I am not at all happy about the clasical language announcement.The government has created a new section of languages old by 1000 years.Tamil belongs to this category.Now what does this mean?Why not tamil be included in the list of sanskrit and latin?Why this new classification?Is there any ulterior motive in it?To say that we dont belong to the exclusive category is degrading to me.
what does the government mean by "languages old by 1000 years?"Did Tamil originate in 1004 ad?Is this a victory for tamils?
Dear Priya Maybe they thought tamil wasnt in that category to be placed with sacred languages which came from the lord himself....
Just Kidding!
Jokes aside....I share your concerns
I did read a similar articlein the vikatan 2 weeks ago and somewhere else.
There is no Official Classical language declared by the government of India....Tamil is the first one...
Sanskrit,Pali,Persian and Arabic were treated with a classical status by the british government and they continue in their exalted status but have not been defined or stratified in the capacity of a classical language by the Govt of India
Now that they have defined what is a classical language they can add the rest including sanskit and pali and tamil would be there before them
Actually it is all politics. Even though I didn't want to discuss this, since Ms.Priya has raised this isssue, let me also put in, what I had read in Dhinathanthi. The central Govt. have created this new class of languages of 1000 years and they have added Thamizh as the first language in this. So that tomorrow any state, which claims their language as a classical language also can be added to this list.
Classical status is just to formally glorify the language in India which has traditionally been sidelined by the Hindi Waves...
Remember only four states speak hindi as their main language... UP,MP,Haryana,and Delhi.....yet the other northindian states and all states in south india except tamilnadu and kerala are quiet fluent in Hindi...atleast in the urban environment...
Tamil is recognised as an ancient language in most western universities and has faculties for tamil...berkeley,london,cologne to name a few non tamil influenced contries(i.e Singapore,malaysia,srilanka,west indies,south africa) This is largely due to the fact they all feel tamil was probably the closest related to Indus valley script.
Making it a classical language has done it proud there are sceptics who say thats not fair but till today we did not even have it.....
Passports in Tamil????? I am sorry I think making your language flourish is onething and showing you are making it flourish is another issue...
Changing letterheads and nameplates does not make tamil live longer..encourage tamil workshops...encourage tamil learning in the youth...
How many youngsters in madras know who wrote kalingathu parani and silapathikaram and thirukural but everyone will know shakespeare and homar....
When I was in 8th std in Donbosco Thanjavur we made a skit called navina silapathikaram...mordenising kannaki kovalan etc....Our tamilteacher was so upset that he did not teach us for the next three weeks...he came every tamil class and strating at thingal potruthum ...went all the way to kannagi going to heaven...Verse by verse with meanings and told the whole silambu and said appadi patta kaapiyathai ippadi kochaipaduthingale pasangaalaa//we saluted his love for tamil and were well and truly ashamed....we as a class respected tamil...cherished tamil....
How many such herambans are there today in the teaching profession???
Is there paucity of tamil talent??why do Udit narayan and Shreya Ghosal kill tamil????Why did we let AR Rehman kill tamil music and lyrics that for the first time in tamil history we neede lyrics to understand what is sung??? we buy them we listen to them...myself included...are there no tamil singers if you tune into sapthaswarangal there are so many talented youth....use them
Last time I was in Madras there were so many promotions and offers for Valentines day.... If I were an astutue politicians I would have brought Indiara Vizha again use the sameday but Tamilise it....
How many kids know the value and meaning of Pongal...have pongal feats..have jallikattus in the themparks have pongal feats in the schools....that will teach them the heritage.
Passport in Tamil: all it will create is confusion nothing more....Yes English is the lingua franca..yes you find hindi in your passports but replacing each states passport with the native language is stupidity.....
Its like bhrathirajas charector in ayithaezhuthu saying everything should go thru tn....
Tamils place in the world is in the www....in the schools....and in the masses....not in passports and boards.
u r talking abt kalingathu parani sri. i ve freinds who dont know the no of alphabets in tamil. they r not from other states. basically it comes to the choice of parents when the youth s make a choice. parents always force their kids to go for hindi r frnch r wat not to just to score a bit more in their finals. when it comes to lifes choices, economy rules, most of the time.
> > > Passport in Tamil: > all it will create is confusion nothing more....Yes English is the > lingua franca..yes you find hindi in your passports but replacing > each states passport with the native language is stupidity..... > > Its like bhrathirajas charector in ayithaezhuthu saying everything > should go thru tn.... > > Tamils place in the world is in the www....in the schools....and in > the masses....not in passports and boards.
Well, what's wrong If I want to have tamil in my passport, Ofcourse, passport is the identity of myself to the world and obviously I wnat my mother tongue in it..
There was this incident at the Chennai airport, when I was helping a youth who was not fluent in English (was going to dubai as a helper, i think..) and could not understand any of the forms, (they were in English/Hindi) and his passport is in English/Hindi.. So sad that a youth inhis own country was feeling alienated..
It has nothing to do with linguistic chauvinism..
A language survives and thrives by making it an official language of the government. Why do u think English education was most sought after when English ruled and now parents want their kids to be educated in Hindi..??
