2. Comparative stance

After reading this book, my mind has become loaded with a lot of historical information with regard to mankind and living beings in general and to South Africa in particular. I am not sure as to how I going to use them in this commentary. I need to take a comparative stance. That is to make comparisons of the various incidences and information I have read, with those of South Asia, and with native-English global experiences.

I need to very categorically mention that the native-English, though secluded from very many negative emotional traps and sinister social encodings, are a very foolish and gullible lot in the sense that they are being fooled by the cunning fake affability of the others. They do not have much information on what the world is just beyond the borders of the pristine-English world. They have been led and misled by others on various items to terrific historic traps.

South Africa, the place, is entirely new to me. I have come across a number of population / tribe / races names in this book. See these: The Hottentot tribes, Korana, Bachoana and Basutu tribes, Batlapin, Kaffirs, the Amaxosa, the Abatembu and Amampondo tribes, the Amazulu, Matabli, and Natal tribes, Cochoqua, Chainouqua, Namaqua, Africaander, Berg-Damaras, Ovaherero, Damara, Leghoya, Griqua, Mantatees, Bergenaars, Bakuena &c.

All of them are new to me, and most of them do not connect my mind to any specific imagination of any population. I do not have much clear chronological order in my mind with regard to them.

In a similar manner, a lot of new place-names have also come into my notice. Almost all are new to me. Without referring to the text in the book, I would find it difficult to connect any of the populations to any of the places.

After having confessed that much, I need to think of what the imagination of the whole book creates in my mind. It is a powerful book, no doubt. A lot of sociological and historical events have been recorded or collected in this book. From this perspective, it is a good book.

There is another perspective also that needs to be mentioned. It is that neither this book nor its author has been able to penetrate into the mindset, emotional triggers, cravings, inhibitions, restrictions, strictures, immunities etc. that are encoded in the languages or communication codes of the native tribes or races. This is actually a very vital point fit for elaboration.

It is like this: I am reasonably good in English, have some reading experience in English Classics, have read a number of Enid Blyton books, have lived at times in an English-only social ambience inside South Asia and I can understand the various communication freedoms and mental stature that English can give. I can understand the huge benefits a native-English population would have derived by merely living inside a pristine-English ambience. Moreover, I do have a reasonable amount of understanding of the mood of a native-English individual, commoner or from the nobility. Beyond that I do have some information on how the native-English are different from their own Celtic language countrymen. I do even have some information on the difference that the English have from the Continental Europeans.

I cannot elaborate on these claims of mine here. However, the interested reader can check certain of my other books.

However, I am not a native-Englishman. I am by heredity and ethnicity from current-day South Asia, even though by antiquity I can be connected to some other geographical location. For, many of the South Asian populations are really from various geographical locations in the world, who by some tragic twist of fate had got entrapped in the South Asian social shackles.

When I read books written by the officials of the erstwhile English rule in South Asia, I find them quite profound. Many of the writers have taken a lot of pain to study their subject matter in great detail. Yet, all of the writings and assertions remain very superficial, from my own perspective. This is just because I understand the language codes of the local populations, in their various complexities or lack of it.

This is one defect that all ancient-time studies done by the native-English have. They have no information on the existence of a different human imagination system, quite different from English. The emotions, imaginations, human relationships designed by mere word-codes, the powerful hierarchies that get build-up when certain words are used, the loyalties and commitments that get powerfully laid down, the verbal codes that can be used to place a terrific hold on certain others, the emotions of worship and hate different form of words with the same meaning can create &c. are totally unknown to the native-English writers. They can only see the effect of the codes or the working of the social machinery. But they have no information on the various verbal codes that creates the actions or the emotions.

Even though I do not want to pursue the feudal language theme here, I can give a minute illustrative example to show what it is all about.

