Divisions cited for loss of Telugu glory

W. Chandrakanth

Telugus in Karnataka urged to join hands with Kannadigas in seeking classical language status for both the languages

CHENNAI: There are 14 crore Telugus in the world, speakers at the three-day All-India Telugu conference here have been claiming.

Most of them zeroed on this figure though some speakers claimed that it was higher by two crores.

They said the number of Telugus in Karnataka exceeded two crore and in Tamil Nadu one crore.

But is there one Telugu community, asked Ramaswamy Reddy of Hosur in

Tamil Nadu, bordering Karnataka on Saturday. He was angry that Telugus never really strived unitedly to protect their language or identity.

"There are many Telugus here who made it rich over a period in Chennai and other places. There are AIDMK Telugus and DMK Telugus. We have Congress Telugus.

We have Tamil Telugus, Kannada Telugus and Telugu Telugus. Why don't we have just Telugus," he asked, citing the divisions as the reason for the failure of Telugus efforts.

Referring to legedary Tamil poet Valluvaar, he observed that Tamils promoted the name of the poet consciously.

"His Tamil is understood only by the educated and scholars. Whereas we have a Vemana who lives in our hearts even now. Literate or not, everyone knows what Vemana has said."

Jnanpeeth Awardee C. Narayana Reddy suggested to Telugus in Karnataka to join hands with Kannadigas in seeking classical language status for both the languages.

Kannada also was equally old and deserved the status, he said. Interestingly, the Malaysian Telugu Association president, Atchayya Kumar, had this to say:

"I came here to cry on you shoulders and tell you about our plight in retaining our identity as Telugus in the face of domination by Chinese, Malays and Tamils in my country.

Now I see here that everyone here has similar problems. Whom do I go to now?"

Courtesy: The Hindu