How Does 바카라�Gendered바카라� Language Affect Social Reality?

The question about how a woman who is elected to the post of president should be addressed in Hindi first came to the fore when Pratibha Patil became the first woman to occupy the highest constitutional post in India in 2007. 

There were debates on whether she should have been addressed as 바카라�Rashtrapati바카라� or 바카라�Rasthrapatni바카라�, but that debate did not invite the amount of uproar that was caused recently when Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, the Leader of Opposition in the Lower House, addressed President Droupadi Murmu as 바카라�Rasthrapatni바카라�. 

Unleashing a scathing attack on Choudhary, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded an apology from the Congress for insulting Murmu, which led to huge drama both inside and outside the Parliament. Though Choudhary apologised for his remark citing his poor Hindi, the issue has sparked a much necessary debate that concerns the gendered nature of our language.

The controversy that emerged around Chaudhary바카라�s remark can only be understood if we look into what the two words 바카라�pati바카라� and 바카라�patni바카라� mean and what meanings are attributed when both these words are suffixed with Rashtra (nation). 
The Hindi word Rashtrapati is used as a translation of the English word 바카라�President바카라� which is generally used to refer to the presiding head of a group and is a gender-neutral term, but its Hindi translation as 바카라�Rashtrapati바카라� is not because of the suffix 바카라�pati바카라�.

Etymologically, the Hindi word 바카라�pati바카라� is part of the Indo-European language family, where it usually means 바카라�lord바카라� or 바카라�master바카라�. When used as a suffix it usually means 바카라�lord of바카라�바카라�. For e.g. the Sanskrit word for a married householder is 바카라�grahapati바카라�, which means lord of the household. Similarly, 바카라�senapati바카라� means the lord commander of the army; Ganapati means lord of the tribe; Chhatrapati means lord of kings. 

Such examples can only be multiplied to show the power relation that the word 바카라�pati바카라� denotes. In our everyday usage, the word 바카라�pati바카라� generally means husband, but again the inherent patriarchal power relation is reflected through compound words like 바카라�pati-dev바카라� or 바카라�pati-parmeshwar바카라�, which refers to the husband as lord or God for the wife.

In contrast to pati, the word 바카라�patni바카라�, which is used for 바카라�wife바카라�, has no such meaning. It is a relational term unlike 바카라�pati바카라� which is an independent term and is used only for a married woman. It is simply a female derivative of pati and therefore has an inherent sexual connotation and meaning attached to it.

바카라�Patni바카라� is merely a man바카라�s sexual partner. Moreover, there is no counterpart to Hindi words like 바카라�pati-dev바카라�, or 바카라�pati-parmeshwar바카라� in any Indian vernacular for a married woman, which only shows the power differential between pati and patni in Indian society. And herein lies the root of the recent Rasthrapatni row.

The word 바카라�Rashtrapati바카라� is a combination of two Hindi words, 바카라�Rashtra바카라� and 바카라�Pati바카라�. When used as a translation for the English word President, it is usually understood to mean 바카라�leader of the republic바카라� and not 바카라�husband of the nation바카라�. And this meaning is in perfect congruence with other such words that have the suffix pati. But when the word 바카라�patni바카라� is suffixed with the word 바카라�Rashtra바카라� to produce the compound 바카라�Rasthrapatni바카라�, the meaning takes a sexual connotation to mean 바카라�wife of the nation바카라�, which again is just a reflection of how the word 바카라�patni바카라� is entrenched in the Indian mindscape, that is, as a 바카라�sexual being바카라� and 바카라�wife바카라�.

The problem here is how our languages are structured. Since language is a product of society, they reflect and perpetuate the existing biases and power relations existing in any particular society. As Michela Menegatti and Monica Rubini have argued, "language is one of the most powerful means through which sexism and gender discrimination are perpetrated and reproduced". 

In an article titled 바카라�Language and Woman바카라�s Place (1972), Robert Bakoff for the first time explored the relationship between language and gender and argued that 바카라�women generally use linguistic forms which are lower/subordinate to that of men with the use of tag questions (isn바카라�t it? or am I?), questioning expressions or mitigators (sort of, I think)바카라�.

According to a study by Francesca Di Garbo, Bruno Olsson, and Bernhard Wälchli titled 'Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity (2011) about 75 per cent of the world's languages propagate sexism where one finds abundant use of male pronouns, and Hindi is no exception. 

In our everyday lives, we very often ignore the use of 바카라�heavily바카라� gendered terms in our conversations. When we use English words like 바카라�policeman바카라�, 바카라�fireman바카라�, 바카라�chairman바카라�, and 바카라�salesman바카라�, we skip the very fact of gender biases. For any individual, these terms refer to those jobs which are primarily done by men only. When these words are used in Hindi for women occupying those roles, they are almost always addressed with the prefix 바카라�mahila바카라� attached to the role/position, so we have 바카라�mahila police바카라�, 바카라�mahila doctor바카라� etc.

As to why this sexism prevails in our everyday language, we need to look at the sources of our vocabulary formation like dictionaries, newspapers, or journals where editors are mostly men across the globe, who probably don바카라�t understand the inference of using a particular language in a specific way. Hence, we can say the persistence of gendered language is managed by the overall structure itself.

Way back in 2007, when questions emerged about how to address former President Pratibha Patil in Hindi, the late Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackrey penned an article in his party바카라�s mouthpiece Samna, where he argued for replacing the word 바카라�Rashtrapati바카라� with 바카라�Rashtra-adhyaksh바카라�, a more apt and gender-neutral Hindi translation of the word President. In fact, it is a common practice among all political parties to use the word 바카라�adhyaksh바카라� while referring to their national as well as state presidents.

Therefore, there stands no reason why the word 바카라�Rashtrapati바카라� should not be replaced with 바카라�Rashtra-adhyaksh바카라� or with another term 바카라�pradhan바카라� which was used to refer to the President in the draft Hindi version of the Indian constitution, making the nomenclature of the highest constitutional position gender-neutral.

The 바카라�Rasthrapatni바카라� row, though an outcome of ice-cold political rationality, has presented us with an opportunity to reflect upon the patriarchal roots of certain popular Hindi terminologies like udhyogpati (used for industrialists), sabhapati (used for chairperson/man), lakhpati (used for millionaires) and crorepati (used for billionaires), etc. in order to create gender-neutral terms for them.