01. A terrific allegory

02. Animal emotions

03. Moving further on the allegory route

04. Genetically improving the lower species

A terrific allegory

In many ways, it is like different animals meeting each other. Many years ago, when I went for business purposes to other states in my own nation, I had to go to interior villages. The native language would be quite un-understandable to me. My native language would also be equally un-understandable to them. However, in educated towns and cities, we would have a common language called English to communicate. In places where English had not entered, it is definitely like two different animals looking at each other.

However, since both of us know that we are human beings, and that we all have common purposes which are not dangerous to each other, there is not possibility of a physical attack. Physical attacks are also possible if I do try to dismantle the social hierarchy that holds their social system.

Since all Indians are aware of the issue of feudal language social hierarchy, not much transgression occurs. However, in many ways, we are just like to two different animal species looking at each other. We cannot understand what the other is speaking. The more cut off from English, the more cruder or its opposite, more obsequious the other group can be. The obsequiousness comes if they feel that I am a superior. This would translate into such words in their language and I would get the requisite respect and command there.

Now into this group, which may feel like an animal group, if I were to bring in English, they would change rapidly. We would rapidly feel that there are so many common points between us. All words in English would seem to have an equivalent word in their language also. So we would feel that they are also human beings.

Actually if one could teach a group of animals to speak in English, the same effect can be had. However, one should bear in mind that even though most English words would seem to have an equivalent word in the animal communication system also, the fact would be that this is only a feeling from English. For, only the animal, which knows both English as well as the animal language, would know that this is not the actual reality. All equalisations would only be approximations. For, the communication codes that have animal qualities and which cannot be fully translated into English would still be translated into some soft English words, wherein the original beastly quality of the same wouldn’t be felt.

When English interaction with such people as African Blacks, Asian peoples etc. initiated some few centuries back, in the initial times, there were feelings that some of these people were not fully human beings. Or at least that their human intelligence were of a limited content. There were even studies and writings to prove this contention. In the same way, now we feel that animals are far off from Human intelligence. However, if one were to find a way to teach them English, there would be fantastic change in this perception.

Once they get to be able to use computers and mobile phones etc., the development of their intellect would be phenomenal. Yet, there should always be this thing to be borne in mind. We can teach them English. That is they can learn human knowledge. However do we ever get to learn their inner knowledge, feelings, emotions and emotional triggers, and even their core feelings that guide them in their own social communication amongst themselves?

Well, this is the issue that really lies before English nations. They have taught English to so many no-English people. They have all improved to the extent of knowing everything, even the innermost secrets of English social and technical knowledge. However, has there been any introspection about what is the inner core of the non-English speaking people that propels all their emotions, their mutual belligerences, codes familial attachments, regimentations and command codes that are non-tangible in English, but is present in them powerfully, awaiting the attack order to start the besiege and the frontal attack?

Well, the truth is something like the English experience with Japan. Minute Japan learned English and breeched all English fortresses. Yet, still now, the English world doesn’t have the least idea as to what is the inner core of emotional, sociological as well as nationalistic aims that remain as an undercurrent in the Japanese collective wisdom.

I know that I am digressing from the route that I am in. However, since my mind has entered into an unplanned area, I need to finish the theme and then only move on.

Animal emotions

Speaking about animals, I had this experience. The year was around 2007. I was staying in our family compound, away from my bigger family home, in a slightly dilapidated house. This I was doing to maintain a sort of distance from the encroachment of the local culture, which was entwined in Malayalam and the local social compulsions.

On the road suddenly three dogs appeared. Of three sizes. The first was a big brown dog, the second a black one and the third a white and black dotted dog of just above puppy size. The three seemed to have been suddenly thrown into the roads, from some cosy household, for they seemed quite unsure of how to deal with the outside world.

I do not want to tell the whole story here. I will concentrate on the brown dog which was female. It tried to be friendly with me. However, it was impossible for me to accommodate it in my house for I was sharing the same compound of the other family-houses in the compound.