It's naive and simplistic to compare my concerns with bharathiraja's character inthe movie..
hi naren if that uneducated youth is going to duabi, how s he goin to survive there? he can barely read and write in english. instead of educating ourselves we r goin the shortcut, but issuin passports in tamil, which serves not the youuth nor our langauge.
I was born in the north and lived in the East for a long time. I think ONLY in Tamizh Nadu can someone go through his/her entire school career without studying Tamizh. Atrocious to say the least. I taught myself to read and write Tamizh after I grew up (but of course we always used to talk Tamizh at home .. and that helped). However, most of my cousins who grew up in Chennai cannot read or write tamizh. Shameful isn't it?
I live in Singapore and it a pleasure to listen to the Tamizh news here or to watch "kalanthuraiyaadalgaL" on TV. Miha iyalbaaga tamiz paesugiraargaL.
TO watch the women on Sun tv butcher tamizh is really painful after listening to the wonderful tamizh on the local channel here. Like someone commented, tamizh on INdian channels has become a Panni language... "Enjoy panni, phone panni, .,.. etc etc"
I've replied in detail to sridhar.. But for your question when did i ever say you have to replace English with Tamil??. I'd welcome every kid to learn English in school and really appreciate the decision by Jayalalitha to introduce English from std 1 in govt. schools..
My question is why should a person feel alienated by his own government in his own place??..
hi naren its all good to have a passport r forms in tamil. but we expect too much from govt, waiting for something to happen. so called tamil channels muredering tamil s their own doing and a leading channel belongs to a party who always said they revered tamil. as someone mentioned in previous mails, we need lyrics to understand tamil songs which ve mostly english words r some garbled sounds. those channels will do tamil tamil a great service if they sack their djs r vjs r whoever. i ve a colleague here who speaks perfect tamil to her parents but when talkin to us she uses tamil with an anglisiced accent. for a person who spoke, born and brought up in chennai, she doesnt seem to be comfortable speaking in tamil and this is very common among my chennai friends, especially gals. many people doesnt seem to appreciate our identity or our heritage. i dont seem to understand why they shun away frm tamil.
I fully echo your concerns... The basic underlying reason behind neglecting Tamil for the other is that we think there is no use in studying Tamil bcos there is no obvious monetary benefits or uses.
In olden days, when people were relying on government jobs, it required them to know Hindi (which according to me is completely preposterous..).. the reason being that all the govt. transactions will be carried out in ONLY hindi REPLACING English from mid 1960's.. (Even now, I think in central govt. offices in south india, u'll see a "hindi word a day" programme being carried out. The central govt. allocates crores of money to develop Hindi..But after the anti-Hindi riots in TN the central govt. said English will not be replaced and continue to serve as an official language with Hindia as the main official language till every state in the Union agrees to replace English.. In a way, folks shud thank TN for preserving English in India..)
Alrite back to the topic, the best way to re-kindle interest is to generate lots of jobs that would require sufficient knowledge of tamil.. The obvious candidate as you pointed out is the Tamil entertainment industry (cable/satellite/movie/serial/magazines) which is really huge.. The sad part again as u pointed out is the quality of the comperers/speakers in those channels..
Let it be any industry, entertainment, Software, etc...
If we can have a impressive tamil in it. nothing like that..
Are not the nations that are only half the size of Tamil Nadun and just half the population of TN, make the world turn towards them?
1. There should be a way for making jobs for Tamil medium students. Else, if the students from tamil medium backgroud, pass out of college just to land up in the road jobless, then who will learn Tamil? One of the best industries for this is Entertainment. We need Tamil to be THE BEST, in this. Are not many people who had learn Hindi just to enjoy its songs and movies? Not that we dont have people to do that, there needs to be a good support.
I am currently in Bangalore, and many of the Kannadigas here, know tamil and speak them atleast to some extent.And this is for the sake of business, unless they speak they cannot run good business. there may be some exceptios to what I am saying. The Capital of Karnataka, is of many Tamilians. Same with many other cities in other states also. If we give them business, they have to come to our language.
2. We need to make people read the tamil literay works when they are young. Students, learn the works of Charles Dickens,Mark Twain, etc in Tamil nadu. and just ask them, 'Who Kalki is?'..most of them blink. ! And this is the current situation of Tamils.
The students are more fascinated with those Novels and they imagine themself in thier land, and later dream to leave TN and settle in US or in Europe. And hence other then normal "manappada pagudhi's" we need to attract the students even this way.
3. We need one to be a good fighter, a rich, good, and who is talented in arts.
Promote native arts like Silambam, Mallyudhaam, and I guess, there are many weapons of fights that we were having.
Learn to make business and earn a good deal.
Learn arts, that will enable you to make money accross teh world. Like Tanjore arts, Music, etc
and lets have Tamil in each and everyone of them,
If a single individual with all this talents can be respected and make a impressive role in the society. Just Imagine Tamil society with all this.
And it is in each and everyone of our hands to make it happen.
For Saying 'No' we can have many resons, but for 'Yes' we need only one and that is 'Heart'.