Tulu’s moment
arrives, finally

The Karnataka government’s decision to accord Tulu the status of an additional official language for administration in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts marks the culmination of requests and representations made over decades.For those who don’t understand the language or cannot comprehend why this moment matters, it is important to reiterate the history of Tulu. First, it is not a dialect. It is a language. Noted British linguist Robert Caldwell called it one of the most highly developed Dravidian languages. Tamil Sangam literature from the 2nd century CE mentions Tuluvas as a race with a language all their own. The Greek play Charition mime (2nd century CE) has Tulu words spoken by coastal characters delineated in it. The locale is somewhere close to Malpe. This is a 2,000-plus-year-old language with a fast-vanishing set of about 20 lakh speakers. The decision by the D K Shivakumar-led government offers Tulu a fresh lease of life.Language evokes passion. Language knits the diversities of its speakers together into a whole. In more ways than one, language is a secular expression – it forgets the religion of its speakers and irons out their multiple inherent differences. Of course, language divides, too. It is a boundary wall that binds and separates at the same time.Linguistic passions continue to fuel intense, polarised debates in India. The south of the country objects to the imposition of Hindi and follows, by and large, a three-language policy with the local language of the state holding primacy, followed by English and Hindi. Politically driven attempts to push Hindi into the region have repeatedly run into staunch opposition. Any tampering with the existing linguistic order causes resentment and resistance. Rightly so. Karnataka has witnessed this many times, most recently in the agitations around erasing billboards in Hindi and the native-migrant friction.Karnataka Cabinet recognises Tulu as second official language in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts Organised campaigns seeking greater recognition for Tulu began in the 1950s, following the unification of the state. Speakers of Tulu and many other languages in the state, such as Kodava, felt subsumed and neglected. Tulu’s inclusion in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India has been a long-pending demand.The acceptance as an administrative language lends momentum to ongoing efforts to enhance the reach of the language. This opens a pathway for speakers in the two districts to submit applications, receive notices, and document their land records in Tulu. The potential for expanding the scope of this move is immense. No, I can’t write the UPSC exam in Tulu as yet, but there is new hope for this beautiful language to live on with some degree of robustness.As Tulu gets onto the state’s official dashboard, it is time to get a few other things moving. First, we need more schools teaching Tulu. A language survives through bottom-up action and not top-down diktats. The campaign must now focus on school learning, which will provide a crucial impetus and complement the use of the language in matters of governance.This is most certainly not an emotional closure to the decades-long demand for the language to be included in the 8th Schedule. However, recognition at this level will surely generate important conversations in Mangaluru, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi. The official stamp opens possibilities for the language, which UNESCO has listed as endangered. These are times when the world is looking at the past with renewed appreciation. As we go back to discover foods of the past as wholesome and real, as we go back to dress the way we did in the past, it is also time to go back to the languages that gave us our early identity. This is pride, in all its hyper-local elements.Cheers to Tulu, then. Cheers to a future with a lot more Tulu in our lives than ever before. A big cheer to all the men and women who worked towards this for decades, and to all the doyens who led the campaigns for this recognition.This “official” status should not end up as “Enku Panamburugu poyi leka” (loosely translated as a long, arduous walk that ends up futile). Enku, in Mangaluru folklore, is a worker. The story is that he woke up at midnight and walked all the way to the Panambur port because his master had told him they should go there tomorrow. Enku came back with nothing; his effort was wasted. One hopes the state’s backing for Tulu produces a different result.The writer is an ambassador of brands and a corporate keynote speaker with more than 18,000 hours to date. (Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)Write to us at: theprism@deccanherald.co.in

Source: Deccan Herald