How do language and the loss of language affect the melancholic migrant? What trouble does Rajiv face in learning a standardised Hindi?
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Language affects the melancholic migrant in two ways. The first being their relationship with their native language. The second being their relationship with the language that their new ‘home’ requires them to learn. This relationship with the languag is symbolic of their relationship with those countries. For example Rajiv’s father who focused on “correcting his mother’s English” and disowning anything related to his Indianness. This highlights the way in which he separated himself from his mother tongue in order to adequately “mimic the British”. There is a melancholia surrounding both of these relationships as something is always sacrificed. At the heart of the problem, the melancholic migrant can never have both, perfect English or French (in most cases), and speak their native language perfectly without something else missing. For example setting aside their native language in order to focus on the new one (even if this is temporary) for most first-generation immigrants. Or learning/ growing up with their mother tongue and wondering why there is a stigma related to their own language and all the clothing, food and religion that comes with it. Essentially language is the key that unlocks the door to a winder sphere of rich culture.
The loss of language affects the melancholic migrant because it is something to grieve. To a melancholic migrant who has lost the connection to their roots and heritage, whilst simultaneously trying to navigate their life in a new Western society – where they are not fully assimilated – the loss of language is a reminder of this diminishing heritage. Yet, it is also a severing of communication with others who share this heritage, thus removing any possibility of “connect[ing] with my Indianness” as Rajiv on page 21 puts it. This loss is surely fear inducing. In the same way that Rajiv “wanted Hindi and Bhojpuri” in order to connect to his elders and have something to pass on, many melancholic migrants who have experienced this loss of language, usually because their parents want the focus to be on English, feel a yearning and responsibility to “plant [their] language back in [their] mouth.” This goes to show that like Rajiv, who struggled with writing “The vowels in short and long form […] [a]spirated consonants for retroflexed letters[]” in Hindi. Similarly, many others including myself, desire to learn the languages that connect us with our heritage, family, and culture. Language is what allows us not to lose that part of our identity.