The 'Classical' Language Issue

Author(s): A. R. Venkatachalapathy
Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Jan. 10 - 16, 2009, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Jan. 10 - 16,
2009), pp. 13-15
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

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 :z- -=-■ - COMMENTARY

The 'Classical' Language Issue

(And I doubt if scholars in the languages
which later came to be included in the

eighth schedule of the Constitution of India

were ever so honoured.)
A R VENKATACHALAPATHY

The Colonial Encounter

We need to remind ourselves that
classical language status is not a
matter for the State to decide. It is
best left to scholars, even though
they are not immune from
language", the Yiddish linguist The long-standing intellectual rivalry
Max Weinreich is said to have between Tamil and Sanskrit was recon-
.observed, "is a dialect with an
figured during the colonial encounter. The
formulations of William Jones and the
army and a navy". To extend this cynical
definition, a classical language wouldCalcutta
be school of Orientalism which argued
any Indian language that is so notifiedthat
by all Indian languages were offshoots of

politics, to identify what is a weak-kneed central government Sanskrit

classical and what is not. Further
the assignation of such a status
based on accepted scholarly
standards to any language should
in a was challenged within a generation
fractured polity. With the recent notifica-
by scholars based at the College of Fort St
tion of Kannada and Telugu as classical
George, led by Francis Whyte Ellis (which is
languages by the United Progressive Alli-
the subject of Thomas Trautmann's brilliant
ance (uPA)-led government of India, monograph
the Languages and Nattons: The
floodgates for similar demands for other
Dravidian Proof in Colonial Madras (2006)).

not also mean the "inferiorisation" languages have been opened. Demands
This theory of a distinct family of south
for Malayalam as a classical language Indian
too or Dravidian family of languages
of other languages. have now joined the chorus. was intellectually fleshed out by Robert
We know that Orientalism, born outCaldwell,
of with all its political implications,
the colonial encounter, profoundly mutated
in his magisterial A Comparative Grammar
our attitude to language(s). Out of this,offor
the Dravidian Family of Languages (1856) .
instance, was born the notion of the Both linguistics and politics have not
"mother tongue" which concretised a new been the same since. The "Aryan" and the
affective relationship to one's own language "Dravidian" came to be defined antitheti-
and has led to large-scale social move- cally, and linguistic difference came to
ments. Similar to this is the category of heavily influence political mobilisation.
"classical languages" - the word for this The rediscovery of Tamil sangam classics
term in Indian languages, much like for and their canonisation fuelled this process.
"the mother tongue", is a neologism. In the The demand for recognising Tamil as a
Middle Ages, the recognition of Greek and classical language was made quite early -
Latin as classical languages paralleled the even at the turn of the 20th century - by
growth of various, now recognised as scholars such as V G Suryanarayana Sastri,
modern, European languages which came professor of Tamil at Madras Christian
to be designated as vernaculars. College, in his work on the history of the
The Orientalist discovery of the Indo- Tamil language (1903). This demand was
European family of languages greatly altered reiterated continually at many academic
the status of Sanskrit which, given its and intellectual forums. In the post-second
newly-discovered linkages to Greek and world war context when area studies
Latin, soon came to be recognised as clas- began to replace indology, Tamil counter-
sical. So much so that Sanskrit's putative vailed against Sanskrit in many American
position as the fountainhead of Indian universities. Tamil was seen to offer a
civilisation now seems to be taken for view of India that was different to the one
granted in the popular mind. The colonialseen through the lens of Sanskrit. Even
government officially sanctioned thisthough the world of scholarship had
recognition by granting titles to scholarsrecognised Tamil as a classical language,
as part of its annual "new year" honours.a persistent demand from Tamil Nadu was
Invariably such titles were cornered bymade to the Indian State to give this an
Sanskrit scholars even though Pali, Arabicofficial status. The clamour for being
and Persian were not exempt. Rare indeedclassical is most certainly a colonial
was a Tamil scholar (the exceptions werehangover, marked by an anxiety to be
A R Venkatachalapathy (chalapathy@mids.ac.in) U V Swaminatha Iyer and M Kathiresan
recognised by the world (read, the west).
is with the Madras Institute of Development
Chettiar) who got the mahamahopadhyayaThis popular and political demand for
Studies, Chennai.
title for her/his linguistic achievements.
what was really an academic fait accompli

Economic & Political weekly CUES January 10, 2009 13

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 COMMENTARY =

can be has been a casualty.

