Promotion & protection of ancient Indian Languages is need of the hour – Vice President
New Delhi: The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that promotion and protection of ancient Indian languages is the need of the hour as they offer a window to our ancient civilisational values, knowledge and wisdom. He also called for a national movement for promotion of each and every mother tongue.
The Vice President made these remarks while visiting the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) and International Institute of Tamil Studies (IITS), in Chennai today.
Shri Naidu praised the efforts put by the Center in translation of Thirukkural into all Indian languages and also in some foreign languages. He further called for translation of ancient and popular Tamil texts into Indian and foreign languages for the wider benefit of humanity.
He appreciated the good work done by both institutes in documenting and preserving objects that are related to or reflect the antiquity of the Tamils.
“Your contributions are significant because there is no such institution anywhere in the world that is fully committed for carrying out researches on the ancient Tamil society”, he said to the staff and officials of the CICT and IITS.
The Vice President expressed the need to Harness the power of technology to preserve & promote the rich heritage of Indian languages. “We must have many more technological tools for communication in local languages to serve the needs of all our people speaking different languages”, Shri Naidu stressed.
VP called for according a sense of dignity & a sense of pride to those who speak, write and communicate in Indian languages. He also urged people to use their mother tongue at home, in the community, in meetings and in administration.
Emphasizing that language preservation and development needed multi-pronged approach, Shri Naidu said it should begin at the primary school level and called for providing basic schooling in child’s mother tongue.
Saying that language was a vehicle of intergenerational transmission of culture, scientific knowledge and a worldview, the Vice President said that language evolves with human evolution and gets nourished by constant use.
The Vice President called for measures to encourage scholars to do research using the primary sources and unearth new nuggets of knowledge. ‘We must keep on adding to the knowledge and illuminate our present and future,’ he said.