“It’s only words,” sang Elvis live on stage to a
rapturous, electrified fan audience in Las Vegas!
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose /
By Any Other Name would smell as sweet,” said Juliet with reference to the
family name of Romeo.
“The human spirit thinks with words,” said ‘Spinozist’
Johann Gottfried Herder!
He adds to say that, “Words, by connecting
passions with things, the present with the past, and by making possible memory
and imagination, create family, society, literature, history. [. . . ] to speak
and think in words is to ‘swim in an inherited stream of images and words; we
must accept these media on trust: we cannot create them”.
To Vico, who came a generation earlier, again, ‘words’
or ‘linguistic forms’ are keys to the mental, social and cultural life of
societies, present and past!
Indeed words shape us! Words make us! Words also
break us! Such is the power latent within words! In short, words, carefully used,
become the basic building blocks of a beautiful relationship too!
Such is the power, such is the lure! Such is the
charm and such the grace contained within our ‘words!’
This series, hopes to tap a wee bit into this
grandiose power that lay behind ‘words,’ in their myriad facets and avatars,
from literature to linguistics!
Cardinal Newman, like Stephen Leacock, and other
educationists of his ilk, had his own ideals and ideas for a University. In
this regard, he stood an opportunity to give a host of lectures on the topic, ‘The
Idea of a University,’ in Ireland, way back in 1852.
And in this wonderful lecture series, Newman provides
a powerful articulation for a liberal arts education. To him, the primary aim
of education is to develop and to nurture the mind of the learner, and NOT to
churn out information in chunks to the student. (And today, Google and Wikipedia
combined, as we would all well agree, can do that with ease, much better than
the teacher!)
In this regard, his definition of the term ‘gentleman’
has such intense rubrics that seek to bring out the power latent within ‘words!’
The first time I came across this wonderful
definition to the term ‘gentleman’ was in a lecture class by late Dr. Ranjan
Samuel!
Dr. Ranjan was such a passionate and committed professor
who used to inculcate in his students a sense of discipline and decorum in such
suave and elegant ways that highly endeared him to us all! Never once have we
seen Dr. Ranjan getting angry with his students ever! His words were always so dignified
and gentle! And he had in ample measure, what Bertrand Russell in his ‘Education
and Discipline’ would call ‘tact’, and he also knew full well the Jidduji
dictum that, the key to discipline is NOT in the hands of the teacher, but in
the hands of the student! And so his classes always had an ennobling effect on the
student’s conduct!
His refrain, in each of his classes was on the
power of ‘words’ on people! Quoting Newman, he used to say,
‘A gentleman is one who never inflicts pain on
anybody by his words or actions!’
How beautifully he’s summed up a gentleman for
us all!
For more on his elucidations concerning the virtues of a gentleman, you may want to read from our earlier blogpost on Newman HERE.
Newman, as I further learnt, goes on to compile
some indispensable attributes that qualify a person to be a gentleman!
‘The true gentleman in like manner carefully
avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is
cast,’ says Newman.
‘He respects piety and devotion; he even supports
institutions as venerable, beautiful, or useful, to which he does not assent;
He is a friend of religious toleration, and that, not only because his
philosophy has taught him to look on all forms of faith with an impartial eye,
but also from the gentleness and effeminacy of feeling, which is the attendant
on civilization.’
‘He never speaks of himself except when
compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort; he has no ears for slander
or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him,
and interprets everything for the best.’
‘He is never mean or little in his disputes,
never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp saying for
arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted
prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever
conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.’
‘He has too much good sense to be affronted at
insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear
malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles;
he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is
irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny.’
‘If he engages in controversy of any kind, his
disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better,
perhaps, but less educated minds; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack instead
of cutting clean, who mistake the point in argument, waste their strength on
trifles, misconceive their adversary, and leave the question more involved than
they find it.’
‘He may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he
is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as
brief as he is decisive.’
What lovely qualities laid out for us all in a
platter!
And herein, ladies and gentlemen, lies the skyhigh
powers of real, ennobling literature. To make a person cultured, civilized,
lady-like and gentlemanly, well-groomed in etiquette, dignified in bearing,
gracious in manners, and their like.
Ample evidences abound in literatures from across
the world, that connect to these lovely virtues exemplified by Newman, chief
among which are the qualities of empathy, tolerance, peace, love, goodness etc
in great measure!
Maya Angelou in her autobiographical novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, provides
such intense and detailed descriptions of growing up black in a racist society.
Although, initially, she has a growing feeling
of abandonment, very soon, even as she joins a bevy of such abandoned children, hunting
down unbroken bottles and selling them, (with a white girl from Missouri, a
Mexican girl from Los Angeles and a black girl from Oklahoma), she spends almost
a month on the streets with these abandoned folk, who, as she later says, “set
a tone of tolerance for my life.”