Tamil
understood even For example, the
politics in renowned
post-
Sanskrit epigraphist, Iravatham
alw Maha-in
devan, arguably the world's leading expert
treatment. M
Language
of on the Indusand
the and the Brahmi scripts has
notifi I
Over the manipulation last pointed out how centu
his comments have been
itics had
grewbeen diluted to accommodate future distorted
even by Andhra Pradesh in putting
as
claims, which emerged from
neously even a forward Telugu's claim to classical lan-
accommod
simple reading union
strong of the notification, was guage status. Thegover
government of Karna-
not without substance. While
official the widely taka has also openly accused Tamil Nadu
classical l
became strident.
accepted scholarly criterion for antiquity of trying to sabotage the government of T
the was the existence of early texts of 2,000of
place India's move to confer the status.
"subs
ciallyyears, the
so2004 notification had watered
after The classical language issue
1989has long
especially crossed the portals of the scholarly
the
it down to only a 1,000 years. Only after the Drav world.
intervention of
(dmk) andthe chief minister of Tamil A suit
All Indi
is pending in the Madras High Court
tra Nadu, M Karunanidhi, it is said that this against granting classical status to
Kazhagam (aia
Kannada
big was revised to 1,500-2,000
say in years. Clearly
theand Telugu. The upa government,
form in keep-
the centre. In
the government of India was preparing to ing with its consistent the
policy of appeasing
dented much like the way every vociferous group, has now gone
electoral
undermine the question, sw
ance thein
Mandai Commission issue and reserva-
the ahead and notified
2004 Kannada and Telugu. p
in Tamil Nadu,
tion have been handled in the recent past. The response of the Kerala government has
th
tus was one been interesting. V
ofS Achuthanandan, the th
A Pandora's Box chief minister of Kerala, while stating that
demands made by
The mhrd's notification granted
quickly with whittled-down
Malayalis did not grudge this status being b
criteria has to be seen in context. In recent
Resources Develop
given to Sanskrit and Tamil, demanded that
tion dated Malayalam
12
years, largely as a reaction to Tamil claims, not be left out
Octowere Kannada
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have
Notwithstanding and Telugu to be notified. Interestingly,
been demanding
Tamil for the status of classical
The Hindu, which had largely
the kept silent on
reco
that this
language this matter, published an edit-page article
move
for Kannada and Telugu. Unfor- w
doubt. While
tunately, Karnataka's response to Tamil the
by M A Baby, Kerala's education minister, d
Nadu matters seems to be largely
claiming credit, putting forward Malayalam's case.
coloured th
the government At this rate it might not be long before
by the Cauvery river dispute. Karnataka's i
lipped.
positions remind The every scheduled
one of the biblical story subseq and unscheduled lan-
of the contested child in Solomon's court.
reinforced guage becomes
the classical provided the
po
concession. respective
In such a politically-charged situation, truth Thelinguistically organised-stateco
can
tion of the variou
classical V.V. Giri National Labour Institute,
Tamil NOIDA
bears
Course on Research
instance, aMethods in Labour Economics
member
resigned when (March 2-20, 2009) she w
to contest the 2006
V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA invites applications from young teachers and
This apart, many
researchers from universities/colleges/research Institutions and professionals in government i
ged organisations who intend to pursue their interests in labour
during theresearch and policy concerned pr
with labour issues for participating in the Course on Research Methods in Labour Economics,
mhrd notification
during 2-20 March, 2009. The objectives of the course are to: (a) understand various concepts
first and theories related to labour; (b) provide
time in an overview of the labour scenario of the world
history
in general and India in particular; (c) obtain deeper understanding of the emerging issues in
designated a classi
employment and labour in the context of globalisation; (d) understand and apply various
of the State.
research methods Despit
and techniques relevant to labour studies; (e) acquire knowledge about
the different sources of data on labour; and (f) sharpen the
United knowledge and skills on computer
Nation
applications in labour research. The course content includes: theoretical perspectives on
and Cultural Org
labour; emerging nature and characteristics of labour markets; methods in labour research;
sources of data on laid
clearly labour; and computer applications in labour research. Each of the selected
out th
participants would be required to make a brief presentation of a proposal/research paper or
serenity, idealism,
a case study, related to their current theme of research interest, during the training period.
etc - Nofor
programme fee will be charged identify
and VVGNLI will provide to and fro sleeper class fare
and free boardingclear
became and lodging in the Institute's Campus. Application
that along with the bio-data n
and a brief statement of the participant's research interests in labour studies may be sent to
Further, no
Dr. Babu P. Remesh & Mr. Anoop earlier
K. Satpathy, Associate Fellows, V. V. Giri National Labour
of Institute, Sector-24, NOIDA-201301,
India which (0120-2411533-35; Ext: 205/238 Fax: 0120- 2411469,
re
E-mail: shramnli@gmail.com, shram_nli@vsnl.com). Applications must be accompanied
Arabic and of employers/research
by no objection certificates/recommendations Persian supervisors.
strange inversion,
Last date for receiving the applications: 2 February 2009
notified as a class

