November 07, 2008
 

Raj Thackeray wants "classical language" status for Marathi

First, there was Tamil, four years ago. A week ago, it was the turn of Telugu & Kannada.

Given this, can Malayalam be far behind?

I'm not implying that Kannada, Telugu or Malayalam don't deserve the tag while Tamil does. What's the big deal about that tag? The same grants, research chairs, etc. could have been instituted without the need to have even created that separate category called 'Classical Languages'.

The decision to grant "classical language" status for Tamil was a political one, a needless and ridiculous one at that, merely to ensure that the DMK supported the UPA.

Very soon we'll have claims from each language's representatives insisting that they also deserve the 'classical language' status. What next? Sun Music anchors claiming "classical language" status for the language that they speak? Raj Thackeray leading an agitation to claim "classical language" status for Marathi?

The UPA, and all future governments, will have to get used to requests from all and sundry, perhaps including NASSCOM demanding that status for C, C++, Java, etc.

Labels: chauvinism, kannada, language, malayalam, raj thackeray, tamil, telugu