Hence, her own pain of abandonment has made
her extremely sensitive to the pain of other abandoned children around her, and to their emotional turmoil as well! And as the novel proceeds further on, Maya, gradually
grows into a lady who could keep her dignity with such finesse, in the midst of
insults and injustices, by her sheer perseverance and tolerance. So much so
that, she soon starts feeling more comfortable being herself. Now she has
evolved as a lady! She is no more the passive, reticent and shy girl that she once
used to be! She is now, not a wee bit worried about how others perceive her, or
look at her, because she knows with such convincing surety, who she truly is!
(phenomenal woman, as she herself says!)
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre proves another paradigm for this virtue of tolerance!
Indeed the power of Helen’s words are so therapeutic on Jane that they transform
her life a full 360 degrees!
 |
| Helen and Jane |
Jane, like Maya, again, struggles with a profound
sense of loneliness and abandonment. It is at this point of time, in her
loneliness, that her friend Helen’s philosophy of tolerance and her encouraging
words act a great stimulus on the impulsive Jane!
At school, Helen is quite often taken to task by
Mrs. Scatcherd for no fault of hers.
(On an aside, I should add that, Charlotte
Bronte, in this intense story, has woven with such finesse and grace, amazingly
valuable lessons for life and living in such great abundance for us all!)
So yes, coming back to Helen, although Helen
answers with elegance some of the questions that even her classmates cannot,
she is not appreciated or praised by Mrs. Scatcherd anytime. Rather, Mrs.
Scatcherd picks on her for being dirty and disagreeable, and has her flogged
quite often. But then, now comes out some invaluable lessons for life from
Helen Burns to Jane.
Jane cannot comprehend Helen’s philosophy of
tolerance at all. Jane hence says,
“If people were always kind and obedient to
those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own
way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would
grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike
back again very hard; I am sure we should—so hard as to teach the person who
struck us never to do it again. […] I must dislike those who, whatever I do to
please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me
unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection,
or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.”
Now Helen Burns comes out with her philosophy of
tolerance, when she says,
What a singularly deep impression her injustice
seems to have made on your heart... Would you not be happier if you tried to
forget her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears
to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.
I can so clearly distinguish between the
criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the
last… If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own
conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without
friends.
So much for the power of words to ‘make’ people,
not to ‘break’ them!
This transformative power of words, this
therapeutic power within words, this healing balmy power within words, are the
domain proper of any 'practitioner of literature!'
On a personal note, well-o-well, I might be a student of literature, or even a
teacher of literature! I may have been bestowed with such great spiritual, or material
gifts! I may have the ‘tongues of angels!’ on me toooo! But…
But…
But…
But… if I don’t live up to the lady-like
qualities and the gentlemanly qualities that my literature has thus long passionately tried to endow me with, one fine day, at the end-o-end of days, call it D-day or judgment day if you may, all the books that I’ve had
read, all through my literary life, would rise up in unified testimony against me straight from off their stacks and treasuries, and
say, ‘O wretched wreck of a person that you are! How dare you’ve wasted such a beautiful literary
life, after having tasted for this long, from such pure fountains of literature, so pure and so serene, that all of us, from our treasuries and gardens had graciously bestowed upon you, in such abundance! We don’t want to have anything
to do with such a mean, base and lowly being as you! Get away from us, far far
away from us, you worker of iniquity,” all the books on the treasure-stacks would
pronounce in such firm yet unified accord! ;-)
Following these grand old books that marched straight from the sacred treasuries full throttle to testify against this 'literary practitioner,' come next the Mathematics scholar, the Physics teacher, the Engineering student and the Commerce professor, followed by the able medical doctor, up in tow, marching up to the trial stand where the accused has been arraigned! Now it's their turn and quota to do the mocking and the reviling, the scoffing and the scorning, the taunting and the pooh-pooh'ing of this so-called, self-proclaimed 'practitioner of literature,' and then they'd all say,
"Thou, 'practitioner of literature,' thou who art the custodians of our culture, thou, who wert assigned with the task of nation-building, ennobling us all with your refinement, your grace, your elegance and your love, your wit and your tact, how dare you've shamelessly failed to live up to your expected ideals? It's because of YOU that humankind has become so full of crime and corruption! It's because of YOU that people have lost their faith in humanity! It's because of YOUR abysmal failure in living up to the ideals enshrined in your literatures, that humankind has become so greedy, has completely lost their sense of sympathy and empathy, has totally lost the tact and the grace in their words, the love in their deeds and gentleness in their actions! We are so ashamed of you," they would say and indignantly march away, far far away from this type of 'practitioner' of literature! :-)
To be continued…
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