Karnataka - Hassan   

More funding now for Kannada research: expert

K.V. Narayan

HASSAN: The Centre’s decision to accord Kannada classical language status is a boost for the people of the State as it will now ensure proper research work in the language, K.V. Narayan, senior fellow at the Bharatiya Bhasha Adhyayana Kendra, Mysore, has said. He had earlier served as Registrar of Kannada University, Hampi, and also as its acting Vice-Chancellor.

Mr. Narayan told The Hindu here on Saturday that the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development would now grant funds for research projects which would help boost awareness of Kannada. Chairs would also be set up at other universities, in Kannada.

He said the Ministry would set up a Kannada Promotion Board as well as a “Centre for excellence for classical phenomena” and all decisions would be taken by it. A chairman and 10 non-official members would head the board. It would meet twice or thrice a year and intellectuals and scholars who had conducted research work in the language could place proposals before it on projects to be undertaken.

Mr. Narayan said research could be conducted into the history of the language. “We have records chronicling the development of Kannada between 1001 to 2000 A.D. but we need to look prior to what we have recorded.

He said students of late were not interested in Hale Kannada and Madhya Kaaleena Kannada and added that they should be given exposure to these forms of the language.

Mr. Narayan said there were 20,000 Kannada inscriptions and each one should be read and understood. For this, we should prepare a team of youngsters between the age group of 25 to 27 years to study them as it would be a long drawn out process. This would also help the new generation know more about the language.

He said people outside Karnataka should be made aware of the language, its history and culture. Kannada should be developed as a “national” language and its relation with Gujarati, Marathi, and Punjabi should be delved into.

He said that on Rajyotsava Day, the Chief Minister announced that he would release Rs. 2 crore each to all 13 universities in the State for developing Kannada.

Sanction letters had also been sent to all universities, but the Vice-Chancellors should act fast and prepare a plan of action so that the funds could be well utilised.

Kannada University was intended to be a centre of excellence and it should make efforts to live up to those expectations. Unless universities possessed a vision and a working plan, research would not be successful.

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