However, within a few months of being on the road, it became pregnant. At that time, it was allowed to give birth inside the compound in a shed. The house gate was kept slightly open to allow it to come and go. I could see that it was desperately trying to convey its gratitude. It would try to mouth out words, which were not coherent to me. Could be that it had no vocal cord to do that. Or it might even be that being solitary beings, there was no particular language in it. For language also needs to be taught by a social group. A solitary human being cannot have a language.

When it saw me, it would wag its tail, in a very passionate manner to address me. Later, it took its kids elsewhere, but continued to reside inside the shed. At that time the family took up the decision to oust it. I had to carry out the decision. However, when I tried to oust it, it put up an act of desperation. It turned its rear part to me, and went on wagging its tail in a piteous and desperate manner, looking at me with a turned-towards-me face. It seemed to feel that I would see the wagging tail only if was turned towards me. It was sure that it was trying to say something, but lacked the machinery to do it.

Later when my wife tried to shoo it off, when it had entered again, I saw it desperately trying to speak. Well, when I say these things, I use the same understanding that I have with regard to human beings. The same desperation I have seen in human beings, when they are in tight corners.

I am sure that the thinking part of the brain is not fully connected to any hardware. For, it could possibly be connected to some software. I remember one time many years ago, when I was travelling by a two-wheeler through a mountainous area. I was having a sore throat. So couldn’t speak properly. Only incoherent sounds would come out, if I tried to speak. I stopped in front of a Tea Estate in a bus waiting-shelter.

Opposite of the shelter was the gate of the Tea Estate, through which the workers were coming out. There was a man who looked like a drunk, in the bus shelter. He tried to put up a conversation. I simply tried to shift the topic by simply looking at a manager-like man coming out of the gate in a motorbike. I simply spoke these words with no specific aim, ‘Who is that?’

I do not know what went wrong. The other man in the shelter immediately rose up and started up in a pose of questioning in a very offensive tone: Why do you want to know? Who are you?

Now my situation was that I couldn’t speak. If I were to speak incoherently, I knew what would happen in the midst of a remote location population. So, I tried to evade the situation with some vague vocal sounds. Immediately, he got up and moved towards me with a very ferocious looks, as if he had cornered some prey. However, since it was impossible for him to physically manage me, he started using vocal commands. I immediately moved towards my bike.

My problem was that I couldn’t speak. And it was impossible to predict exactly how others would react to his frenzied shouts to the others to accost me. Due to my innate agility, I could spring on to my bike and escape the scene. The problem was that he was trying to gather a mob. To an elevated group of people I could at least use some written English to define my stature. To the uneducated mob, one can’t predict how things would go.

Now, what I have just described is the power of the means to speak. And the power to move a mob. This incident could also point to the inability of the English ruling class to communicate their egalitarian ideas to the mob led to frenzied moods by their ‘Indian’ leaders. The mob couldn’t understand English and its soft refinement. However, it can understand the barbaric rhetoric of their political, social and religious leadership.

Even though I was reasonably intelligent, quite well-travelled in the local nation and a bit abroad, well-read, good in English, proficient in British Classics and having much information inside me, the moment I was without an ability to speak to another group of people, the situation was just like being an inarticulate animal.

That is just one illustration that I wanted to mention here. There is another one. It is about my contention that when people in this nation, meet others of the same nation, but of different language, there is a feeling of meeting another animal.

It is like this. There was a mini-lorry, a Swaraj Mazda, in our family. The driver and ‘cleaner’ of the vehicle were the typical no-English kind of lowly informed persons. {This categorisation is only from India. If they were to go to the US, they would very fast be like other Americans}. They were going to the next state of Karnataka. Their native language was Malayalam. The next state language was Kannada. For a Malayalam-speaking person who hears Kannada for the first, it is worse that Greek. So incoherent would it sound.

