In a significant step forward in its efforts to promote Telugu language and culture, the Telugu Association of Malaysia (TMA) is taking up construction of a building for its academy.
“The plan is to construct three blocks each of four floors on 2.5 acres of land for Malaysia Telugu Academy for which the Malaysian government is providing an assistance of 3 million ringgit. “Bhoomipuja” will be conducted on February 12,” Telugu Association of Malaysia president Datuk Dr. Achaiah Kumar Rao told The Hindu during his recent visit to the city.
The building costing 12 million ringgit is proposed to be completed in 18 months.
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Dr. Rao said the association celebrated 150 years of Telugu heritage in Malaysia in 2010 at which Prime Minister Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak announced a grant of 3 million ringgit for development of Telugu education through the TMA.
The roughly 4 lakh Telugus constitute the second largest community from India after Tamils and the association has about 50,000 members.
The Malaysian government’s support continued subsequently with 3 million ringgit for the academy building, .5 million ringgit for the World Telugu Conference in 2013 and another 1 million ringitt for publication of Telugu textbooks and conducting annual training camps, said Dr. Rao.
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Telugu classes
To promote Telugu language, the association had begun Telugu classes in 2001. But they really picked up after moral and spiritual education was included, Dr. Rao said.
As a part of its efforts, the association started courses in Telugu for which Potti Sriramulu Telugu University conducts examinations and issues certificates.
The classes are conducted for 38 weekends. After six mini camps and the course concludes with two annual camps of two weeks of moral education. The first batch of Pravesika completed its course in 2015. “Presently the student strength is more than 3,000 and we expect it to go up by 10 to 15 per cent by 2016,” says Dr. Rao.
Dr. Rao says even Tamil and Chinese youth want to learn Telugu so as to sing ‘Tyagarja kritis’ well. Presently, it draws on its pool of 26 teachers and engages services from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The building costing 12 million ringgit is proposed to be completed in 18 months