ABSTRACT
Language is the site where, very often, social, cultural and political battles are fought in India. Alternatively, one may say that socio-political conflicts invariably acquire cultural and linguistic overtones, necessitating negotiations with and through languages. The identification of the region and its people with its language marks a moment of transition when the regional language begins to function 'as the primary code of political communication'. The gap between the 'high' culture of Sanskrit and the 'common' practices of the masses has always been apparent to the discerning scholars of regional languages. The defiance of hierarchy as institutionalized in the caste system and the assertion of collective aspirations of the people towards a shared experiential world characterize much of bhakti poetry in the regional languages. Malayalam contains a large number of words from Persian, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch and many other European languages.
