் அளபே அரை என மொழிப 

They say

The ‘mei’ letters sound

Half a second

Commentary

‘Mei’ refers to body. The dotted letters cannot function independently. They can function only if combined with uyir  letters.

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12. avviyal nilaiyum anai moontre

The other three associate letters sound half a second in this way.

Commentary

Kuttriyaligaram [short ‘i’ sounds],   Kuttriyaugaram [short ‘u’ sounds]   and Aitham [the associate letter] are referred to as the ‘other three’ here. Naturally, ‘e’ and ‘u’ have the sound for one mathirai.   But, when they sound less long, they become half a mathirai.  Like ‘mei’ letters the ‘aidham’ is also of half  mathirai.

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14. Aria alabu kurugal magaram udaithe

      Isai edan arugum theriyum kalai.

The ‘mei’ letter ‘m’ shortens its sound from half to quarter mathirai. Thia is called magara kurukkam. This change happens only when it  combines  with another sound, which is quite rare.  Example: poonm, varum vannakkan.   [Kurrukam means shortening].

Commentary

Ponm: The word ‘polum’ loses its ‘u’ in ‘lu’. It becomes ‘polm’.  The sounds ‘l’ and ‘m’ combine and produce ‘n’. It is now ‘ponm’.   Now ‘ponm’ undergoes one more change. The sound  ‘m’ loses half mathirai. Hence ‘ponm’  an example of  magara kurukkam  in an independent word.

Varum vannakkan:  The last sound in the first word [it is called as the static word or nilai mozhi] in this phrase loses half of its mathirai.  That is, ‘m’ loses half of its sound when it combines with ‘v’ in the next word. The specialty of this magara kurukkam  is that it happens only if the next word begins with ‘v’ sound  [it is called the coming word or varu mozhi].

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எழுத்துக்களின் வரி வடிவம்

The written structure of letters

14. உள் பெறு புள்ளி உருவாகும்மே 

Ul peru pulli uruvaakumme

This  verse discusses the general principle for ‘mei’  letters.  It describes the differences between ‘p’ and ‘m’.

Commentary

At the time of Tholkappiar the ‘mei’  letter ‘m’ did not have a separate form. It was written with one more dot inside the letter ‘p’.  he introduces the additional dot on the letter ‘p’ that in course of time extended into a line and became the dotted ‘m’.

This verse and the next one define the physical features of mei letters.

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15.  மெய்யின் இயற்கை புள்ளியொடு நிலையல் 

Meiyin eyarkai pulliyodu nilaiyal

The nature of mei  letters is to have a dot on the top.

Commentary

Now a days we put a dot on  all the 18  mei letters after the reforms brought by Tholkappiar.  He defines the ‘dot’ as the special feature of mei letters.  Thus Tholkappiar differentiates between mei  letters and uyir mei letters in their structures.

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16. எகர ஒகரத்து இயற்கையும் அற்றே 

Ekara okarathu eyarkaiyum atrea

The short [kuril]  uyir letters like ‘e’ and ‘o’ will have dots on top, says Tholkappiar.

Commentary

During his period, the short and long uyir letters were written in the same manner. To denote the difference, he suggests that we add the dot to all the short uyir letters. Thus these short letters will be differentiated from long letters, he argues.

The current elongated lines that are used in the long letters [ex: அ -  ஆ,  எ – ஏ,  ஒ - ஓ] were introduced by Veera Mamunivar.

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17. புள்ளி இல்லா எல்லா மெய்யும் 

உருவு உருவு ஆகி அகரமொடு உயிர்த்தலும் 

ஏனை உயிரொடு உருவு திரிந்து உயிர்த்தலும் 

ஆ  ஈர் இயல் உயிர்த்தல் ஆறே 

Pulli yillaa ellaa meiyum

Urvu uruvu aki akaromodu uyirthalum

Enai uyirodu uruvu thirunthu uyirthalum

Aa yiir yiyal uyirthal aaRe

This verse defines the forming of uyir mei letters.  The mei letters that have been removed of their dots join uyir  letters and give birth to uyir mei  sounds. This is the concept of punarchi’. It means ‘merging.’

Commentary

Nachinaarkiniyanar says that when mei and uyir merge each loses half of its sound                        [ mathirai]  and creates uyir mei. Example: mei+ uyir= uyir mei:  k  + a = ka  [க் + அ = க].

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18. மெய்யின் வழிய உயிர் தோன்று நிலையே 

Meiyin valiya uyir thoonRu nilaiyae

Commentary

This verse describes the position of mei letters in uyirmei letters.  It says mei letters originate first and hence they have to be placed first. When we split uyirmei, we naturally keep mei at first.

Example:  k  + a = ka  [க் + அ = க]

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19. வல்லெழுத்  தென்ப  கசட தபற 

Vallezhu thenba kasada thabaRa

The  six consonants ‘k, s, d, th, p, R’ are referred to as ‘vallinam’ – the strong group.

Commentary

This verse explains the Tamil consonants. They are first explained as Tamil language is dominated by these strong sounds. Their sounds are strong, and they are born from the depth of the stomach reaching out to the strong part of the body – the head. Among these letters ‘k, s d th’ are the most used consonants in the language.

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20. மெய்யெழுத்  தென்ப  ங ஞ ண  ந ம ன 

Meiyezhuth enba nga nja Na ma na

The six soft sounds ‘ng, nj, N, n,  m, n’ are referred to as ‘mellinam’ – the soft group.

Commentary

These sounds have soft sounds. The wind that produces these sounds come through the nose. Next to the strong sounds these sounds are mostly used in Tamil language. Hence Tholkappiar defines them next to the strong sounds.

Nachinaarkiniyanaar refuses to accept that sounds do not have a shape. If sounds do not have a shape or structure, they can exist on ‘nothing’. Instead they are born or created from the head, neck, chest. The wind that starts from these places dashes on the parts of the mouth like lips, teeth, tongue, nose and soft palate. Sounds are born in this clash. Hence he argues that sounds have a physical structure.

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22. இடை  எழுத்தென்ப   ய  ர  ல  வ  ழ  ள 

Yidai ezhuth thenba ya, ra, la, va, zha, La

This verse defines the category of  letters that have sounds that are neither too harsh nor too soft.

Commentary

The six medium sounds ‘y, r, l, v, zh, L’ are referred to as ‘yidaiyinam’ – the medium sounds.

These sounds are born from the part of the body that separates the head from the body – the neck.

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22.  அம் மூ வாறும்  வழங்கியல்  மருங்கின் 

மெய்  மயங்கு உடன் நிலை தெரியும் காலை 

Am moovaaRum vazhangiyal marungin

Mei mayangu udan nilai thorium kaalai

This verse explains how two mei sounds join. It also explains how they join, the rationale of the merging, the method of merging, and its classification and name.

All the 18 mei letters become words. During the process they undergo two changes or assimilation. Hence it is referred to as consonant assimilation.  Tholkappiar identifies two types of consonant assimilation. They are: mei nilai mayakkam and udan nilai mayakkam.

It is possible that such assimilations take place:  1.  when two uyir sounds merge;  2. When two mei sounds merge;  3. When two uyirmei sounds merge. 

Assimilation of sounds is referred to as ‘saiyogam’ in Sanskrit.

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