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<div class=""><h2>How about Kathiyawadi as a classical language?</h2></div><div class="">Politics of parochialism is driving the official language policy of our times – at the cost of the really needy<br><br></div><div class="">
<span class=""><a href="http://governancenow.com/users/ashishm">Ashish Mehta</a></span> | <span>New Delhi</span> | <span>May 27 2013</span></div>
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<p>Linguists usually don’t use the term ‘dialect’. Each language is
just a language, a variety of some language. Because there are no
scientific criteria to distinguish a ‘standard’ language from a
‘dialect’. Gujarati as spoken in Ahmedabad is a standard language, used
in government, education, media and so on, but a version called
Kathiyawadi spoken in Bhavnagar is poor dialect. The difference is not
scientific, it is about socio-political influence of speakers. That is
why, an old joke in linguistics is that a language is a dialect with an
army.</p>
<p>Similarly, what is a classical language? Again, going by science of
language, there are no criteria. But a classical language is a language
with a vote-bank.</p>
<p>That is the definition our government seems to be working with, as
the cabinet Thursday decided to grant this much-in-demand status to the
only remaining major Dravidian language, Malayalam. Tamil got it right
at the start of UPA 1, in September 2004. Not to be left behind in the
culture wars, Kannada and Telugu demanded the same, and got it. Now, all
four major languages in the south are classical.</p>
<p>At one level there is a matter of parochial pride, on which many
acrimonious debates are on in the blogosphere, on the lines of
my-language-is-older-than-yours. In fact, a writ petition is pending
before the Madras high court, challenging the decision to grant the
classical status to languages other than Sanskrit and Tamil. The
petition has invited counter interventions from proud speakers of
Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Strange to note that Hindi heartland has
not woken up. Should we thank god for it, or is it just a matter of time
before Lok Dal politicians take delegations to the president seeking
classical status for Haryanvi and a Congress conspiracy is unearthed to
deny classical status to Gujarati?</p>
<p>Anyway, beyond the status tag and pride, there are tangible benefits
involved in going classical. According to an official note, they are:</p>
<p>(i) Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in classical Indian languages. <br>
ii) A ‘Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages’ be set up. <br>
iii) The University Grants Commission be requested to create, to start
with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of
Professional Chairs for Classical Languages for scholars of eminence in
classical Indian languages.</p>
<p>And then there is money. It first went to Karunanidhi’s state.</p>
<p>UPA gave Rs 3.32 crore between July 2005 and March 2007 (during the
10th five-year plan) for the Central Plan Scheme for Classical Tamil.
Then a Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) was set up in
Chennai, which got Rs 64.00 crore during the 11th five-year plan. Then
there are scholarships and Tamil-focused funding of institutions like
Sangeet Natak Akademy and the National Archives.</p>
<p>In the four years from 2008-09, grants worth Rs 26.24 crore went out
to Chennai “for development and propagation” of classical Tamil,
according to a reply in Rajya Sabha by the MoS of the HRD ministry.</p>
<p>It would bore the reader to give details of similar funds that went
to the CMs of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which did not stop them from
reminding the centre repeatedly why some funds were still pending. It
did not stop local scholars from complaining that the ones already
received were not put to good use either.</p>
<p>In short, there’s money and with all those ‘centres of excellence’
and awards and world conferences, a system of patronage is being
created. All that, in the name of language and culture. Without debating
the criteria for the classical status. The official criteria, according
to minister for culture Kumari Selja’s reply in the Lok Sabha on August
21 last year, are:</p>
<p>(i) High antiquity of its [the language’s] early texts/recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years; </p>
<p>(ii) A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers; </p>
<p>(iii) The literary tradition should be original and not borrowed from another speech community; </p>
<p>(iv) The classical language and literature being distinct from
modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language
and its later forms or its offshoots.</p>
<p>If your language still can’t make it, then the government would
constitute a committee of unnamed experts to fix the case, as it
happened with Malayalam. But look at the criteria: aren’t they the
descriptions of Sanskrit, Tamil etc? In other words, A Santhali language
might be older than the Indo-Aryan languages and yet in the absence of
“texts/recorded history” it won’t make the cut. All tribal languages are
out, then.</p>
<p>And here is the crux of the whole language policy of our times.
Taxpayers’ money is going to those languages which are in robust
condition, have worldwide presence (think of Rajanikant’s popularity in
Japan) and do not need any state support. On the other hand are the
languages that are dying out (196 total, 35 of them critical), taking
with them rich knowledge systems (flora, fauna, biodiversity, medicinal
properties of forest produce). These languages are the ones that need
state support – to survive, not those ones – to prosper more. And there
are no funds for the dying languages of the Andamans and elsewhere while
crores are spent on ‘world conference’ tamashas like the one
Karunanidhi presided over in 2010.</p>
<p>A clarification, if the message is lost in the jumble: what is
criticised here is the state policy, and not the respective language’s
rich heritage (which by the way is true for every human language and at
least one manmade language too).</p><p><br></p><p><a href="http://governancenow.com/news/regular-story/how-about-kathiyawadi-classical-language">http://governancenow.com/news/regular-story/how-about-kathiyawadi-classical-language</a><br>
</p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br>
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