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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00022 Jun 2006

 
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--- In Oppiliappan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "csdesikan" <csdesikan@...> 
wrote:
> Adiyen Namaskaram to all who participated in this discussion of 
> The recent controversial treatment of the First Tamil Naadu State 
ranking.> There is no second thought about  Kum.Kaavya to be 
appreciated,honured and encoraged for her extrordinary achivement.
> We all forget one thing.> How many of our children living abroad 
or in north india can boast of> speakingand writing in our mother 
tongue i.e Tamil.Ihave seen children> coming to visit on holidays 
not able to converse freeli with their> grand mothers,aunties(be it 
chithies,atahi.They lose the closness with> elder genration which we 
enjoyed,They get bored in couple of days and> want to go back.
> My job is such that makes me travel all around India.I have seen
> people from North India,Andhra,Kerala and Karnataka never come 
across> a child who could not talk in their native language even 
they stayed> in abroad or out of their respective state.This how 
they are broughy> up and strictly they converse in thier own lanuage 
in the house.> It is only we the Tamilians feel ashamed to converse 
in our own mother> tongue.
> 
> Imay have hurt some asthikas feelings.But this is my Athangam 
which i> expressed in this group.
> Dasan
> desikan

                         *************
Dear SwAminah:,

Well spoken and courageously so! I too offer my congratulations to 
Kum.Kaavya who deserves all the congratulatory support about to be 
showered on her from all the SriVaishnava NRIs and PIOs the world 
over, thanks to efforts of this cyber-list and others. But I would 
like to add to and second devarir's very pertinent comments above 
with a few more questions of my own which I venture to ask in this 
forum:

(1) When it is unable to encourage even its own young children to 
speak/write in the mother-tongue, Tamil, how is the Tamilian 
SriVaishnava community at large going to promote the cause of the 
Sanskrit language ("dEva-bhAsha" or "God-tongue") amongst its 
fellowmen?

(2) How many of our children in India who take up Sanskrit 
as "second language" in school do so out of genuine interest and 
willingness? I take the example of many of the youngsters within my 
own extended family. When I queried and complimented them on their  
having chosen Sanskrit as second-language, they just shrugged it off 
casually and then told me in rather hushed, conspiratorial 
tones "Uncle, the real reason why I chose Sanskrit is because the 
Board syllabus is relatively far easier than Tamil or Hindi and in 
the final Board Exam I will stand a better chance to score marks. 
That's all! Once I finish school, if I have to choose once again a 
second-language to study, I'd rather choose French, German or 
Spanish. That way I'll better my career-prospects in a way I know 
Sanskrit never can".

Now what is one to make of such crass attitudes prevailing amongst 
our own young ones in our so-called "Sanskrit-loving" brahmin 
SriVaishnava community?

(3) The SriVaishnava diaspora worldwide is quite large. In the USA, 
the SriVaishnava community is quite well-off and influential. What 
have they done to promote the study of Sanskrit amongst their own 
young in the USA? How many first and second generation American SVs 
have taken up Sanskrit language as a secondary field of study in 
their undergraduate programs? How many senior SV US-citizens who 
have the means and willingness to do so have created faculty, 
scholarships, funds or Chairs for Sanskrit studies in prestigious US 
Universities such as, say, Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Berkeley or 
even in second-rung Universities there? 

(4) In SriVaishnava temples in India, how many "vEda pArAyANakars" 
are found today? What is the kind of support they get? What is the 
treatment meted out to them today?

(5) In Madras University, how financially strong and resourced is 
the Department of Sanskrit? 

(6) There is a private institution called Sanskrit College in 
Mylapore, Chennai (otherwise also known as Kuppaswami Iyer Memorial 
Institute). It is dedicated to the promotion of Sanskrit language. 
How many SriVaishnavas know about it and extend support to the 
institution? How many rich NRI/PIO SVs lend support to it?

(7) How many SVs or Brahmins in the past 30 years have written short-
stories or modern novels in Sanskrit? WHat has the Brahmin community 
or the SV community done to encourage the transformation of Sanskrit 
language from being a "dead language" to a living and vibrant one? 
Why should Sanskrit always be equated only with heroes of the 
previous millenia like Kalidasa, Venkatanathan or Appayya Dikshitar? 
Why cannot we have young modern SV poets, novelists and playwrights 
writing in Sanskrit about modern day-to-day life and problems 
instead of writing and re-hashing age-old themes and fossilized 
worlds? 

(8)What have contemporary SV "achAryAs", both literary and 
religious, done in concrete steps to free the Sanskrit language from 
the shackles of brahminical academe, punditry and pedagogy and give 
it new life as a language of a cultured people with cultured minds 
and cultured values?

On the occasion of Kum.Kaavya's felicitation back home in Chennai, 
let us, SVs and brahmins alike, ponder also deeply and long on the 
above questions and what answers we can collectively offer. 

The Sanskrit language is dead! Long live Sanskrit!

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan       










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