New Delhi: The Kashi Tamil Sangamam returned to Varanasi on Tuesday with a government-backed push to make Tamil learning and North-South exchanges central to its nation-building project. Inaugurated at Namo Ghat by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the fourth edition leans heavily on language, heritage routes, and people-to-people contact to renew the centuries-old Kashi-Tamil connection.
Organised by the Ministry of Education with IIT Madras and Banaras Hindu University (BHU), the event is being held from 2 December to 15 December, ending with a valedictory ceremony in Rameswaram.
Framed under the Union government’s Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat initiative, KTS 4.0 places language learning at the centre of the nations’ cultural integration efforts, with the theme of the current edition being Let Us Learn Tamil: Tamil Karkalam. Steeped in the mytho-historical narrative of the eternal bond between Kashi and Tamil, the programme aims to revive pilgrimage routes, shared deities, and temples.
The Sangamam will include visits to major cultural and spiritual sites in and around Varanasi, such as the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Kedar Ghat, Sarnath, Ayodhya, and Tamil heritage pockets in Kashi. The local visits will be curated by IRCTC, BHU, and local administration with ancillary support and participation of ten ministries, including railways, culture, tourism, textiles and youth affairs & sports.
Launched in 2022 under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the event has evolved from being a cultural showcase to a structured exchange drawing thousands, with the fourth edition focusing on linguistics. Over 1,400 delegates from Tamil Nadu across several categories — students, teachers, writers and media professionals, those from agriculture and allied sectors, professionals and artisans, women, and spiritual scholars — will attend the programme. The objective is to showcase the centuries-old links between Tamil and Kashi via trade, pilgrimage, and a shared civilisational identity.
This edition marks the government’s strongest push so far to seed Tamil instruction outside Tamil Nadu and normalise cross-regional language learning among the youth in north India.
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Key initiatives
Tamil Karkalam: Fifty Hindi-knowing Tamil Teachers, including DBHPS Hindi Pracharaks, will be trained at Chennai’s Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) before being sent to teach Tamil to students in 50 schools across Varanasi. Students will be taught in batches of 30, and the course will include basic conversation, pronunciation, and alphabets.
Tamil Karpom: About 300 college students from Uttar Pradesh will be travelling to Tamil Nadu in 10 batches as part of a study tour. After an orientation at CICT, the students will attend Tamil language classes and cultural sessions at leading institutions, including IIT Madras and Central University, Pondicherry.
Beyond language training, the programme will also include joint Kashi-Tamil performances, handicraft expos, and a Sage Agastya Vehicle Expedition. The expedition will begin in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, and end in Kashi on 10 December, following the path of Sage Agastya. It will highlight civilisational linkages from the Chera, Chola, Pandya, Pallava, Chalukya, and Vijayanagara periods.
Disha Vashisth is a TPSJ alumnus currently interning with ThePrint.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)