The Politics of Language and Building the Nation

Abstract

Language unites as well as divides individuals and collectivities. It is through language that individual and collective memories are narrated, stored, interpreted and reinterpreted. Thus, a common language makes it easier to think of ourselves as belonging to one big “imagined community” (Anderson 1992). In the hands of the political elite, language also becomes a tool for articulating power and a vehicle for establishing boundaries between different groups, attaching a particular level of prestige and status to each.