The Indian army as well as the Pakistani army are actually the continuation of the British-Indian army. So, both of them do retain a lot of conventions, procedures, uniforms, parade systems etc. which they had inherited from the erstwhile English army. The senior army officers who are designated as Commissioned Officers (this term itself is connected to the English Monarch) do try to copy and imitate the English army officer class in demeanour, grooming, table manners, sitting postures etc. During the officer training period they are generally mentioned as the Gentlemen Cadets. Some of the senior Indian army officers do don hats and other paraphernalia which might make the common man in India think that they are on the same level as or even superior to an English army officer. In fact, it might seem quite easy to imagine that the senior Indian army officers are more or less of the same mental standards as an English army officer. A few of them might even speak good quality English.

However, there are acute differences between a senior Indian army officer and an English army officer. The major difference is that the Indian officers are at home in Hindi. They address the subordinate ordinary soldiers in Hindi. They address them as the lower slot You in Hindi, that is, Thoo. The ordinary soldier would address them back with an Aap or Saab. This is, the highest level of You. In the Indian army, the Thoo-Aap ladder-step like hierarchy starts from the top Aap level and reaches down to the lowest Thoo level.

Other words like he, his, him, she, her, hers &c. also change into the corresponding form of the selected You. This slotted version of communication would encompass not only the officers and soldiers, but even their family members, relatives, companions &c.

In the English army, this terrific compressing of human self-esteem does not take place in the military hierarchy. So, even when the Indian senior army officers and the English army officers might seem similar, there is actually a total difference in what they are part of and how their mental encoding works.

To illustrate the extreme power of the verbal codes of South Asia, I will give one more illustration, again from the South-Asian armies.

Recently one of India’s Air force pilots was captured by Pakistan. He had been shot down during a bombing mission inside Pakistan. The people who caught him would have bashed him up to death. However, he was saved by the Pakistani military officers. Moreover, he was literally given a royal treatment by the Pakistani military officers. There can be a number of reasons as to why he was saved. Beyond the generally discussed themes, there can even be the possibility that someone in his family had connection with the pan-national arms dealer network, which has connection with the military brass on both sides. They can very easily put in a word to the other side to see that the captured person’s skin is saved.

That all is however irrelevant here. What is of relevance here is the verbal codes that was used in all conversations between the Pakistani Military side and the captured person. The conversations were in English. Why?

It is a very pertinent question. For both sides of the fight are at home in Hindi. Yet they preferred to speak in English.

Whatever might be the answer given, the real fact is that English is used to avoid the feudal language encoding issues that would crop up. The Pakistani military would be compelled to use Thoo (lowest You) and the captive person would be under compulsion to use ‘Aap’ (highest You). When this is done, a lot of other verbal codes in Hindi would divide spontaneously into higher and lower attributes. The captured person would sink into the level of a diminutive personality.

In a way, the Pakistani Military officers protected a counterpart of theirs, from a very necessary personality degrading by simply using English. This point has not been appreciated by the Indian side. Even if it was understood, it was not publicly acknowledged. For, such an admission would have brought into the open various hidden issues, including the fact that Hindi is a very carnivorous language.

If the war had continued, these kinds of mutual support by the officer classes would not have continued. Things would have dropped down to the traditional barbarian communication codes. The captured officers on both sides would be addressed and questioned by the lower-placed ordinary soldiers at the Thoo (lowest you) level.

Even a very friendly interaction by the ordinary soldiers with the captive officer from the other side would have been a terribly traumatic experience for the captive officer. For, they, in a pose of extreme friendliness, would have addressed the captive officer by his mere name, Thoo &c. and used the USS (lowest he/him) to refer to him.

The explosive level of personality degradation that would come about from this friendly pose cannot be understood by a native-English person. In fact, when there was the shooting of an engineer from South Asia in the US by a person named Adam Purinton, I did have a conversation with the South Asian side about the verbal code issue. Even though that side was quite abusive and cantankerous, it did ultimately emerge that the dead engineer’s side did use the explosive verbal codes on Adam Purinton. These are things that are quite easily understood in South Asia. And these mental explosions can be very easily demonstrated. That is, the homicidal mania that gets ignited can be demonstrated for any kind of research into this effect. However, the Adam Purinton’s legal defence side had no inkling at all of all these things.