Classical Status to Kannada: Elation over Nothing
Sunday, 2. November 2008 - 11:30 PM
Okay, so the “struggle” has yielded fruit. The central government has declared Kannada (along with Telugu) as a classical language. And we’re witnessing a mass orgasm here in Karnataka.
Celebrations broke out across Karnataka on Friday evening as the news of the UPA government deciding to grant classical language status to Kannada came in.
I am a little ambivalent about the real significance of the classical tag to Kannada. I dearly love the language as my cultural vehicle. I love speaking it, and hearing others speak it (“Bangalore Kannada” is not Kannada). I love hearing its music in the Canara and its gruff sweetness in the North. On the authority of my severely limited familiarity with its literature, I am convinced that it has prolifically produced the cream of Indian regional literature for centuries without rest.
Yet this classical tag makes me queasy.
Arguably, the classical tag assigned to Tamil started this mad rush. The “Dravidian” parties with both their aggression and strength of numbers in the Lok Sabha shoved their way through classicalism. But what after that? What good has it done except for garnering moolah ostensibly for furthering research, etc. And therein lies the root of my queasiness. The word they use is “preservation.”
Prof De Javare Gowda, former vice-chancellor Mysore University:…his will open floodgates for research opportunities in universities within India and aborad. Apart from this, more funds will be allocated for the preservation of the language.
From when I can remember, a classical language has been perceived as something museum-worthy. I choose my words carefully. I use “classical” to mean noble, lofty, instructive, etc. In that sense, and precisely because I assign these connotations, I hold that all these exalted connotations are compelling reasons for these languages to be living languages. It might be my ignorance but when was the last time anybody wrote anything of worth in classical Greek or Latin? These are as I said, museum languages. Nice to read but dead for all purposes. With it, the respective cultures.
However, all Indian regional languages are unique in that respect. They have classical, and medieval versions but are vibrant, living languages. The greatest damage has been done to Sanskrit thanks to Nehru but let me reserve this topic for another day. The preservation angle therefore sounds hollow. You cannot preserve a language by forcing a classical Oxygen tube down its throat. A language has to be lived. And it is the responsibility of every speaker of that language to perpetuate it. Which is the reason I find the ultra fanatics of Kannada (or Tamil or Telugu or Marathi) blaming English as the reason for the decline of Kannada. These guys are blind to everything else. You ask them to name just five classical Kannada litterateurs and they go speechless. For God’s sake, they can’t pronounce the language correctly. But then they don’t need to. They make up for it by sheer muscle power and hollering. On the other side, we have the likes of U.R. Anantha Murthy, who talks about the dangers of “English language invasion” in public but sends his kids to the best “English medium” schools on the side. And wants for himself the tag of the defender of Kannada. And is “elated” at the classical tag. There’s also a third school. Academics and literary critics who uphold works that conform to the fashion of the season. Thus, during the Navya “movement,” non-Navya writers–most notably, S.L. Bhyrappa–were studiously, deliberately ignored and derided. The Bandaya (rebellion) and Dalit movements decreed that thus far, Kannada literature was trampled under Brahmincal tyranny and “oppressed voices” had no voice. The victim was the Kannada language. When studying classics like Pampa, Kumara Vyasa, Ranna, Harihara, and Muddanna is no longer fashionable, the language loses centuries of carefully crafted and well-nurtured repertoire of words, idioms, and cultural finery. And suddenly somebody wakes up and launches a “mass agitation” for getting the classical badge mostly with an eye on the money.
The best way of eternizing a language is to raise it to the level of art. When you attempt poetry or prose or anything creative, the language by itself opens up its potential to you. No government or classical tag can do that.
Tags: Dead Languages, History, India, Kannada, Kannada Classical Lanugage, Kannada Literature, Language, Living Languages
3. November 2008 - 12:28 AM
Can you please elaborate on why “Bangalore Kannada” is not Kannada ? Does Kannada have many dialects as well ?
3. November 2008 - 7:44 AM
You are absolutely correct. I just don’t understand why India can’t implement a 3 language system, Hindi(because it is our national language), English(because it gives us global advantage), and regional language of particular state. This way everyone will be happy..!!!
3. November 2008 - 12:14 PM
Kislay,
Bangalore Kannada is a bastardization of Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and English. It is not a dialect. But yes, Kannada has several dialects: North Karnataka, Coastal, Malnad/Western Ghats, and Mysore Kannada are the chief dialects.
3. November 2008 - 2:00 PM
Rajeev,
Hindi is NOT our national language.. Pl. don’t try to fool anyone.
I still support 3 language system because we can’t avoid the Hindi land domination even in B’lore, we need to learn a global language and we need to preserve our own language (which is crucial to preserve our culture)..
