War of WORDS

Language Tree

There is a famous quote: "Language is the archives of history". Yes, it is. Language is preserved in many ways, in the form of ancient scripts, sculptures, books and through the way we speak. It is not suffice, if language is just preserved(like in museum), it should exist also. The preservation of a language is not that difficult, but the existence is. For a language to exist and to be used in this world, it has to be spoken,nurtured and most importantly relished by the people for whom it is their mother tongue. It is each person's responsibility to preserve their mother tongue and make sure it exists in this world even after their demise.

In this context, let us analyse the TAMIL language.  People in tamil nadu(mostly urban areas) are slowly and steadily boycotting tamil language without their knowledge and are at ease embracing english. When a tamil person communicates a few lines, english keeps dominating tamil. It hurts a lot, whenever any person(be it a reporter, a common man, a celebrity or any person) is in front of a mic in a tamil channel. Because, they speak only thanglish(a mixture of majority of english and a little bit of tamil). It looks as if their mother tongue is english.

The moment someone questions about this behaviour, the obvious questions posted back are : What is wrong in speaking english? Our IT industry is flourishing only because of our english communication. Do you know how much job opportunities have been created? Don't you see that India is aspiring to become a developed country? English communication is one of the important factor, for all these.  My reply to these questions and to any questions that defend english communication is: "Speak english where it is necessary.   Period." I agree with all the questions above, except "What is wrong in speaking english?". This question is subjective. The answer to this, depends on where and to whom you are speaking. When you are being interviewed by a tamil person, for a tamil channel in tamil nadu, for the audience of tamilnadu, I don't understand why english is being spoken.

Some people ask, if i speak english, will tamil language die?  Instead of asking such silly questions, one should realize what is wrong in speaking our own native language when the audience is also of the same language. Another thing to be noted is, by neglecting tamil, slowly we are losing our identity and suddenly one day our grand children will ask why is our state named Tamilnadu? What does that mean grandpa?

The most important part of communication is to whom you are communicating. Who are the audience? Why do people in interviews always communicate with a penchant for english?  It looks, as if the program should have been aired in UK or USA. Digging deep into the issue, it can be understood that the problem is not entirely with the person who speaks english, but a part of the problem is also with our education system, media, personalities and celebrities.

Schools and colleges should encourage people to communicate in tamil. English need not be neglected. English can be used at appropriate places. Media's responsibility is huge. Media personalities should realize their role and communicate in tamil. The reporters, anchors, RJs, all must realize this. I am not saying, do exclusive programmes on tamil, I am saying whatever may be the program, communicate in tamil. And finally the celebrities & personalities. Well, what can I say about them. They speak, as if they have landed directly from hollywood. They show off themselves. Only when these things change, it can really have an impact. Otherwise, tamil will not die, but people speaking tamil will become minority, in tamilnadu itself.

There is nothing against English. Each language has its own flavour and importance. Speak english and only english wherever necessary. Similarly speak tamil and only tamil wherever required. Both can co-exist.

Tamil language is quoted just as an example.  This article applies to all people who neglect their mother tongue. The audience for this article is entire India and that is the reason for this post(and all other posts in my blog) being published in english.  If I had to communicate the same verbally to any of my tamil colleague, I would do that only in pure tamil.