Language and Newspapers

If you combine the population of the Indian state with the population of Bangladesh you have well over 250 million Bengali speaking people, making it one of the world's most widely spoken languages. Two observations here: it is the pull of language that sometimes confuses the issues in Bangladesh, people are not sure whether they are Bengalis first and then Muslims or vice versa. Indeed it was the Language Movement that underpinned the separation from Pakistan in 1971, although its roots are much older and deeper than that. Ordinary people as much as academics have taken great pride in the Bengali language and its literary traditions. Then there is the colonial legacy. English is still the language of the elite and there is a move back to making English more central to education as well everyday discourse as English has moved from being the language of the oppressors to the universal language of international commerce; a tool for entry into the global economy. Which brings me to the newspapers.

Basically there are two types of newspapers; the Bangla papers aimed at the mass market and the English language papers aimed at the elite. Indeed it is the The Daily Star, New Age and The Bangladesh Observer that are perceived to be the influential papers (although the Bangla Prothom Alo, a stablemate of The Daily Starr) is also taken very seriously in important circles. What distinguishes these papers from the others is that have taken an objective stand in regard to politics (at least in Bangladesh context) whereas most other papers are clearly identified with a political party or religious grouping. Like Europe, you can usually identify someone's political affiliations in Dhaka by the paper they read.

One of the things that strikes you about the English language papers is their collective use of English as a medium of expression. At times it seems that English has been frozen in a pre-modern era. I was once talking to a Belgian who made the point it was if they had been written by Charles Dickens. One example will do to illustrate this point; the use of the word "miscreant". All law breakers are universally described as 'miscreants', a word I have become very fond of, but you rarely if ever find it used in the modern Australian press.

All of which leads me to speculate that the study of the usage of English in nations forged from a colonial struggle could make the subject of a fine study.