They were going with another young man who was a businessman going to bring a lorry load of fertilisers from Karnataka to Kerala. He was a person with a squint. On the way, the lorry driver stopped the vehicle by the side of a paddy field. He wanted to clean his specks. There were women coming from the paddy field. The ‘cleaner’ got down to check the tyres. The young man with the squint was sitting on the side seat, looking straight on the road, with all his intent on reaching the fertiliser factory. However, to the women on the road, his eyes (with squint) were looking straight at them, in some prohibited areas. The driver said some funny thing about someone back home. The young man laughed loud and replied in the same vein, in a boisterous fashion. The women on the road saw him looking at their features and making loud snide remarks which they couldn’t understand.

Now, the fact was that many long-distance lorries, driven by low-informed youngsters do stop near these women, make comments on them and ride off. Now, here was a group that was daring to stop and try it out in a very cosy attitude. The women shouted out loud. The people in the lorry couldn’t understand that what they did was a call to battle. The men folk ran out of the fields, came near the side of the lorry, and caught the young man. He held on to the lorry for dear life, not understanding what the commotion was. They were beating him soundly.

On the rear side, the ‘cleaner’ had also being caught and was being efficiently manhandled. The driver shouted out to him to hold on to the lorry, while he started the vehicle and broke out of the gathering crowd.

I mention this just to illustrate the issue of miscommunication or non-communication or lack of coherent communication.

There is another incident that comes into my mind at this moment.

One young man, with whom I had casual acquaintanceship for some time told me this. He was coming to Kerala through a place called Gudalur. This is a place where the three Indian states of Karnataka, Tamilnad and Kerala meet. His jeep had a minor collision with a motorbike. The bike rider was a Tamil speaking man. An altercation naturally took place. The damage was inconsequential. However, the spoken words could move in directions along the indicant word scale, from that of mutual respect to, one-sided respect or to total pejoratives. Without abusive words and expletives. A phenomenon not enact-able in English!

The jeep rider mentioned that he was willing to do anything, meaning that he was willing to give whatever compensation was required. However, he spoke in Malayalam, in the understanding that Malayalam words could be understood in Tamil. However, what he spoke translated into the other man’s mind as ‘I am ready for anything!’ Meaning that he was willing to fight it out.

Immediately, instead of the issue cooling down, the other man went in for belligerent stance: ‘Nee (lowest You) enthum cheyyumo eda?’ The last sound eda, is also a provocative pejorative, with no equivalent in English. The words meant in English, ‘You will do anything?’, but then the provocative pejoratives are not there. In English, it had lost almost all its beastliness.

It has taken a few centuries for a major section of the African and Asian populations to learn English and to more or less arrive at a communication level with the English people. Now, let me take this as an allegory and position it to ponder on another thing.

Moving further on the allegory route

Currently there is a lot of endeavour to find out if there are living beings out there in the far distances of the outer space. If we come across them, the next question would be as to how we would come to communicate with them. For, the fact remains that we have not found an effective means to communicate with the so many living beings around us on this earth, both animals as well as plants.

Actually, it is possible that it may be quite difficult to communicate with them. However it might be more easier to make them communicate with us. Even though this sentence may seem to contradict the initial sentence, the fact is that there is a difference between both the sentences.

I remember reading about some English youngsters who were recruited by British companies owning estates in India, during the British rule period. They were to supervise the various proceedings in the tea and other hill produce plantations in the erstwhile Madras State. The local language was Tamil. Naturally the workers were Tamil speakers. How do the Englishmen communicate with them? They had to learn Tamil and pass a test in Tamil. It is quite understandable to me as to how difficult it would be for the English youngsters.

The difficulty was not necessarily just in the complex words, grammar and pronunciation, but in the total contortion of the English social perspective that would come about when Tamil is spoken. For speaking each sentence, a new form of mental evaluation of persons and their jobs would have to be done to choose the specific word suiting that person and his job. It would be a total mental trauma to do thus, as the person who does it would immediately feel himself sinking into the dirty world of ‘Indian’ social communication and relationships.

