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A lingvo to bridge global discordo
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The good thing about Esperanto is that it's everyone's language. But that precisely is also this universal language's drawback, feel the City' Esperantists.
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Collage: Athreya
ALL THE nouns in this language end with "o", and all adjectives with "a". And that's definitive. No exceptions. Uncle changes to onklo and aunty to onklino. And if she is pretty, she becomes bela onklino. Even Bangalore is not spared. The City is called — no points for guessing — Bangaloro. Hyderabad is Hyderabado and India is Barato. Lost? Well, this is Esperanto — la universala lingvo.
"Esperanto is a very simple and systematic language. There are just 16 grammar rules, and there are no exceptions," says S.S. Pradhan, an Esperantist since 1984. "People can pick up the basics in about 15 hours." Mr. Pradhan and some of his friends have been running an annual Esperanto training programme in Bangalore for the last 14 years for free under the aegis of Bangalore Esperanto Centre (BEC).
"Our only goal is to develop Esperanto as an international language so that people with different native tongues can understand and communicate with each other," says S. Hari Rao, a technical officer at National Aerospace Laboratories and an Esperantist. "Esperanto does not belong to any country or government, it belongs to the speakers. Neither does it have any religious or political affiliation."
Esperanto, one of the world's many planned languages, was developed by L.L. Zamenhof in Poland between 1877 and 1885. It was devised to be a common language necessary to resolve problems that could lead to strife and conflict. Zamenhof used the term Esperanto (literally, "a person who is hopeful") as his pseudonym for his first book. Later, the name stuck, and today, it represents a body of around two million speakers worldwide. Well-known Indian Esperanto enthusiasts include former Prime Minister and polyglot, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. The global Esperanto movement is spearheaded by the Universala Esperanto-Asocio, based in Rotterdam, responsible for promoting the language worldwide.
However, the language has had its share of controversies. The language was banned by many countries, such as the former Soviet Union and France, in the early 20th Century. And Adolf Hitler, in Mein Kempf, refers to Esperanto as a tool of Jewish domination, and cracked down on its speakers. But that is history. "The future is bright but slow for us," says Mr. Rao.
Ask Mr. Rao what it feels like to be an Esperantist, and he says that it gives him a "feeling of eternity". He adds: "It feels great because you know that someone somewhere speaks your language." Most people who are attracted to Esperanto think it can prove helpful in countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan, where Esperanto is widely spoken and understood, unlike English. Unfortunately, apart from a desire to communicate with fellow Esperantists, there is hardly any other incentive to learn this language. Most foreign language enthusiasts continue to think that picking up one of the more popular languages such as French or German would be wiser, especially because of the monetary benefits.
But Dr. Vijayashree Vardarajan, a veterinary doctor and one of the students at the BEC, says Esperanto helped her make sense of medical journals that are full of Latin words. "With Esperanto, I can get the gist of the text," she says.
Esperanto enthusiasts also insist that the language, unlike English, is not a "killer language". "English kills other languages," says Mr. Rao. "But Esperantists don't ask you to give up your mother-tongue. For you, your mother-tongue is always first and Esperanto is second."
Nonetheless, there is still a long way, Esperantists believe, for it to attain the global status of English. "The good thing about Esperanto is that it's everyone's language," notes K. Ramaswamy, a senior citizen and an Esperanto speaker since 1984. "But it is also its drawback — everybody's property means nobody's property. We need young volunteers to save the language."
Those who want to know more about Esperanto can contact S. Hari Rao on 5720350, or e-mail him at vu2gz@yahoo.com or harirao1@rediffmail.com. You can also check out the site www.geocities.com/esperanto_bangalore.
DEBARSHI DASGUPTA
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