Question

The play deals with a Kannada woman writer who unexpectedly produces an international bestseller in English.

Does writing in an ‘other tongue’ amount to a betrayal of the mother tongue?

Answer 1

Creativity and perspective require a mind to observe and a language to comprehend and articulate a phenomenon. An artist produces art that is a self-expression of his life. It is life itself. The articulation of his life depends on the language that had made him reflect, introspect and comprehend it. A language can either dilute or concentrate an observation.

The socio-political, cultural, and historical background of a language makes it different from another tongue and it is these variations that condition a language’s function of what, where, or how to emphasize an issue or simply an observation. A language can either bestow a fact with the ultimate truth or make the truth stand as a bare fact alone. It is a language that impresses simplicity on a beautiful essence and it is language again that transfers this aura to some other miscellaneous occurrence.

Thus, as educated citizens, it is more important to focus on the product of an artist rather than judging him for not employing his mother tongue in his work. The art should be appraised in its own indigenous space and in its own original color.