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Semantics of Power: Written Communication, Formal Documentation and Codified Law in British Malabar

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Abstract

Linguistic choices have different attributions beyond their literal meaning according to their contexts. This paper looks at the variations in the discourses seen in the written colonial agreements and treaties during the Malabar conquest. The study employs the archived documents of various discourses during this period as a part of power shifting from the local elites to the colonial power. It explores how power is intertwined in the linguistic choices of different communication files. The study employs a hybrid methodology of forensic linguistics and legal history. The analysis progresses in two phases: i) the linguistic attributions of power in the communications between the local elites and the colonial authorities and ii) the comparative analysis of variations in the linguistic choices by the colonial authorities correlating their varying power positions over the given period. It explores the dynamics of the linguistic choices of the local elites initially as a powerful entity in communication with the colonial authorities. The analysis shows a variation in the linguistic choices of the colonial authorities that suggests how they are used to reflect the power positions on a scale from weaker to powerful along the timeline. The paper argues that the linguistic choices of the colonial communication files aided them in projecting their power to society and assisted as one of the tools for reiterating their power position in various contexts.

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Notes

  1. The Malabar region, situated between Cochin and Canara, flanked by the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, encompasses the northern districts of present-day Kerala State, including Kasargod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Palakkad. Throughout the precolonial era, particularly from the late fifteenth to the late eighteenth centuries, Malabar was a land of numerous influential kingdoms, such as Kolathunad, Kottayam, Kadathanad, Calicut, Walluvanad, and Cochin. For administrative purposes, each kingdom was subdivided into several Nādus and Desams, further segmented into Svarūpams [1].

  2. Native kings.

  3. Samoothiri did not maintain direct contact and control over the natives. Rather, ran the administration.

  4. Logan, 61 [41]

  5. The colonial government used ‘agreement’ as a legal document in later times, such as the “Agreement entered into betwixt the HONOURABLE COMPANY and the PARA POKER MOPLA of TELLICHERRY” is an agreement of a ferry lease with a local businessman on 7th October 1800, with a one-sided authoritarian imposition/permission (Found in Page 339, Logan, 1989).

  6. Logan, 77 [41]

  7. Ibidem, 85.

  8. Ibidem, 59.

  9. Ibidem, 138–43.

  10. Logan, 59. [41]

  11. Ibidem, 56.

  12. Ibidem, 77.

  13. Ibidem, 85.

  14. Ibidem, 148.

  15. Ibidem.

  16. Ibidem, 182.

  17. Logan, 138–43 [41]

  18. The specific use of the word ‘civilise’can be frequently seen in documents from a later period, presumably due to a later strategy to justify colonisation. For further details, see Philip [50].

  19. Logan, 61. [41]

  20. Ibidem.

  21. Ibidem, 178.

  22. Zacharia, 28–29. [51]

  23. Originally written in Malayalam.

  24. Zacharia, 28. [51]

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Thapasya Jayaraj

  2. Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Keralam, India

    K. C. Navas

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Jayaraj, T., Navas, K.C. Semantics of Power: Written Communication, Formal Documentation and Codified Law in British Malabar. Int J Semiot Law (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-024-10142-2

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