The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Making out a case for regional languages

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 22, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Making out a case for regional languages

Ravindra Kelekar

BANGALORE: A society should develop with the help of its own local languages.

There are instances of world economies that have developed using only their own languages. But India is yielding to the alien language of English, according to Ravindra Kelekar, Konkani litterateur from Goa who was awarded a fellowship by the Kendra Sahitya Akademi recently.

Speaking to The Hindu over telephone from Goa, Mr. Kelekar said that “nobody is against English. Neither will I be.”

But its use had to be structured and it should not be allowed to alter our culture, he said.

“There is only one Indian literature, though it is written in many languages,” the octogenarian writer said.

Almost all the first-world economies, except the U.S., had developed using their own languages.

Countries such as France, Japan, Germany and Russia and even China, in recent years, had developed with only minimal use of English and they continued to grow and progress with their respective regional languages, Mr. Kelekar said.

Overbearing presence

The overbearing presence of English had cast a dark cloud over our regional languages, he said.

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