:: ‘Classical’ fine print riles Tamil Scholars ::

[Tehelka - Peoples Paper]

With too much attention being given to Sanskrit, Tamil has been left out in the cold. Was declaring the over 2,500 year-old language a ‘classical language’ merely a political gimmick?

It was Hindi versus Tamil in the 20th century; it is now Sanskrit versus Tamil in the 21st. And at the heart of the debate is the Union government’s decision to accord classical language status to Tamil and the subsequent hair-splitting.

Tamil scholars say many foreign universities are closing down Tamil departments because the Union government has failed to categorically specify the age of the language. They say that declaring Tamil a classical language was a political gimmick and that it has done more damage than any good to the language.

UPA constituents from Tamil Nadu, like the Dravida Munnertra Kazhagam [DMK], Pattali Makkal Katchi [PMK], and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [MDMK], had claimed credit for fulfilling the century-old demand of Tamils when the notification was issued in 2004. Now the parties feel deceived.

“We have been deceived,” says TKS Elangovan, DMK state organized secretary. He says party chief M.Karunanidhi has initiated steps to rectify the ‘lapse’ in the government notification declaring Tamil as a classical language on September 17, 2004. The party passed a resolution in its recent Vellore conference demanding an amendment to the notification. It wants only languages that are “more than 2000 years old” to be made classical languages.

“Tamil research departments in various institutes like the University of Prague, University of Pisa, Ledien University, School of Oriental and African Studies and Cologne University have been closed in the last few months. Many others are on the verge of closure,” says Manavai Mustafa, who edited the Tamil edition of the United Nations journal, UNESCO Courier, for over 30 years. He has, over the years, reserved and presented the merit of Tamil for being considered a classical language. According to Tamil scholars, the nearly 2,500-year-old languages’s status as one of the global classical languages, along with Latin, Greek, Persian, Hebrew and Sanskrit, has been undermined because of the ruling coalition’s ambiguity while declaring its antiquity.

DMK leader M.Karunanidhi was hopeful that the Centre would extend generous financial assistance to develop the language, as it had been doing for Sanskrit. The Centre extended a direct grant of Rs. 40 crore and another Rs. 100 crore through aided institutions for the development of Sanskrit. He felt similar assistance would be given to develop Tamil. But even over a year since his remarks, Sanskrit continues to be pampered, while Tamil has been neglected, say observers.

“It is like bringing down the qualification for the civil service exam from degree level to Class X pass,” says Mustafa. The DMK is unhappy with the double standards of the government in issuing a notification declaring Tamil a classical language, while other languages enjoyed the status by ‘convention’. Informed sources say PMK chief Ramadoss and MDMK general secretary Vaiko are upset, but are hoping Karunanidhi will sort things out.

Scholars point out that there is no other language in India older than 2,000 years except Sanskrit. But if the government persists with the 1,000-year-old criterion, then at least six other languages would be eligible to be considered for classical language status. Hence the demand to stick to global norms, which stipulates that a language has to be 2,000 years or older, to receive the unique status.

The antiquity of Tamil has long been established. “Tolkappiyam, a comprehensive Tamil grammar book, is more than 2,000 years old. It shows that Tamil as a language must have flourished even centuries earlier,” says G. John Samuel, Director, Institute of Asian Studies.

According to George Hart, professor of Tamil Studies, University of California, Tamil “predates the literatures of other modern Indian languages by over 1,000 years. Its oldest work, the Tolkappiyam, contains parts that, judging from the earliest Tamil inscriptions, date back to about 200 BC. The greatest works of ancient Tamil, the Sangam anthologies and the Pathuppattu, date to the first two centuries of the current era. They are the first great secular body of poetry in India, predating Kalidasa’s work by 200 years.

Hart, who is also a Sanskrit scholar, had stated that Tamil showed a “sort of Indian sensibility that is quite different from anything in Sanskrit or other Indian languages, and it contains its own extremely rich and vast intellectual tradition”. The language is also unique because till the 6th century AD, it had little influence of Sanskrit in it. On the other had, Mustafa says,” there is considerable influence of Tamil in Sanskrit”.

Efforts to seek a classical language status for Tamil had been on for more than a century. But successive Union governments had not responded favourably, allegedly due to pressures exerted on it by the pro-Sanskrit lobby. “When Tamil is put on par with Sanskrit as a classical language under the education department, it would trigger a spate of comparative studies in colleges. Sanskrit scholars are scared of such studies since they know Tamil has more merits than Sanskrit, “claims Mustafa.

The Tamil-Sanskrit rivalry goes back centuries. In the 19th century, when Britishers proposed having a uniform second language taught in colleges, the Brahmins pushed for Sanskrit. When the colonial government sought the opinion of universities, eminent Tamil scholars such as Parithimaal Kalaignar of Madras Christian College vehemently opposed Sanskrit arguing that Tamil had better merits.

Finally, the government agreed to make it the second language in colleges. Even today, one of the demands of the Tamil Protection Movement is to make Tamil the language of worship in temples instead of Sanskrit.

It was Parithimaal who first demanded classical language status for Tamil. The demand has become more urgent since the 1970s. A report by an expert committee was submitted to the Union education department to declare Tamil a classical language in 1996. The then ruling United Front government had sent the report to the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, for its opinion. In its report, the institute said Tamil could be granted classical language status. But the government fell, before it could take a decision.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government was not helpful. The then HRD Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, a staunch patron of Sanskrit, was averse to granting the hallowed status to Tamil. “The NDA government pumped in crores to celebrate Sanskrit year, but ignored all pleas to make Tamil a classical language,” says Mustafa.

Another grievance among scholars is that unlike the other Indian classical languages, Tamil does not come under the HRD ministry, but has been shunted to the cash-strapped ministry of culture. This is why, they say, the language has not received the crucial support from Universities Grants Commission [UGC], a privilege that Sanskrit enjoys.

The main aim of the Dravidian parties, including the ruling AIADMK, for demanding classical language status for Tamil, was the expected government patronage and the UGC grants to develop the language. UGC support would result in the creation of more Tamil chairs in colleges and universities. Scholars and politicians alike now plan to knock the doors of 10 Janpath for redress. [THE END]

- PC Vinoj Kumar, Principal Correspondence, Chennai / Tehelka / 22-10-2005

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