Kerala - Kochi   

Scientific writing in Malayalam on the wane, says Azhikode

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Even after more than half-a-century of independence, India could not create an intellectually independent public, said scholar and orator Sukumar Azhikode.

He was inaugurating a seminar on `scientific development and Malayalam language' at the valedictory session of the Malayalam Week celebrations organised by the Samastha Kerala Sahitya Parishat at Mahakavi G. Auditorium here on Tuesday.

Sahitya Parishat used to promote scientific writing in Malayalam to strengthen this genre. There were quality writers earlier, but now this genre has become weak, Dr. Azhikode said.

"That is why our scientific writing is in no position to match the developments happening globally. In the late twenties, we had two technical dictionaries, brought out from Thiruvananthapuram and Thalassery. This tradition is lost now," he said.

We do not have scientists at our universities at present, only science teachers. And still, we are deliberating on forming a new university for Malayalam. The conviction of language, as expressed by masters like Kumaranasan and Vallathol, is lost in the mechanical flow of information in modern education.

In her presidential address, critic M. Leelavati said though there were many manifestations of valour, one of the rasas, there should be a new one for valour arising out of passionate love for knowledge.

Works in scientific literature were often not given due recognition. This had happened to Tatvamasi by Dr. Azhikode, she said. K. Aravindakshan, P.V. Krishnan Nair and N.M. Pierson spoke.

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