The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Pushing for Telugu as second language in three States

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 27, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Pushing for Telugu as second language in three States

By K.V.S. Madhav

BANGALORE, DEC. 26. The former Union Minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu, made a fervent plea for a movement to make Telugu the second language in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Orissa to enable the sizeable number of Telugus in these States to impart their mother tongue to their children.

Stating that he was not for regionalism, Mr. Naidu said the issue should be looked in a broader perspective of passing over one's mother tongue to the future generations. He was speaking at the valedictory function of the sixth biennial International conference of the World Telugu Federation here.

Undue influence

The former BJP president said the popular media, particularly films and satellite television, had destroyed the fabric of Telugu culture and traditions. He appealed to the filmmakers and television programme makers to make conscious efforts to showcase the culture and traditions of the Telugu land. "We need to safeguard our language and culture from these kinds of destructive influences." He appealed for rejuvenating ties between the people of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. "Our bond dates back to centuries and we should work towards strengthening them without being narrow-minded."

A common script for Telugu and Kannada evolved with the efforts of the Karnataka Government for the benefit of people residing in the border areas of both the States would be released by the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers in the presence of Satya Saibaba at Puttaparthi soon.

The common script aptly titled `Vijaya Lipi' takes off from the Vijayanagara dynasty, of which Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were once an integral part. Eminent language and epigraphy experts from Bangalore and Mysore universities headed by Chidananda Murthy and Tangiralla Subba Rao had worked on the project for more than a year in 1988 and produced the common script.

Project dumped

However, for some strange reasons it was kept on the backburner for 15 years. But support for the project was revived and D.K. Adikesavulu Naidu, MP, who funded the research for the project under his Srinivasa Trust even published 10,000 copies. The copies were supposed to be released at the WTF meeting but could not be done due to the absence of both the Chief Ministers.

Prominent Telugus Gummadi Venkateshwara Rao and D. Rama Naidu, among others, were felicitated at the meeting. Delegates from all over the world, including the U.S., the U.K., Malaysia, Fiji, Singapore and South Africa participated in the meeting.

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