Deccan Chronicle 30.06.2010
Civic body yet to walk the talk
June 29: Chennai mayor Ma. Subramaniam recently led a campaign before TV cameras getting his men pull down nameboards of business establishments that did not have Tamil prominently used. But a popular hotel just across his liveried chamber in Ripon Building sports a bright neon signboard that has its name displayed in English; in fact, there is more of English than Tamil even in the name displays on the corporation headquarters.
Take a few steps towards the sprawling Central station and you will find an ATM of a prominent bank, clinging to the busy subway, which announces its existence in English. In fact, even the Central station is happy to sport more of English while introducing itself to the thousands of passengers crowding its platforms — a habit that’s over a century old.
Not just the educated class, even the ‘ordinary’ Tamil citizens have had greatly anglicized upbringing; something that the recent world classical Tamil conference in Coimbatore has promised to correct in the coming years, going by the resolutions passed at its Sunday valedictory.
The illiterate grocer’s school dropout assistant calls his mode of transport as cycle and not medhi-vandi, while the boss says he went to the wholesale market by bus (not perundhu) and returned with the stocks in an auto (not thaani). But these aberrations will change, though how soon that will happen depends on how serious the government, the universities and other teaching institutions, and the scholars act on their promises and pledges made at the Coimbatore conference and how willing the makkal get for the changeover.
But even then, some nameboards cannot shed English as that would wipe out their hoary past and the global recognition earned over generations. For instance, the Madras high court must remain so and not become Chennai high court, being one of the only three high courts in the country to be created under Queen’s charter in the 19th century, along with the Bombay high court and the Calcutta high court.
Just today, dean Dr R. Prabakaran of the Madras Veterinary College issued a statement explaining why the institution cannot change to Chennai Veterinary College — its graduates and scientists would ‘instantly’ lose the recognition earned by the college since its inception in 1903.
