Tamilism

                                                                  TAMILISM

❝Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.❞
‒Rita Mae Brown

                         Don't be afraid ! The following 300 words will not contain any harmful techi-stuffs..!!

Let us begin with the new term we found at the title.  Etymology says that any word followed by the root '-ism' stands to a belief or a form of discrimination. So you could decipher, Tamilism is a belief / a form of positive discrimination which will make us distinct and as a person of true identity to his own language which in disguise his culture.

                        Tamil , as we all know, is the one of the known oldest language in the world, spoken widely even during the  Lemuria era – the continent which is lost due to pole shift long time back. Survival of Tamil over intrusions of Sanskrit and Prakrith ( Middle Indo-Aryan Vernacular language)  is remarkable. As the Aryans race rose in South India , Sanskrit started ruling over the state and tried to destroy the prominence of Tamil language. Aryans canvassed Tamilians by stating that Sanskrit is the Language of God and not many words are found in Tamil which proved equivalent to that in Sanskrit. This led to the uprisal of THANITTAMIZH IYAKKAM to prove the fact that the  language Tamil, has got sufficiently enough words and quite content to compete with any other language in its word power may it be Sanskrit or English. 

Some Tamil writers such as Devaneya Pavanar have tried to associate Lemuria with Kumari Kandam, a legendary sunken landmass mentioned in the Tamil literature, claiming that it was the cradleof civilization. Not only in tamil , But Devaneya Pavanar was proficient in 14 other languages including English in which he wrote books like The Primary Classical language of the world,  The language  problem  of Tamil Nadu and its Logical Solution, A critical survey of the Madras University tamil lexicon, Etymological dictionary of Tamil on Geneological basis, The lemurian language and its Ramification. 

❝If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.❞
‒Nelson Mandela

                         Devaneya Pavanar patronized tamil but penned in english to ensure that the identity of a tamilian is not lost or forgotten – by speaking to the heart of an english man. Following his footsteps, this english article is written to rever Tamil. Today , we have a pratice of patronizing other languages leaving in peril the first language. May it provide jobs for us or may it provide a luxurious life we desire , foreign languages make us lose our identity.  There are lots of changes over the years- Higher marks in School require first subject as Sanskrit; Highly paid Jobs require English. Changes happen ; intrusions occur -but being prepared to face changes and attaining success is equally important. And  success does not mean losing one's identity to acquire a contented livelihood. Tamilism can revive our sense of being tamils. This is not like being a racist - We are not here to fight on which language is superior ; we are simply supposed to rever our language over others. Quoting a recent tamil box office hit movie - “Destroying a man's identity is worse than destroying the man himself”. So let's just not allow anything deprecate our language for it may destroy who we are..!!!  

- Noortheen Raja J
- Hemambujam B
(College of Engineering, Guindy Campus, Anna University, Chennai)