3. November 2008 - 2:22 PM
I would rather believe in a 2 language system – Sanskrit and English
I am willing to give up my regional language.. for the nation and for our suffering people – the Hindus. I wonder how many of us are even open to the idea of giving up their respective regional mother tongues, be it Tamil or Marathi or Kannada or Punjabi.. I guess not many. Unless we do that, we will continue to play into the hands of Nehrus and Gandhis.. (apart from the immense brain power our bright kids waste to learn languages every time they move to another state)
Nehru had a great chance to integrate the country on the basis of a one national language – Sanskrit (somewhat like what Israel did with Hebrew). He blew it… as always. Like his British masters, he continued the divide and rule policy..
3. November 2008 - 5:56 PM
talking of languages…
na tathA kaTu-ghUtkR^itAd vyathA me
hr^idi jIrNOpavaneShu ghUkalogAt
parishIlita pArasIka vAgbhyo
yavanAnAn bhavane yathA shukebhyaH (MV 8.13)
(O my King), I get more perturbed by hearing the Persian language uttered by the pet-parrots from the houses of musalmans in my country, than I get troubled by hearing ill-ominous noises emitted by owls that now live in our abandoned gardens!
…from the appeal of a citizen of Tamil country to the kannaDa prince of karNATaka’s vijayanagara to liberate tamil country, an event chroniclized by his spouse princess ga~NgAdevI of Telugu mothertongue, in her madhurAvijaya, the only manuscript of which was discovered from a malayAlam library by Pandit N Ramasvami Sastriar in 1905, and I quote this from a Hindi translation of the same by Dr. Sharada Mishra, Professor in Sankrit Dept. of Patna University.
3. November 2008 - 11:26 PM
So what should someone who is interested in learning Kannada do ? Can you suggest something . The internet has a lot of resources but it is confusing .
4. November 2008 - 12:11 AM
This is all political and has nothing to do with the language’s antiquity or rich literature. This is all due to the flawed language policies adopted by Indian government after independence. They have been promoting (forcing is the right word) Hindi on all states at the expense of regional languages which is naturally pushing regional politicians/people to prove their language superiority in some way. Even having Hindi as official language has created general impression that it is our (only) national language, when we have 22 national languages. So with this trend, let’s also expect Malayalam, Marathi or Bengali to join that that league very soon.
4. November 2008 - 6:07 AM
I second the comment of Raghu. More than English, Hindi is the real enemy of Kannada. Wish to see Kannadigas proudly speak in to each other in Kannada and not in Hindi. I’m not against learning Hindi but only its trampling of other languages.
BTW, I’m not a Kannadiga.
4. November 2008 - 6:13 AM
@ Raghu, KR
“Hindi land domination” is different from “forcing Hindi”. Forcing any language, any culture, any religion for that matter any kind of imperialism is incorrect. If it is proposed, it should be stopped.
But Hindi land domination is the wrong phrase. I am from UP and people here are interested in learning sanskrit. In Varanasi, Jhansi and Allahabad, people have formed groups to learn and spread the message of promoting sanskrit. And for the record, me and my friends are fans of rahman, mano murthy, kannada literature (where a translated version is available, even though we are sure it doesn’t capture the essence the original language does), south-indian food and what not.
Don’t make this a hindi vs non hindi debate. it isn’t.
4. November 2008 - 11:21 AM
Am neutral towards this debate.
Have found these links which are on the other side of the debate:
http://arjunexpress.blogspot.com/2008/11/classical-kannada.html
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Nov12008/scroll2008110198257.asp?section=frontpagenews
Check it out
5. November 2008 - 7:08 PM
Hi,
yes we have the right to ask classical status to Kannada but its not sitting quietly,it the duty of politicians,businessman to form a discussions and solve
============================
james
http://www.getinforum.com
13. November 2008 - 5:54 PM
Kislay Chandra says: Can you please elaborate on why “Bangalore Kannada†is not Kannada ? Does Kannada have many dialects as well?
kavirAjamArga, the 9th century work on kannaDa poetics records that during its compilation, as many kannaDa dialects prevailed that it would be “hard even for Adi-sheSha to identify which one was the “authentic” kannaDa.
8. December 2008 - 7:50 PM
Just found this today.
Pretty good one. Thanks for voicing the concern.
From what it looks, Classical Tag to a language ensures more money to research(?) fellows and reasearch fellowships.
Nothing apart from that.
ALso, looks like the term “Classical Status” was wrongly coined by a clerk in Human Resources Ministry, who should have used “Noble” or so. That’s what I read in Ravi Krishnareddy’s magazine Vikranta Karnataka.
23. June 2009 - 10:09 AM
I AM VERY HAPPY ABOUT CLASSICAL STATUS GIVEN TO KANNADA.
Each and every person should love his regional language because there is nothing called INDIAN culture all regional culture contributes towards INDIAN culture that means if u love&respect u r regional culture that means u r true patriot.
THANK YOU FOR READING.
VEERA KANNADIGA…………