Tamil lovers and humility

One expects praise of a language and pride in its origins at an international seminar devoted to the subject. So it is with the ‘World Classical Tamil Conference’ in Coimbatore. We do wonder, though, if speakers at such events couldn’t approach such issues with more awareness of the word called overkill. Some months earlier, in these columns, we had mentioned a speaker who had warned against divine worship of any language, including his own. Displaying a sense of humour, which we wish there were more of at the Coimbatore conference, he had said any language was a set of sounds and strokes, and to argue that one such set was superior to any or every other didn’t seem logical. Well, we’ve had the Kalaignar talk of how Tamil predates the Ramayana; how it is actually the mother of all languages of the world and so forth. And, then, inevitably, to “how all this reveal the ancient origin of the Tamil race…” Many other speakers, including diverse academics and scholars were as, or more, effusive — they would say factual. Everyone is entitled to praise the things he or she loves and oratory has often inspired humans to much good. Unfortunately, and especially when put to the service of convincing people that they are superior to everyone else by birth because of their inheritance — of skin, language, country, race, beliefs, whatever — then various negative events are set in train. Karunanidhi’s DMK’s origins lie in a reaction to one such train of thought, as he has argued forcefully at diverse fora. You could, in fact, argue that much of the turmoil on this planet since the origins of time lie in this belief that there are superior people and their legacies and the others who need to accept this. Chauvinism, the militant belief in the superiority of whatever it is that one is chauvinistic about, has never been an attractive quality. Whether such remarks are warranted at the conference in question is for people to think about. Our job is only to sound a caution and preferably before, not well after such a train of events. A people who love their language and culture and find in it the security to take to learning and progress with an open mind is what we wish for all, whether their tongue predated Valmiki or not. May the conference take such a state of mind forward.