Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu stressed the need for a ‘people’s movement’ to protect and propagate the Telugu language, even as he put the onus of promoting it on the ruling governments.
It should be a joint effort by all stakeholders, he said, pointing out that the manner in which countries like Germany, Russia, China, Australia, Canada and Portugal kept foreign languages at bay without despising them was worth emulating.
Addressing a virtual meeting on the promotion of Telugu language organised by Telugu Kutami and Veedhi Arugu on July 31, Mr. Naidu said he was an advocate of imparting primary education in the child’s mother tongue. He said he supports the usage of regional languages in government administration, in court judgements proceedings and judgments, in technical and higher education, and within a household between family members.
Regional languages — both in the spoken and literary realms — will otherwise slowly die, he said, drawing the attention of the participants to UNESCO’s observation that extinction of languages adversely impacts cultural heritage and diversity.
Citing examples of countries that used native languages for the communication of R&D activities, Mr. Naidu said, “Such is the passion with which the local languages are promoted.”
He said the National Education Policy had brought in welcome change in the way lessons are taught in schools and colleges and hoped it would popularise mother tongues.
Allowing Members of Parliament to address the House in any of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution was a major step towards promoting regional languages, he said.
Former DGP C. Anjaneya Reddy suggested that efforts be made to standardise the usage of the Telugu language, and departments of classical languages be set up in central universities. Noted exponents of Telugu language Ramanachari, Pulikonda Subbachary, Muktheswara Rao, Jayasekhar Talluri and Umamaheswara Rao were present.