Language Ladders

Yasmine & Erphan share a musical conversation

I love language. I adore how it unearths cultural intimacies in ways that no Lonely Planet or tour guide could reveal. The Merasi speak a regional dialect that is a distant, uncelebrated cousin of Hindi. In their richly rhythmic language, speakers inflect a musical cadence that buzzes and hums
through succinct sentences packaged with cultural significance. ‘Yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’ are the same word; to adopt directly translates as to take into one’s lap; there is no word for ‘thank you.’ Social standards and values of time, family and gratitude, among thousands others, are embedded into our words.

Suriya & Fridah pool their knowledge

Just as every culture is home to a staircase of social class, every culture houses linguistic ladders that often run parallel to social class. Educators call them discourses of power; anthropologists call it social capital; names abound. These languages are like little social mobility cars that, if well fueled with education, can zoom individuals from one social stepping stone to another or, if under-gassed and over-exerted, never leave the driveway.

For the Merasi, an intricate spider-web of caste blocks their path to languages of power. They are barely folded into government schools and have little money for private education. In many ways, their world and, in many ways, fate is shaped by politicians, educators and businesspeople who define the landscape on their own terms. The Merasi are forced to use a dictionary of social existence that they had no say in writing.

Neelu, Sahara, Seem & Fridah on the periphery

Until now. Karen Lukas, the Executive Director of Folk Arts Rajasthan, The Merasi School’s parent non-profit, Sarwar Khan, the Co-Founder/Director of The Merasi School  and I are firmly, fiercely committed to using a dynamic mix of art and education to update this dusty old dictionary. Our students pour themselves into an applied education aimed at igniting the creative, empathetic and intellectual synapses necessary to challenge the lumbering roadblock of caste.

Justice has a million shades. But the brightest tends to be narrated by those who have triumphed. But let’s not confuse brightest with finest or most integral.  With each child that walks through our doors, each traditional rhythm that seeps into their flesh and soul, each word that embeds itself in their cognition, ideas of what is possible sprout up in their spirits. With this steadily blooming landscape of potential, let us give justice a new generation of authors.

Rasul creating a future as wide as his smile

Caitie Whelan is the India Editor for Wandering Educators