The
Hindu: Madurai: Tuesday, 26 August 2014.
It is a
well-known fact that Madurai, a city with a recorded history dating back to the
third century B.C., had been the seat of development of ancient Tamil
literature. But what many may not know is that even today, it is the
institutions and individuals here who have been taking unrelenting efforts to
popularise the classical language and spread it across the country and beyond.
After sending
petitions after petitions to various government officials for over three years
now, Bharathiyar Thinkers Forum, a private association of like-minded
individuals here, has finally succeeded in making the Tamil University in
Thanjavur prepare and submit a proposal to the State government for teaching
Tamil to non-Tamil speaking people through correspondence courses.
“Tamil is one
of the longest surviving languages in the world and it is evident from the
discovery of a 2,200-year-old inscription on Samanamalai, a hillock near here.
Yet, what is shocking is that till today there is no State-sponsored correspondence
course to teach the language to non-Tamil speakers in the country and also
abroad through their mother tongue,” says R. Lakshminarayanan, secretary of the
forum.
On the other
hand, the Central Hindi Directorate in New Delhi has been conducting such correspondence
courses in Hindi for non-Hindi speaking Indians at a nominal fee of Rs.50 for
certificate and diploma courses, and Rs.200 for an Advance Diploma course
taught over a year. The courses are conducted through English, Tamil, Malayalam
and Bangla and offered to foreigners and non-resident Indians too.
Enthused by
efforts taken by the Centre to impart knowledge of Hindi among non-Hindi
speakers, the forum sent an application, under the Right to Information (RTI)
Act, 2005, to the Tamil Development Department of the State government on
August 12, 2011, and wanted to know if it would take steps to teach Tamil
through correspondence courses as was being done by the Hindi Directorate.
Replying to
it, the Public Information Officer (PIO) of Tamil Development Department
informed the forum that its application had been transferred to School
Education Department since the subject fell within the latter’s purview. A
month later, the PIO of School Education Department intimated the forum that
the application had been re-transferred to Tamil Development Department.
On October
27, 2011, the application was transferred once again and this time to Higher
Education Department on the ground that it was in charge of conducting
correspondence courses. Despite the shuttling of the application from
department to the other, the forum pursued the matter relentlessly. It also
made a representation to the Chief Secretary on March 16, 2013. It was
forwarded to the Directorate of Tamil Development and the Tamil University for
considering the request made by the forum and submitting a report to the
government.
Standard
reply
Subsequent
applications made by the forum under the RTI Act, wanting to know the status of
its representation, evoked a standard reply that the request was under active
consideration.
It was only
on August 18 this year that the Tamil University revealed that it had sent a
detailed proposal to the State government, through the Tamil Development
Director, on May 19 seeking allocation of Rs.37.36 lakh for starting a
certificate course with a duration of six months and a diploma course with a
duration of one year to teach Tamil to non-Tamils.
Welcoming the
proposal, Mr. Lakshminarayanan stresses that the State government, which
allocated Rs.77.70 lakh in 2012 for translating Thirukkural and poems of
Subramania Bharathi and Bharathidasan in Mandarin, should show similar interest
in allocating funds required for teaching Tamil to all those who are genuinely
interested in learning the language.
“Use AV
materials”
“The Tamil
University should make sure that the language is taught effectively through
audio-visual materials too. The courses should be designed in a way that they
inspire the confidence of people wanting to learn Tamil. After all, it was no
less a personality than Mahatma Gandhi who wanted even all Indians to learn
Tamil and it is the State government’s responsibility to fulfil his wish,” he
says.