4. What has been missed

This book, THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA written by GEORGE W. STOW, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. does suffer from this defect. That is, the writer of this book has written this book containing a huge content of details. However, everything does sort of skim over the surface. The hidden codes and their machine-work have been totally missed. Or rather, there is not even a thought that such hidden things, non-tangible to a native-English mind, would be there in existence.

A population group is studied. Their strange or bizarre actions or social conventions are detailed. However, there is no information on why the persons behave in such a strange manner. This is an insight that I did have when I was reading the books written by the officials of the erstwhile English East India Company or by the British officials of British-India. They detail the social system, conventions, inhibitions, strictures, repulsions &c. Beyond that, they have no more information of the social machinery. However, when I read them, in many cases, I can very easily visualise the verbal codes that acted upon the persons to create the social effect.

That much is the defect. However, as mentioned earlier, it is not a rare defect in native-English writers.

Speaking about what the book contains, it may be admitted that it does contain a lot of information, for a person who knows what to look for. This again is a very profound statement. It is like a native-Englishman coming to South Asia and finding everyone quite friendly, welcoming and affectionate. However, if the person knows something about the sinister sides of feudal languages, then he or she can know what to look for. A very friendly and affable outward demeanour is a powerful way to trap or allure a wary or unwary antagonist or someone they want to subdue. In feudal languages, there are actually two extremely opposite poses possible.

In this book, one or two such incidences have been mentioned wherein these kinds of mentalities are exhibited.

It may be mentioned here that the native-English colonial behaviour was exemplary and totally opposite to that of the Continental Europeans. However that cannot be expected anymore, because the native-English are now in close contact with the feudal language speakers and many of them are being taught by feudal language teachers. I hope to write about this later in this book. However, interested persons can read more here: The tragic consequences of teaching Hindi in Australia!