Theme and message

The main theme of the article “Cachau Bant: Mind Your Language” is linguistic domination. Tom Law talks about the domination of the English language and the way in which it has become “the third most common (language) in the world” (ll. 11-12).

The article begins with the statement that “English is a dominant language” (l. 11), which also implies the idea that English got there by dominating others and expressing its superiority over other languages. The rest of the article goes on to explain the way in which English has dominated other cultures.

First, Law talks about the way in which English was an important weapon of the British Empire in the 19th century:

It's the way that the British Empire used language to control their various colonies during the 19th century. It was a benign method of dominating occupied nations with minimal bloodshed or confrontation ‒ a very English form of tyranny. (ll. 141-146)

Without the right to appeal, all the nations that had contact with the British Empire have been dominated by the English language:

Whether it was Ireland, Singapore, Nigeria or North Borneo ‒ the method was the same. English would become the official language used for government, commerce...