The way people express themselves through language is an important aspect of who they are, their cultural traditions, and the ways they interact with each other as individuals and as members of society; yet language can also be used to reflect and enforce the power relationships that exist within societies. When a society’s elite, or those holding the most power in that society, choose to establish a single form of language for everyone to use, all other forms of language become less valued and the people of marginalized groups (who have historically been denied access to power) are frequently forced to give up using their own native languages, thereby giving up aspects of their heritage and their ability to develop and maintain a sense of self. The psychological damage caused by this suppression of language is apparent in such things as stuttering, broken speech, and difficulty articulating one’s thoughts and feelings, which signal a deeper psychological disturbance. In the case of the poem “Poisoned Bread,” the authors demonstrate this process clearly, particularly in Madhav’s “The Poisoned Bread” which illustrates caste oppression through the enforced silence and damaged language of the oppressed. This paper will focus on how broken speech demonstrates trauma, affects mental health, and provides a site at which Dalits may resist and challenge the dominance of their oppressors’ language.
Salunke et al. (Fri,) studied this question.