When a people are enslaved as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prisn
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Political enslavement is a curse for any nation as it deprives it of its identity. The natives of the country do not enjoy any kind of freedom, be it physical or mental. The ruling government dictates them with its own ruling and compels them to abide by these rules whether justified or unjustified. The enslaved natives also become victims of a restrained and confined life with no hope of breathing freely in their own motherland.
At such times of enslavement, it is their language, the mother tongue which keeps their identity alive. It is their language which unites them against the foreigners who have invaded their motherland. It is also the key of their prison as it the mothe tongue which bonds them together. It constantly reminds them of their enslavement and brings them tighter urging them to fight for the liberation of their motherland.
M. Hamel, the French teacher thus reminds his countrymen to safeguard their languages after they received orders from Berlin barring the teaching the of French in Alsacian schools. If they held on to their language, only then will the coming generations remain awakened to the fact that they have been enslaved and the struggle for freedom continue. The native can liberate themselves only if they recognize and maintain their identity through their mother tongue.