It is funny and amusing. The Government of TamilNadu requests Government of India to provide classical status to Tamil Language. Government of India, apparently an expert Body on World Languages suddenlu understands the worth of Tamil or bows to Political pressure for political survival, agrees and this has supposedly added to the glory of Tamil. A Government order to honour a Language that has sustained itself through ages through individual efforts.? How far can a Government go? Have the Government gone crazy like the British of yesteryear's when they thought they have everything on earth under their command.
And a Conference at Coimbatore to celebrate the Classical Tamil while all the Participants will hail the Chief Minister who decided to spend 100s of crores of rupees belonging to the tax payer in the pretext for the sake of the language. So after the Conference, Tamil would have found a place among the great languages of the world thanks to a Government and its Leaders...till the next conference.
A Language grows not by the numbers of people who speak it, as is normally assumed, but by the great minds which use the language to think and write on. Of course a language dies if nobody is there to speak it. But it is not the numbers which determine a language but the quality of achievements in the Language. Hence, Sanskrit continues to be a classical language. So does Latin and Greek and Hebrew.Although often considered a dead language , in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many different families, including English. Greek is still spoken in Greece. Chinese and Arabic are also considered Classical languages because of their antiquity. Hebrew is spoken by Jews across the world and in Israel.
The inspiration for a Civilisation and a Language is the Great Minds that the language can be proud about.The history of a Language is the History of the Great works written on the language. For a language to flourish there has to be tolerance of criticism, appreciation of contrary convictions and opinions and a humility about oneself. We need substance in thinking and not just a style of great or grand nothings.There also ought to be freedom for creativity and standards for writing in a language, whose existence ought to be debated in TamilNadu. Anyone who questions and values the actions of the Government in TamilNadu and her Leaders were supposed to have hurt some weird sentiments.
How does a Government order issued by a Government run by mediocre people called politicians and bureaucrats help is debatable but Politicians in Tamil hardly debate this on the fear of being misunderstood as anti Tamils. Even the Media which has grown to thrive on Government advertisements and survives by claims to ideals has stopped even pretending to raise basic relevant questions.Iam a Tamil, a Proud Tamil proud of her Classical heritage but shocked at the Pretensions and dramatic acts to impress the people that these help the language grow.
What are the Purposes of this Classical Tamil Institute set up by the Government after Tamil claimed classical Status by a G.O??
•Preparation of definitive editions of forty-one Classical Tamil texts
•Translation of those works into English and other major European languages as well as into many leading Indian languages
•Making of visual episodes on classical Tamil language, literature, epigraphy and architecture
•Development of material for the online teaching of Tamil
•Writing of a historical grammar of Tamil
•Undertaking diachronic and synchronic studies of Tamil dialects
•Creation of a corpus of classical Tamil texts
•Establishment of a digital library
•Study of India as a linguistic area
•Promotion of multidisciplinary research in classical Tamil
These Purposes appear lofty but the major lacunae is support for creating standards in writing in Tamil , translation of masterpieces from other languages to Tamil is single important factor to help a language grow, in the absence of formed minds in Contemporary Tamilnadu.Most of the ideals are limited to documentation and documentation need not be factual knowing the poor standards of documentation and the desire to please higher ups(in journalistic parlance) by writing favourably to please the Powers. Merely scribbling in Tamil does not enable the language though the scribbler may be called a Poet or a Scholar today by the present pathetic language standards in TamilNadu. Remember how Chief Minister Karunanidhi is claimed to have been present on the dais when DMK party was launched? Remember how Jayalaltha removed Srilanka from the Thanjavur Conference Logo because if her anathema to the island nation?
What are the benefits of declaring Tamil as a Classical Language with G.O? A few of hundreds of people with academic degrees in Tamil Language will be provided jobs. What else? They will develop the language. How? By compiling and writing in Tamil. Compilation is a documentation work which the government agencies are famous for. How can Tamil flourish wherein sycophancy and political interests were of paramount importance over anything else? How can a language grow where dissent is crushed and suspected as a neurological disorder. Isn't language being used to further narrow political pretensions? Nobody wants to question because everyone has an axe to grind.
Tamil VazhghaIt is absurd many believe that this shout helps Tamil develop? TamilNadu is having Semmozhi Parks in Mahabalipuram and in Coimbatore. These are sculpture parks which is interesting as TamilNadu is famous today for her moulded sculptures which hold a remote resemblance on the person on which the sculpture was done.The standard of sculpting today is abysmal in TamilNadu as there was not much difference between Thiruvalluvar and EV Ramasamy except for the pair of glasses. But how can Semmozhi Parks further a language? By naming Parks and Buildings , how can one propagate or develop a Language? Luckily these parks were about semmozhi, some new language, as it would be discovered by archaeologists in a few hundreds of years.. Bureaucrats in India are not Public servants anymore but servants of their political bosses. They are hand in glove with Polticians and it is very interesting that many Tamils aspire to be bureaucrats and reap benefits. And to think that we have UPSC to chose these bureaucrats and an Academy at Mussourie to train them in total subservience of bosses and circumvention of Laws is a tragedy. By the way, is Semmozhi, some new language? This will also be the point of research 200 years from hence.
I believe,Tamil was and is a Classical language. The language can stand on its own as it has for many centuries.But the threat posed by so called proud Tamils Leaders is the biggest threat the language has faced since her birth.So far Tamils had great kick out of self affixed prefixes and sometimes suffixes that thoughtlessly claimed greatness of some sort(but without meaning,of course). Now the language of Tamil is being honoured with suffixes such as Semmozhi. Tamil Language doesn't deserve this abuse really. Leave Tamil alone and it will grow and no acts of any Government can eradicate or bring down the importance of the achievements of the Language despite the recent insults she has received..
Please tell me whether Tamil Language will really benefit by the poor standards of academic research in the Language. How students gain Doctorates in research in TamilNadu is better not revealed here though it was common knowledge on the methodology of securing it. We are also aware how the corrupt elements decide on the choice of Vice Chancellors. The present Governor of the state used to pretend that he was learning Tamil( Pl see his interviews in 1989 and 2005) as he thought that pretension will get him some respect. He also knew people have short memory and can not question him. Pl ask him to speak a proper sentence in Tamil? This is as important as Tamil becoming a Judicial language of the Chennai High Court as the HoS has no knowledge of the Tamil language.
To repeat the original question: what can a Government order do to a language? Just like the Vatican with their numerous cases of homo sexuality, child abuse and sexual abuses decides on the Saints of the Catholic Christian World, the Government decided to honour Tamil Language and help in development of Tamil. This order will supposedly help in the development of Classical Tamil with the establishment of a Central Institute of Classical Tamil in Chennai where Tamil is spoken the most chaste way(?). And 90 percent of Government orders can not be enforced in India just the way traffic rules are being enforced in Chennai( or the auto meters were being used?). Even the Tamil words on 100s of contracted ChennaiMetro water lorries can not spell in proper Tamil "Chennai water" as Chennai Kudineer". Whom are we deceiving?
To me these are pretensions that enable only the Politicians wallow in Self Importance and in the bargain gain Political one upmanship in the idea starved TamilNadu and of course make a few material crumps, as usual.E V Ramasamy called Tamil a barbaric language. He was wrong. Tamil is a language of the Barbarians now.Tamil should live despite the barbarians.
I was hoping I was wrong here. But Media informs us that 8 persons were arrested for propagating against the World Tamil Conference today. Looks Stalins and Mussolinis and Hitlers still rule TamilNadu under pretext of Democracy. Tamilnadu has become a Mockcracy indeed.
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