Music and justice
By: Krishna, T.M
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Material type: 
BookPublisher: Seminar: Cradle of Diversity Description: 736, Dec, 2020: p.12-15.
In:
Seminar: Cradle of DiversitySummary: EVERY word has its own habitat, an environment where it comes to life. It is within those precincts that it acquires meaning and finds its purpose. It then becomes part of an entire linguistic ecosystem where words and phrases are interdependent for survival and effect. Words import relevance and power from one another. Like with any natural habitat, some words become significant, some remain on the fringes, while others just vanish, only to reappear generations later in a new avatar. There is a constant war of power and influence among words. But, even as this battle rages, the overarching ecology keeps them together.
I have used the word ‘war’ to describe the tension and competition among words. But we should know that words never become ‘prisoners of war’; they cannot be imprisoned. As time moves, they travel – free – into uncharted territories, unusual terrains and even distant lands. In these travels, they acquire an array of meanings, contexts, forms and sounds. It often happens that we encounter a word we have known and used all our life, but just cannot recognize in a new aural appearance. Sometimes a word widely debated in one silo is hushed into silence in another, all by the same people. What the word brings with it, in certain contexts, then becomes disconcerting. It makes us uncomfortable. It demands reflection and, more difficult, a reaction such as, at times, even a dismantling of the present framework or an overhaul of the power dynamics in this word-world. Unable always to do this, we either co-opt it as a superficial inference or as a self-affirming crutch that leaves everything as it is or we just bury it. - Reproduced
| Item type | Current location | Call number | Vol info | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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Articles
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | 736, Dec, 2020: p.12-15 | Available | AR124874 |
EVERY word has its own habitat, an environment where it comes to life. It is within those precincts that it acquires meaning and finds its purpose. It then becomes part of an entire linguistic ecosystem where words and phrases are interdependent for survival and effect. Words import relevance and power from one another. Like with any natural habitat, some words become significant, some remain on the fringes, while others just vanish, only to reappear generations later in a new avatar. There is a constant war of power and influence among words. But, even as this battle rages, the overarching ecology keeps them together.
I have used the word ‘war’ to describe the tension and competition among words. But we should know that words never become ‘prisoners of war’; they cannot be imprisoned. As time moves, they travel – free – into uncharted territories, unusual terrains and even distant lands. In these travels, they acquire an array of meanings, contexts, forms and sounds. It often happens that we encounter a word we have known and used all our life, but just cannot recognize in a new aural appearance. Sometimes a word widely debated in one silo is hushed into silence in another, all by the same people. What the word brings with it, in certain contexts, then becomes disconcerting. It makes us uncomfortable. It demands reflection and, more difficult, a reaction such as, at times, even a dismantling of the present framework or an overhaul of the power dynamics in this word-world. Unable always to do this, we either co-opt it as a superficial inference or as a self-affirming crutch that leaves everything as it is or we just bury it. - Reproduced
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