Tulu should be accepted as an administrative language at the local-level, visiting Professor at Wurzburg University B.A. Viveka Rai said here on Friday.
Prof. Rai was speaking at the Akhila Bharata Tulu Sammelana-2011 organised by the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy, the Department of Kannada and Culture, and the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore.
Mr. Rai said if Tulu was accepted by the administration at the gram panchayat, taluk panchayat, and zilla panchayat, it would help many people who could not speak Kannada. Many people, including women and Dalits, did not speak Kannada, and therefore could not clearly communicate their problems to officials, he said.
Given the large number of people who spoke Tulu in the region, he said that major television channels including news channels could at least devote 15 minutes of programmes in Tulu. There would definitely be millions of viewers for shows in Tulu, he said. Publishing newspapers in Tulu was difficult but a monthly called Tuluvere Udal was being run by Jayanti Bangera.
The internet had emerged as a platform where Tulu was being used. There were a number of blogs in the language, which are avidly followed by people who speak the language. Social networking site Facebook too had a number of users who formed Tulu-based groups. One group has thousands of members who interacted only in Tulu, he said.
Expressing his views on the Tulu film Oriyardori Asal , Mr. Rai said that the film showed the difficulties and aspirations of ordinary Tulu people. Without glorifying it, the film examined Tulu culture critically, he added.
Academy president Palthady Ramakrishna Achar said that the academy had received 13 applications requesting grants for research in Tulu.
With grants from the State government, the academy funded five researchers with a grant of Rs. 5 lakh.
After releasing seven books published by the academy, Minister for Energy Shobha Karandlaje said the academy's move to offer diploma and postgraduate diploma courses in Tulu in association with Mangalore University would go a long way in improving the quality of imparting education in Tulu in schools.
Urging that more research should be done on Tulu and related culture, she assured the gathering that the State government was ready to provide grants to even 10 researchers if their research proposals merited it. She said that Tulu people should stop performing “bhootaradhane” for entertainment as it was a part of their faith.
Dharmadhikari of Srikshetra Dharmasthala D. Veerendra Heggade, who inaugurated the sammelan, said that Western culture was like a flood that washed away anything in its path. Tulu culture and language must resist it, he said.
An exhibition of books and an art exhibition by Puttur-based artist Nagraj Nidvannaya was organised on the occasion.
