Governor R N Ravi promises funds for Tamil students from other states

CHENNAI: Tamil is a rich language which can only be matched by Sanskrit in antiquity, and it is the need of the hour to have Tamil scholars from non-Tamil-speaking states, said Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi.
Addressing students of Tamil from Banaras Hindu University at Raj Bhavan on Thursday, Ravi said he would ensure that students from north Indian states, who want to pursue higher education in Tamil get full scholarship for their studies.
He said Tamil was far older than Hindi and that the question of imposing Hindi or any other language on Tamils did not arise. "What is Hindi? It is only a few hundred years old," he said. If any language comes close to Tamil in antiquity, it is only Sanskrit, he said. It was ignorance that led to some policies to impose Hindi, he said.
Noting that there should be a galaxy of Tamil scholars from the north, he said whether he continued as governor or not, he would ensure that the fees of students pursuing Tamil higher studies in northern states for a career in Tamil was taken care of. He said he was amazed at the richness of Thirukkural when he came to Tamil Nadu. "Reading the Thirukkural will make you a better person," he said.
Later, the governor interacted with founders of various voluntary organisations on the role of NGOs in the development of the nation and said that a nation was more than a country or a state. He said it was a sense of belonging. It was not possible for the government alone to develop a nation, he said.