Let Telugu Take Pride Of Place

Telugu literary figures on Sunday demanded that the two Telugu governments take steps for the protection and promotion of the language. Mother tongue is the language which the child starts hearing after birth and it is the mother tongue which helps in shaping our emotions and thoughts. But of late, we are seeing a very disturbing trend in the society. A situation has arisen where mother tongue has been reduced to just a language.

Neither parents nor the children are giving importance to Telugu. Starting with mummy and daddy, most of the conversation between the parents and the children is only in English. The political executive also seems to be dancing to the tunes of corporate educational institutions and promoting English, claiming that anyone who studies in his mother tongue becomes a useless individual who cannot even get jobs and the country cannot progress. Unfortunately, even people at the level of Chief Ministers and ministers are singing the same tune.

The big question here is that the entire education in China is in their mother tongue. Have they not become a major power who are dictating several countries and dumping all their products with markings in their own languages in India? Even the idols of Hindu gods are made in China, a communist country where people do not believe in god. Are Germans not able to get jobs or compete with other countries? Are Japanese studying only in English language? Have they not become world leaders? Keep these countries aside.

Let us look at our neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. There people speak their mother tongue everywhere. Legislators debate, discuss and even fight with each other in their mother tongue. Have they not been successful? The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has told all his legislators to stop the practice of praising the CM for everything and instead study the subject on which there are deliberating and come up with meaningful discussion. He said if they do not change, action would be taken against them. This warning was also given in their mother tongue. It's time everyone works towards restoring the Telugu pride once again.

That would be the best gift to Gidugu Venkata Ramamurthy Panthulu on his 158th birth anniversary. He was born in 1863 in Srikakulam. He was a Telugu writer and one of the earliest modern Telugu linguists and social visionaries during the British rule. He championed the cause of using a language comprehensible to the common man ('Vyavaharika Bhasha') as opposed to the scholastic language ('Grandhika Bhasha').

Telugu is also the only language which has the Prakriya (practice) of Avadhanam. About 95 per cent of present-day generation would not even know what Avadhanam is. Avadhanaṃ is a literary performance, popular from the very ancient days in India. It brings out the superior mastery of one's cognitive capabilities, and exceptional retentive and recapitulative skills of an individual. That is the power of mother tongue. Can we afford to kill it?

Telugu certainly had taken a place of pride in 1975 when Jalagam Vengal Rao was the CM and he organised the first World Telugu Conference with the aim to showcase the glorious past of Telugu language and culture which is over 2,500 years. Later, NT Rama Rao strived to restore the Telugu pride and importance of the language. Many successive governments issued GOs to promote Telugu, but they were never implemented.

Learning in mother tongue is also crucial in enhancing critical thinking. Knowing your mother tongue should be a matter of pride. It boosts one's confidence and creates awareness in the individual's mind while also helping them connect with their cultural identity in a better manner. If we do not restore the importance of Telugu, soon a day will come when there will be no Telugu writers or poets.