14 January 10, 2009 GEE3 Economic & Political weekly

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 = COMMENTARY

itself into substantial funds and awards.

sufficiently intervention inthreat
this debate Sheldon Pollock,
in The solution to vexed claims and counter-
providing that
the distinguished American Sanskritist,
claims for classical language status
hasmay
pointed out how certain linguistic
Scholars' Domain
therefore rest to an extent in the govern-
scholarly traditions are dying in this coun-
We need to remind ourselves that classical
ment of India giving up its partisan try. One can only extend this worrying
language status is not a matter for the
patronage of Sanskrit and Hindi, and pro-
diagnosis. How many scholars are there,
State to decide. It is best left to scholars,
viding such wherewithal to all languages.
say, who are proficient in both Sanskrit
even though they are not immuneSimilarly,
from respective state governments
and Tamil, or in more than one Dravidian
politics, to identify what is classical
canand language?
easily fund any amount of language and Is it possible now for a scholar
what is not. Further the assignation of development without depending
cultural in one Indian language to negotiate
such a status based on accepted scholarly
on central government funds. Surely through another Indian language with-
standards to any language should not also
revamping our universities and research
out the mediation of English? Do we
mean the " infer iorisation" of other lan-
institutions is more important thanhave
chas-
a new generation of epigraphists to
guages. This should be kept in mindinginthe
a chimera of the "classical". continue
A case the task of deciphering inscrip-
context when the world is speaking in
of point
the here is that the academic tions
struc-being discovered everyday? Surely
tures in Tamil Nadu have not been able
death of languages, India is in a peculiar these are signs of a serious epistemo-
to absorb the sudden influx of central
situation where many "tribal" languages logical crisis.
are experiencing a new wave literacy and
government largesse. Unfortunately the Ultimately, languages, classical or not,
classical
writing, and are in a sense being reborn. language claims have onlyare the storehouses of human knowledge,
Apart from its symbolism, on the to sidestep the real issues plaguing and constitute the heritage and patrimony
served
ground, classical language status translates
linguistic scholarship in India. In a recent of the entire humanity.

The Natives Continue instigate at least a riot if not open r

Lord Sinha, then under secretary of

To Be Restless for India, was able to assure the earl

the sentence had been commuted b
benign government to only two
rigorous imprisonment.
VITHAL RAJAN
Such fears of the people they ruled
had always been there right from
Perhaps, if, instead of "I I Ihe natives are iestless tonight",
start of the colonial period, and s
I
implementing a new generation was a stock phrase used in colo- considered loyal and compe
once
X. niai adventure yarns to signify
were regularly hanged, shot, or b
of Rowlatt Acts, the government
an impending revolt. The sahibsfrom
loaded the mouths of cannon, from
had tried providing education,
their guns and awaited the timesnight òf Yusuf Khan, the first and
public health, jobs, development
attack. The noise outside the compound
commandant of all the sepoys, who
could have been a mysterious religious
and fair play to all the different treacherously hanged by the Brit
ceremony or just fun, they did not care,Any show of resentment by
1761.
poor minority communities over
they knew little about the people they against 4buse.or ill-treatme
sepoys
which it exercises power, there
ruled, and were scared, and so took or junior British officers, any
callow
might have been little violence
preemptive action. . ° or rumour of words spoken and
From legend this fear of unknown
to tackle, and those communities understood andcould lead to such grot
unknowable native peoplespunishment.
reached into
In turn, such cruelty
participating democratically
life. In the aftermath of the Rowlatt
duced the Act,
Vellore Mutiny of 1806 an
might have fully cooperated Earl
with Russell enquired mildly in theof 1857.. •
Sepoy Mutiny
the law and order machinery in
House of Lords on 6 August 1919 whether
Rowlatt Actof the
Harkissen Lai, a barrister-at-law
identifying and handing over
Middle Temple, really deserved transpor-
After that massacre of sepoys, the British
any miscreants.
tation for life, with forfeiture ofstarted
rulers property,
toiear all of the Indian popu-
just for asking shopkeepers in and
lation, Lahore to
one unnecessary draconian law
draw down their shutters,followed
and whether
another culminating in the Row-
the sentence was not "a mere exhibition
latt Act of 1919, which inevitably led to the
Vithal Rajan (vithalrajan@hotmail.com) is
of autocratic power". Hetragic
wasJallianwala
hastilyBagh massacre of well
with the Confederation of Voluntary
assured by his noble colleagues that men, women and
over a 1,000 unarmed
Associations, Hyderabad.
the accused had certainly intended
children to
gathered'in Amritsar for Baisakhi

Economic & Political weekly QBB3 January 10, 2009 Ì5

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