Silencing Dissent: Law and English Language

Abstract

The English language since its introduction to the Indian subcontinent has garnered a significant position wherein it got appropriated as the language of all official and momentous proceedings of the state and otherwise. However not unlike the functioning of the social institutions whose mode of dictate it has evolved into becoming, the English language has itself been reduced to becoming the handmaiden of those in power and dictating from a stance of privilege. The legal system that was envisioned to help liberate the masses from oppressive regimes and systems of manipulation, like other such institutions has succumbed to the linguistic paradigm of this language which itself finds genesis in a patriarchal system. Thus, this paper through the mode of Vijay Tendulkar’s path breaking play, Silence! The Court is in Session aims to highlight the persistent futility of the legal system through its use of the English language in meeting out justice to its female subjects.