The English youngsters made a proposal. Why not teach the local natives English? Well, actually this would be a lot more easier. For English is an extremely simple language and can be learnt fast. However, there is one essential difference here. Another type of mental jolt forms in a feudal language speaking person, who feel a sudden levelling of social ups and downs. Many feudal language speaking persons, who speak English for the first time, really get severely jolted. Some may even feel compelled to refrain from doing this again. It is a case of a lowly ‘Indian’ servant who always sits on the floor suddenly being asked to sit on a chair and speak to his ‘Indian’ master with a new level of heightened dignity.

When the English supervisor trainees made this proposal, it was severely disapproved by the ‘Indian’ supervisor class. For, they could understand the real mental progress their lowly subordinates would achieve when given this training. In fact, they would reach a level of equality in dignity with the Englishmen. This would lead to a questioning of the suppressed level they were put to and could really ignite a social revolution and possibly a violent one. All against their ‘Indian’ master class. [Similar to what the black slaves of US did, when they were improved (through English) from their native feudal, barbarian African social standards].

Genetically improving the lower species

Now coming back to the allegory of the animals, I would say that within a matter of one or two centuries, or possibly less, many animals’ anatomy would be genetically altered artificially in such a manner that they would have vocal cords and other appendages to speak. And possibly they would be given the benefit of using their hands as would the human beings. It is not going to be too difficult.

Now let us take this case of Great Britain. Great Britain is a nation where dogs are generally treated with more dignity than in Asian and African nations. The way the dogs are treated in many English household really feel unbearable to the ‘Indians’. I have seen many rich Indians who barely treats their own Indian serving class with any level of human dignity, remarking that the food that is given to the dogs in England would be enough to feed the poor in India. Actually what they leave out of mentioning is that they themselves have so much money with them, which can be enough to feed so many Indians around them.

Suppose after some 100 years, British medical scientists do a genetic change in some of their dogs. The dogs get the vocal cords to speak. Their hands are given the ability to be used as human beings would. It is a just a matter of time before they start speaking English. Then they would learn to use computers. And after that they would feel comfortable enough to drive cars.

There would be no seeming difference between their mental cravings and may be some of them would even start craving to have sex with the local human females. In fact, it may take place in many household, where the dogs sit and communicate as another human being. However, when this change takes place, there would still be a significant repulsion for the dogs who go on being more and more comfy with human social interactions. They would start demanding more and more access to human arenas.

Within a few decades or centuries, there would be a huge population of similar dogs who are functioning in almost all human arenas. Then would come the next natural issue of racial discrimination. For, even though the dogs have arrived at English human levels, they still have many dog features. For example, they can bite and tear other animals. Moreover, they can communicate with other dogs which the human being can’t.

As they go on improving their words would be about their ancestors who had been chained, shackled, abused and used by human being in England. There would be demands for compensation. Moreover, the dogs would be definitely be seen as more superior than human being in many fields of activity, wherein their animal characters would easily defeat human beings. For example, when competing in a 100 meters or 400 meters races, they would easily defeat the human beings. They would not like to be mentioned as dogs, for the word ‘dog’ is an insult.

Bear in mind that the cows in England who would develop to speak in English would find fault with the English nation for slaughtering their forefathers many centuries back for food. However, the cows in India which remain as animal cows, would not have the means to complaint about the more barbarian manner of killing that their forefathers had to bear.

However the fact that they live in a social ambience far above what the other dogs in other nations live in will not be mentioned. In those nations the dogs would still be living a life of devoted worship for their human master. In the England, the dogs would be superior to human beings and would demand equality to be statutorily encoded. In later centuries, a fabulous dog would even stand in the elections and become the Prime Minister of England, for the superior dogs would out-number the native-English human beings of the nation. And he, instead of connecting himself to the great people of England, who corrected the genetic deficiencies of the dogs, would publically proclaim his link to the various other dog-populations in other nations.

