Raising the slogan of one country, one language by sidelining all the other languages including Malayalam goes against the culture and history of the country, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said. Although written in different languages, the anti-imperialist songs that convey the same idea reflect that history and culture. The anti-imperialist nationalist movement in the country was evolved through the coming together of such slogans from many languages. The argument of a single language for all is a threat to the very existence of a country rich in diversity, he said.
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He was speaking after inaugurating the new headquarters of the Kerala Bhasha Institute, the distribution of the Institute’s awards for scholarly works and its 55th anniversary celebrations here on Friday. Mr. Vijayan also made a call for a democratic approach in imbibing words from other languages to pave the way for Malayalam’s growth. He said that Keralites should be able to accept commonly used words which belong to another language as their own, and pointed out that every language that has grown globally has adopted such methods.
“A language grows and survives only when it becomes part of daily use and discourse. Languages which are limited to the level of academics often end up as mere showpieces. Language should be nurtured using the innovative possibilities of the changing times. Technology should be harnessed to develop user-friendly Malayalam software. New words originate on a daily basis in the field of science, all of which are in English. We should strive to develop equivalent words in Malayalam. Malayalam should also be a scholarly language. Institutions like Bhasha Institute should be able to raise the Malayalam language to this level,” he said.
Knowledge society
Mr. Vijayan also said that the Bhasha institute should be able to actively participate in the activities of the government for the creation of a knowledge society. Publication of works related to cutting edge developments should be taken up on priority. New strategies should also be devised in taking a big leap in marketing.
The N.V. Krishna Warrier award for Informative Literature was presented to Abhilash Malayil for his work Rayyathuvari. The Dr. K.M. George memorial award for research was presented to Asok A. Decruz for his thesis on the ‘theory of word classification’ and Ratheesh E. for his thesis on ‘Indian cultural nationalism and Malayalam criticism.’ The M.P. Kumaran award for translation was presented to Ashalatha for her Malayalam translation of Amartya Sen’s book The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian Culture, History and Identity.