Sexism in Indian languages

Sexist language refers to words and phrases that demean, ignore, or stereotype members of
either sex or that needlessly call attention to gender. This form of bias is not only seen in
English but also in Indian languages. (Nordquist,2020). Telugu has masculine vs non
masculine in singular noun class division where the feminine and the neuter words are treated
in the same way. For example, if we take a sentence and only change the subject of the
sentence keeping the object ‘fell’ and verb ‘down’ the same.
Ram kinnda padipoyadu (Ram fell down)
Siri kinnda padipoyndi (Siri fell down)
Ball kinnda padipoyndi (Ball fell down)
Pakshi kinnda padipoyndi (Bird fell down)
In all the 4 sentences when the object was changing only the first sentence had a different
gender marker and all the three sentences shared the same gender marker i.e., ‘du’ for
masculine gender and ‘di’ for feminine gender. Like English even in Telegu and Hindi there
are gender affixes. For example, poet in Telegu and Hindi is kavi and poetess is kavitri, here
the gendered affix is ‘tri’ and author in telugu is rachaita and an authoress is rachaitri, even
if there is a neutral word for author in telugu grandhakarta, rachaita and rachaitri are
popularly put to use. Though the words “poet” and “authors” are gender-neutral, it is so
peculiar to the norm of men historically dominating the literary world, that society
synthesized a trivializing “poetess” and “authoress” to identify the gender of the artist.
The Hindi word for a male is purushya derived from Sanskrit’s purush, which actually means
“human.” Similarly, the words, insaan which means human and aadmi which means man are
colloquially interchangeable to mean both. It is this generic masculine pronounces which
makes women’s existence invisible. This is study was published in The American Journal of
Psychology and concludes “Generic masculine pronounce reduce the likelihood of thoughts
of females in what are intended to be non-specific instances”
The word in colloquial Hindi for having sex is chodna (to fuck), which is also the suffix to
bhenchod (sister-fucker) and madarchod (mother-fucker). Even in Telegu the word for
having sex is dengu (to fuck), which is also the suffix to nee akkanu denge (sister-fucker) and
nee ammanu denge (mother-fucker). While the infinitive form implies consensual sex, the
abuses imply sex where the woman has no agency. These words are the most violent, obvious
forms of gendered language which indicates women as a social outcast or used as a threat to
the receiver. Either way, the words imply that women exist only to satisfy men’s lust or
anger. No parallel words for fathers and brothers exist.
Sons are invoked, but only to be mocked for being a “son of a bitch.” In Telegu there are a lot
of pejorative words like munda (widow), lanja (whore) and puku (vagina) to name few. All
these words have suffixes which that negatively correlates the feminine with weakness and
stupidity. In Tamil, for instance, kena punda, an abuse for women, translates to “loose
vagina,” and colloquialisms such as Hindi’s gaand phaadna (tearing the vagina), — all have
the same meaning of getting livid to the extent of verbal and/or physical consequences and all
call upon themes of sexual violence and rape of women. Another commonly used word is
'Maal' which is a common example for both Hindi and Odia to refer to an attractive girl in a
derogatory sense, simply by objectifying a person rather than using words that represent
wholesome personality traits.
When Hindi is spoken and used in the society where women are treated inferior to men, the
language can also be shaped to respect men, sometimes more than women. This can mostly
be seen while addressing people, with men an honorific plural aap is used over tu. For
example, aap kya kar rahe hain? is used over Tu kya kar raha hai? to ask ‘What are you
doing? While using these pronouns we could only show respect to women using feminine
endings like Aap kya kar rahin hain? over Tu kya kar rahi hai? In any language formal
language can be linked to respect, informal language can not only be used for informal stings
but also be used to express intimacy or affection. This expression of intimacy or affection can
go back to wife’s calling their husbands respectfully aap (respectfully saying you) in Hindi
while husbands use tum, the informal ‘you’ for their wives, even though the same pronoun
can be used for each other. Another way of addressing husbands by their wives in Hindi is
haan ji and there is a similar word in Telegu which is em andi, there is no such word for
respectfully addressing wives by husbands.
Sexism in Indian language can be reduced by reduction in use of cuss words and words like
maal which directly objectifies women through the use of language. We can also put gender
neutral words to use and reduce the usage of words that denote to only one sex. In Hindi,
instead of using aap or tum we can use hum which is a more gender-neutral term and avoid
using gendered endings. We can also start using the words which respects men to address
women also. As we understood how society shapes language, the language that we use can
also shape society and we can reduce sexism in the society by eliminating sexism in
language.

20IPMH15
Nikhita Donthula