‘Why don’t Tamilians speak their own language?’

"Patriot, nationalist, poet and Tamil-lover," is how he describes himself. Speaker of four languages (Sanskrit, Hindi, English and Tamil), he has spent more than half a century presenting papers on aspects of Tamil and Tamil culture across the world. He was conferred the title of ‘Bharathi Kavalar’ (meaning ‘Guardian of Subramaniya Bharathiyaar’) in 1964 by the renowned poet Bharathidaasan. And at 74, Dr. K. Ramamoorthi, who has written over 50 books in Tamil and five books in English under his titular pseudonym, is busy planning how the ancient language must be propagated in a cosmopolitan society. Excerpts from an interview given to Nandini Krishnan.

What do you think the purpose of the World Classical Tamil Conference is?

It is important to tell the world that Tamil has been accorded classical language status, and all of us are very happy about it. But the time has come for us to move beyond paper presentations and discussions alone. We are a generation that was brought up with news of Gandhiji, Netaji and Rajaji. But now, the only ‘ji’s of any significance are LKG and UKG. Parents don’t tell their children about this country’s history, the folklore of their cultures or even teach them to speak in their mother tongues. I think the focus should be on starting Tamil medium schools which are as good as the English medium ones. They shouldn’t be limited to corporation schools.

Why is this conference being branded as World Classical Tamil Conference, while all the others were World Tamil Conference?

This celebration doesn’t come under the umbrella of the Ulaga Tamil Maanaadu (World Tamil Conference), which was started in 1962. Since the Chief Minister announced the conference only six months prior to the event, the organisers of the World Tamil Conference felt they didn’t have enough time to do research and come up with innovative papers. They decided to hold their own conference two years later. So instead, Karunanidhi decided to make it the first Classical Tamil Conference, because it’s the first one being held since Tamil got the status of a classical language. A lot of scholars are coming, and I’m sure it’s going to be a grand success.

As a Tamil scholar, you must have been thrilled when Tamil was recognised as a classical language.

Yes, definitely. The language has antiquity, a rich literature and most importantly, it’s something that’s grown with the people. You can’t separate people’s lives from the fabric of the language – it transcends other divides like caste and religion. You use the same proverbs, pass on the same folklore…and both in the literary tradition, and the folk tradition, Tamil has great significance.

Its grammatical grandeur is great; the alphabet has been divided into subdivisions based on which part of your palate meets your tongue when you pronounce certain letters. You have poetic devices like edhugai-monai, which guide your rhyme and meter. You have five categories of land – hills, forests, grassland, fields, desert – and separate deities for each.

So, it’s wonderful that this will be appreciated at the global level, and Tamil will be spoken of along with other classical tongues like Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Persian. A lot of money is being spent to showcase Tamil culture.
What is the significance of the theme song for the World Tamil Classical Conference?

The theme song has lines from Thirukkural, Sangam literature and many other classics. The essence of the first line is that everyone is born equal, and the implication is an attack on the caste system. Karunanidhi has compiled the lines, and added a few of his own, and Rahman has turned it into a beautiful composition.
And have you written a song for the conference?

I’ve written a song about the significance of the first letter of the Tamil alphabet – agaram as we call it in Tamil. It’s the first letter of any language, the most basic sound – ‘a’. You don’t need any aid to pronounce it – no twists of the tongue, no movement of the lips.

I’ve spoken of the agaram as a symbol of Tamil. Can you guess why? See, if you draw it, it has a circle, followed by a loop. Then you draw three lines, of which one is perpendicular to the other two. So it is a geometric figure. Just like Tamil, it is both beautiful and precise.

For the release function of the song, I didn’t want to book a big hall. There is a temple for Thiruvalluvar in Mylapore. It is an ancient one, but hardly anyone goes to that temple. Many people don’t know about it. Because his first couplet is about the agaram – it says just as the agaram is the first letter of Tamil, leading all the others, God leads everyone on this earth – I held the audio release there.
What do you think Bharathiyaar would have said if he had been there to witness this conference?

Bharathi was a truly global person. He knew ten to twelve languages, including French and Flemish. He was in Belgium for a few months and in Pondicherry for several years, when he was fleeing the British authorities. A lot of his songs contain the phrase ‘Senthamizh’ , which means ‘classical Tamil’. So to see Tamil being celebrated by scholars across the world would have been a dream. He spoke about how national integration was important. His famous song Sindhu nadiyin misai nilavinilae speaks about how we should open ourselves to trade with different parts of India and the world. He was such a visionary that the things he envisaged are turning into reality nearly a century after his death.

A lot of scholars say that if you specialise in Tamil, the only avenues open to you are teaching and research.

True. There is no scope for higher employment. We must make way for that. It takes us back to the point about education in Tamil. We must make the language grow. We must teach our children to be proud of it. If you take any other culture in India – be it Malayalis, Bengalis, Hindi-speakers, Marathis or Sindhis – they will all speak their own language when they meet. But in Tamil Nadu, we would rather speak broken English than Tamil. If you speak to someone in Tamil, it’s considered an insult, almost as if you’re saying they don’t know English. We must get over this mental block. Tamil is a great language, and we must safeguard it.