Here am I denigrating anyone with this allegory? If anyone does think so, he has to think again. A dog that can speak perfect English, use computers, drive cars, and take command of human operations and such things! Is it inferior to the human beings? The truth is that it is definitely a far superior being in terms of physical and mental possibilities.

For, what the dog can do the human being can’t do. What the human being can do, the dog can do.

The whole social scenery would turn totally unbelievable when other dogs from other nations also start arriving in England with the help of their English compatriots and getting an anatomical change procedure done. They then learn English and all the other paraphernalia, including computers and vehicle driving. Next they would want all the facilities and social entrances that the dogs in England had achieved through centuries of mental and educational change. Well, this is the point of current day debate.

Now, what about the issue of what these dogs are having in their mind? Well, what they do translate into English is understandable. However what they leave out in the translation, no human being can understand. What they plan among themselves will all get sieved out in the translation. How they define, categorise, segregate, differentiate and, despoil and ennoble humans within the creepy confines of their own mental process would remain hidden from the human beings of England. For most of these emotions won’t have any equivalent in human emotions. Like the word eda and edi in Malayalam. They cannot be translated into English. For such beastly emotions are not there in English language and social intelligence.

The more these dogs improve, the more would be their complaints and criticism of the people of England. On the other peoples all around the world, they would not have any complaints. For, they had never given the occasion for their own dogs to improve.

Here, I would jump to a minor part of the extension of the idea. The rest I leave to the reader to ponder upon. When a feudal language speaker translates his words into English, there is no conveying of the powerful tearing up of dignity in human features he has done in his own language and mental process. This part is real. But then the native-English speaker has no inkling of it. Well, that is the inherent danger that feudal language speakers carry forth in their communication systems. Their tearing part is not immediately understood. They do this and are doing it. Still, the native-English speaker does not know about it, until the English social system slowly, over the decades starts showing the scars.

Now, let me just move into a slight frill extension. The English speakers do not know what the superior dogs are thinking in their exact mental platforms. So, they decide to study the dog language. Well, it is here we come to a fact. A language is a software. In many ways it is connected to the body peculiarities of the being. It is a communication software. In animals, wherein there is no vocal cords, this software uses other body features to communicate it emotions, need to eat, calling others to hunt for food, urging sex, planning assault, setting up decoys etc.

Now, learning an animal’s communication code is actually akin to turning into the animal itself. Once that is learnt, the same irritation that one dog has when it accosts another dog will set in the human being also.

Even though this contention may seem quite far-fetched, actually it is quite easy to convey. An Englishman does not know Malayalam. So, even if he is addressed as Nee, and referred to as Avan, it would have no effect on him. However, once he is made to learn Malayalam, he would understand the negative connotation, which would be quite unbearable and of satanic proportions to him, and he would react vehemently.

I have seen it happen when I was staying in a Hindi area in North India. A lady from the south was addressed by an ordinary vendor as Thum. She had not much problem with the addressing as she was not much good in Hindi. Moreover, she had the impression that Thu was Nee, Thum was Ningal, and Aap was Thangal when converted into Malayalam. However that was not the truth.

Actually, Aap is the standard word of addressing that is polite and ‘respectful’. The other word Thum is not ‘respectful’ and when used by an ordinary road vendor is quite atrophying and of abominable content. Now, when I apprised her of this, she went into a wild fury and never allowed that vendor to sell her anything. However, the vendor had only done a momentary assessment of her from her dressing and her looks at that moment.

I have mentioned this thing just to point to the dangers in native-English speakers learning such oriental languages as Chinese, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhalese etc. without first understanding what it is one is changing into, as a software code that reaches deep down into the very life software of a person is being installed inside the mind.

I am not sure if the viewers can see the facial demeanour change that is entering into the English children as their body features try to accommodate the codes of physical features encoded in a feudal language. They are being redesigned into the framework of another software code. In the powerful ambience of English that exists all around, the powerful negativity that is being encoded will not be easily visible. But then, remove the English, and the stark realities of a very feudal language ambience will come out into the limelight!