Though I am glad to release the twenty-two books brought out by the Bureau of Tamil Publications, I would have been happier if I had written one of these books. I appreciate the services of the authors of these books and I convey my congratulations to them.
The Bureau of Tamil Publications is doing an excellent job. We have been gradually developing Tamil, which is noted for its beauty and vigour in order to bring out its tenderness and glory.
Tamil, the classical language, is our mother tongue. If it had been the mother tongue of any other people, by this time it would have become the ‘lingua franca’ of the world. As Shakespeare said that Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion, the people who are conducting the affairs of a big Government should not be the target of any accusation or suspicion and they should have equal respect for all languages. We have a wealth of knowledge handed down to us by a succession of Tamil scholars from time immemorial.
By ‘development of Tamil’ we do not refer to the development of the language only. It has already developed to the greatest possible extent. By ‘development of Tamil’ we mean development of Tamils. That is the Tamils must develop to the extent that Tamil has developed.
We believe in the greatness of our mother tongue. That very thought fills our minds with the possibility of danger. We believe that we can enrich our lives by Tamil. Hence, we have great love for our mother tongue. The love that we have for our mother tongue is natural. The development and progress of our mother tongue signifies our development and progress.
Thiru T. P. Meenakshisundaram, Vice-Chancellor of Madurai University, said, “Love of one’s mother tongue is equivalent to Godliness”. That is why our blood boils when we sense danger to our mother tongue.
If two men going along the street talk something secretly between themselves, we are provoked. In fact, they may talk something that does not concern us at all. When people of other languages gather together and talk frequently, we naturally get a doubt that our mother tongue is in danger. In a multilingual country like ours, if one language occupies a position of supremacy, naturally anger is aroused.
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Thiru Thiri Guna Sen, the Central Education Minister has come here. I would like to tell him this, “It is not enough if the Tamil Development and Research Council releases books in Tamil Nadu only. At least once a year its publications should be released in New Delhi also.”
A few days ago when I was in Delhi, I met Thiru Chavan, the Home Minister. Perhaps hoping to please me, he remarked that ways and means would be devised to make provision for the Development of Hindi and other languages in the proposed Bill that would be introduced in Parliament to prolong the use of English as an associate language. He could have considered that I would be pleased since the term ‘other languages’ had been mentioned in the Bill.
I said, “To use the term ‘Hindi and other languages’ means that some preference is shown to Hindi. Equal preference should be shown to all national languages’’. Then only Thiru Chavan said that he would consider it.
The development of Tamil is not of recent origin. The ancient work in Tamil is Tholkappiam. By the term Tholkappiam (Thol-ancient; kappiam-work), we may mean ancient work. The author Tholkappiar mentions in his work now extant, why certain methods or systems are classified. He says that he has done it according to the systems classified by his predecessors. When he says, “According to the system spoken of by scholars like me”, it is evident that there were a large number of scholars prior to him.
Tholkappiar speaks of a bat-like attitude in literature. The bat that is hanging upside down on a mango tree will be thinking of Tamarind fruit. Just like that, till now we are hanging on a mango tree, thinking of tamarind fruit. Just now, realising that we are hanging on the mango tree, we have begun to think of mango fruit. Having given up the bat-like attitude, we have developed the parrot-like attitude. We have come to the conclusion that we shall know the taste of anything, only after having a bite at it. The attitude to taste the whole thing has been developed among us.
The Tamil Bureau is to be congratulated on having released one hundred and fifty books so far. The Economics books brought out by the Bureau may be placed on a shelf. But the English books on economics can be spread over the whole hall. All these treasure-houses of knowledge in thousands should be brought out in Tamil.
When it was said that Tamil could be made the teaching medium, some people said, “What is there in Tamil? There are the Thirukkural, the Ramayana, the Thevaram and the Thiruvasagam. But for these works, where are the text-books to teach in colleges?” The Bureau has been doing its duty in order to disprove the critics and to prove that everything can be expressed in Tamil and that there are books in all fields. This is not done to please anybody else. It is to convince ourselves that Tamil can be used at all levels and for all purposes.
My esteemed friend, Thiru C. Subramaniam wrote a book entitled It is possible in Tamil, in order to reply those critics who raised the question, “What could be done in Tamil?” I was glad to see the work. At the same time an anxiety arose in my mind. It is rather a pity that one should write a book in Tamil to convince the Tamils regarding the possibility of its use for all purposes. Realising this, I would request our teacher-friends to bring out a large number of books.
Some of us are under the wrong impression that history and geography should be studied through English only and medicine through German only. Such a wrong attitude should go.
This is part of ThePrint’s Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.
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