Today is Karnataka Rajyothsava and this year celebrations have more pomp and gaiety since Kannada has been official recognized as a ‘classical’ language along with Tamil & Telugu. On this occasion my thoughts echo on linguistic activism and its proponents.
I find a disturbing trend of the so called groups/associations taking the self imposed mantle of protecting its rights and interests and project it as representative of the community. I am saying this because a small marginal group with dubious intentions and political agenda are usurping at the cost of silent majority.
And sadly the intelligentsia and people who matter most belongs to the latter. To put this thought in perspective it will be important to note that people who have richly contributed to the progress and development of Kannada language has been people who spoke other languages and vice versa.
Four out of the seven Kannada Jnanpith laureates have other languages as their mother tongue. D R Bendre spoke Marathi, Masti Venkatesh Iyengar spoke Tamil, Shivaram Karanth came from the Tulu heartland while Girish Karnad spoke Konkani. Many other important writers in Kannada – D V Gundappa (Telugu), T P Kailasam (Tamil), P T Narsimhachar (Tamil), G P Rajarathnam (Tamil), Tarasu (Telugu), Samsa (Tamil), Na Kasturi (Malyalam), Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar (Tamil) among others did not have Kannada as their mother tongue.
The first person to prepare a comprehensive compendium of Kannada – English dictionary with 70,000 words was a German, Rev F.Kittel in the 19th Century. My relative K Madhav Pai (Konkani) has distilled the complex meta philosophical Kannada couplets of D V Gundappa (DVG) in 2 lucid books in Kannada called Kaggokti Sampada, Part 1&2.
Even when it came to representing the political interests of the community, Veerappa Moily (Tulu) and Dharam Singh (Rajput - Hindi) have been elected as state chief ministers and had long chequered political careers. Similarly Kannidagas like Guru Sri Raghavendra & E V Periyar have vastly influenced other regions in the Religious & Political space. The former is a revered saint with large following in 3 southern Indian states of AP, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu while the latter was a prominent figure in the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu.
Bilingualism is something that flourishes in our state, and many people including me speak two languages (Kannada & Konkani). Karnataka is probably the only state which is microcosm of many distinct ethnic and linguistic communities , and I am not talking of Bangalore alone, the Tuluvas,Kodavas, Konkani’s, Kshatriya Marathas, Jainas are all very distinct ethnic communities with sizeable populations and history and all have symbiotically blended into the state cultural and social milieu. The Karnataka tourism tagline is very apt “One state many worlds” and would make any anthropologist's delight.
The Kannada language itself has various forms, when one talks of Kannada, it is not a singular tongue, but one with many dialects. For instance, Mysore Kannada, Hyderabad Kannada, Mangalore Kannada, Dharwad Kannada, Coimbathur Kannada and so on.
However on the eve of its 52 Anniversary, it is a fact that Kannada language & culture is facing relentless pressures of modern times and the various facets of this anxiety is well captured by Sugata srinivasaraju in his seminal book “Keeping faith with the mother tongue” , a must read for anybody interested in this topic .
I find a disturbing trend of the so called groups/associations taking the self imposed mantle of protecting its rights and interests and project it as representative of the community. I am saying this because a small marginal group with dubious intentions and political agenda are usurping at the cost of silent majority.
And sadly the intelligentsia and people who matter most belongs to the latter. To put this thought in perspective it will be important to note that people who have richly contributed to the progress and development of Kannada language has been people who spoke other languages and vice versa.
Four out of the seven Kannada Jnanpith laureates have other languages as their mother tongue. D R Bendre spoke Marathi, Masti Venkatesh Iyengar spoke Tamil, Shivaram Karanth came from the Tulu heartland while Girish Karnad spoke Konkani. Many other important writers in Kannada – D V Gundappa (Telugu), T P Kailasam (Tamil), P T Narsimhachar (Tamil), G P Rajarathnam (Tamil), Tarasu (Telugu), Samsa (Tamil), Na Kasturi (Malyalam), Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar (Tamil) among others did not have Kannada as their mother tongue.
