Malinda Words: The word as a sword held to the throat of truth

Kaduwa. That’s the Sinhala word for sword. Kaduwa in certain contexts is a reference to English. Whoever came up with the idea was truly inspired. English is a weapon. Cuts. Divides. Puts down. Differentiates. It is an instrument conferred by the British to those who willingly submitted themselves to serve the colonial rulers and be their adjuncts in the exercise of control, theft and bloodletting. The British left. English didn’t. Those who continued to look after the interests of the colonial masters found it quite useful. For years the sword of coercion and that of domination worked hand in hand. Still does.

Swords are unionised, I sometimes feel. One cuts and the other approves. For a long time it was guns-in-booty-out with invaders finding a useful ally in the priest. ‘The gun and bible’ is a colonial story. Language was and is the unnamed third in the triumvirate. Indeed, one could argue that in non-colonial context too, language is a sword; it approves, mis-narrates and silences.

This is not a Sri Lankan story though. It is not a long-ago story either. It’s today. All over the world. Let’s take a look at some choice cuts.

The BBC, having played cagey over the unprecedented violence unleashed by Israel against Palestinian civilians and civilian targets, reluctantly started covering ‘the other side’ only after massive protests broke out in London and in fact all parts of the world. Then again, it had the word and therefore the twist.

Right now, the hot story is about an agreement over the release of hostages taken by Hamas. Hasn’t happened yet, so it is a story that is unfolding. The story is being frequently updated.

Here’s how the BBC headlined it: Israel and Hamas agree to pause fighting for release of 50 hostages. Here’s the ‘afterthought’ in considerably smaller font: ‘As part of the deal, Israel will release 150 Palestinian women and teenagers held in Israeli detention.’

Two categories: hostages and detainees. The Israel citizens captured by Hamas are hostages, yes. They were captured. They were not arrested. Hamas does not have any legal authority to arrest anyone in Israel. When Israel authorities capture Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank, it is also illegal simply because Israel is an occupying force. In any event, to say these 150 women and teenagers are detainees and not hostages is just crass wordplay. If someone lists all the restrictions imposed on Palestinians without naming the community and asked reporters working for such media houses to name the condition, I have no doubt that terms such as detention, imprisonment and hostage would be uttered. Not if the name 'Palestine' is slipped into that narrative. Oh no! The BBC, the New York Times and other such media houses will never acknowledge the undeniable truth that Israel has held all Palestinians hostage for years.

The BBC, like most mainstream Western media outfits, knows the language. English, that is. As I write, over 14,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israeli forces executed the genocidal intent articulated by her political leaders. To the letter. And yet, that’s not the way Western media reports it.

There’s a big difference between ’14,000 dead’ and ’14,000 killed.’ The tendency is to insert a quote about killing (for example, ‘Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,000 people — including more than 5,000 children — have been killed in Israel’s campaign.’). So it sounds like a claim. Unverified. The numbers related to the Hamas attack are mentioned as fact. No quotes. No ‘someone said’ or ‘someone claimed.’

But it’s not about the numbers only. It’s about the difference between ‘killed’ and ‘dead.’ Hamas killed. Israel, technically, has not killed anyone. People just ‘died.’

So this is why I have been dwelling on the ways in which language can inflict harm or cause damage. Whoever said that the pen is mightier than the sword probably believed that the written word could best instruments that can cause physical injury. In certain instances, this may be true. In general though the pen is as pernicious an instrument as a sword or gun or bomb or bayonet. It cuts, it incapacities, it diminishes victims.

When reporters of outfits like the BBC or New York Times hammer out their news stories about the deliberate targeting of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank by the occupying forces of Isreal, blood does not ooze out of keyboards. It’s a cut nevertheless, each and every one of them.

The word is a sword held to the throat of truth. That's the gist of what the mainstream Western media is doing with regard to Palestine. There's a lot of 'kaduwa' in it.

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 275th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below]

25 November 2023

The word as a sword held to the throat of truth

No comments:

Post a Comment