The first person to prepare a comprehensive compendium of Kannada – English dictionary with 70,000 words was a German, Rev F.Kittel in the 19th Century. My relative K Madhav Pai (Konkani) has distilled the complex meta philosophical Kannada couplets of D V Gundappa (DVG) in 2 lucid books in Kannada called Kaggokti Sampada, Part 1&2.
Even when it came to representing the political interests of the community, Veerappa Moily (Tulu) and Dharam Singh (Rajput - Hindi) have been elected as state chief ministers and had long chequered political careers. Similarly Kannidagas like Guru Sri Raghavendra & E V Periyar have vastly influenced other regions in the Religious & Political space. The former is a revered saint with large following in 3 southern Indian states of AP, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu while the latter was a prominent figure in the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu.
Bilingualism is something that flourishes in our state, and many people including me speak two languages (Kannada & Konkani). Karnataka is probably the only state which is microcosm of many distinct ethnic and linguistic communities , and I am not talking of Bangalore alone, the Tuluvas,Kodavas, Konkani’s, Kshatriya Marathas, Jainas are all very distinct ethnic communities with sizeable populations and history and all have symbiotically blended into the state cultural and social milieu. The Karnataka tourism tagline is very apt “One state many worlds” and would make any anthropologist's delight.
The Kannada language itself has various forms, when one talks of Kannada, it is not a singular tongue, but one with many dialects. For instance, Mysore Kannada, Hyderabad Kannada, Mangalore Kannada, Dharwad Kannada, Coimbathur Kannada and so on.
However on the eve of its 52 Anniversary, it is a fact that Kannada language & culture is facing relentless pressures of modern times and the various facets of this anxiety is well captured by Sugata srinivasaraju in his seminal book “Keeping faith with the mother tongue” , a must read for anybody interested in this topic .
2 comments:
Thank you, Vaz. Found it quite an en-light-ening summary.
Btw, the Tamil guys might bristle about that line:
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… Kannada has been official recognized as a ‘classical’ language along with Tamil & Telugu.
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Hi, Vasanth! My compliments to you on delivering a very nice piece on Rajyotsava Day. Though not truly 'comments' about your piecem I am exhorted to pen down a few of my own thoughts here.
In a way, I am able to relate to what you say because I have a mixed linguistic birth - Marathi and Kannada as well. Moreover, I have lived a significant part of my working life in Chennai, enough to have considered myself a 'naturalised Tamilian' (what with taking to reading and writing Tamil, apart from just conversing!). Then when I spent another five years in Maharashtra, it was rediscovering my Marathi roots! And, for the last eight years, I am married to a Malayali! But none of these make me a lesser Kannadiga. Language is a very close subject to my heart and does not really purport any sense of nationalism, or for that matter belonging to me. This however, is my very own individual view and others are free to differ. On the day when Prof. VK Gokak was conferred the Jnanpeeth Award, I fondly remembered almost every word that he had spoken when he addressed us in college (on 1st May which happens to be Maharashtra Divas!).
Talking about classical status to languages, here are my two cents: The Geet Govind is perhaps one of the greatest literary works ever written in this land. Legend has it that Jayadev, its writer, was at a loss to conclude the text and was stuck groping for the last few verses. One morning he told his wife and went for a dip in the Damodar before continuing writing. But his wife found him immediately returning only to finish the work and quickly exit the house even though she asks him to have his food and go. This was actually the Lord himself who came down to conclude the mahakavya. Then after a while, the real Jayadev finished his bath and came back, still perplexed and still contemplating the final verses. Then his wife is confused and explains to him the happenings. Jayadev sees the completed work and realises that the Lord himself has completed his task. To this day, the text is signed as 'Govind' (and not as Jayadev). The Geet Govind is in Oriya. In my own view, Oriya is right up there with Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit.
Two things in your piece strike to me: Pu Thi Narasimhachar being of Tamilian origin and Periyar EV Ramaswamy having Kannada origins.
Best wishes!
Ajit
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