Delhi Govt to associate with 'Tamil Academy' for protection of Tamil Culture
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New Delhi, Jan 7: Delhi govt has recently announced that it is to set up a Tamil Academy in order to protect Tamil language and culture. Under the leadership of Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, the Department of Art, Culture & Language of the Delhi govt, has set up and notified Tamil Academy to promote Tamil language and culture. The Delhi government has appointed Ex-MCD councillor and current member of Delhi Tamil Sangam N Raja as the Vice-Chairman of the academy.
The newly created Tamil Academy will organize Tamil language classes, give new awards and organize cultural events to promote and recognise literary works in Tamil. Delhi government is to provide language courses through the Tamil Academy. The govt already runs Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Hindi, Maithili and Bhojpuri Academies.
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia who also holds the charge of the Art, Culture and Language Department ha said, “Delhi is a culturally rich city where people from all parts of the country live and work. It is this diversity that forms Delhi’s vibrant and cosmopolitan culture. Delhi has a large population of people from Tamil Nadu and we want to present a platform to the people of Delhi to get the taste of the art and culture of Tamil Nadu. I am glad that many notable people like the newly elected Vice Chairman Shri N Raja came forward and joined hands with us to establish this academy.”
Vice Chairman N Raja said, “I am glad to see that the Delhi Government under Deputy CM Sisodia has established the Tamil language academy. I am honoured to be a part of this academy. The Tamil language and culture have a long tradition in the history of Indian culture as well as in Delhi. With the formation of this academy, we will kick start a new journey of preserving the language in Delhi and promote it too.”
The number of people born outside Delhi was 3.7 million in 1991. This is more than half of population of Delhi. Delhi holds large number of immigrants from South Indian states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, East Indian states such as Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and Bengal. Therefore, it is important to give equal importance to all the languages and cultures of people from different parts of India. Apart from Hindi, the other languages that have official language status in Delhi are Urdu, Punjabi and English.
Tamil was the first language to be classified as a classical language in India. It is the official language of Tamil Nadu and to other countries such as Singapore and Sri Lanka and also the official language of the Union Territory of Puducherry. The earliest period of Tamil literature called the Sangam literature dates back to 300 BCE to 300 CE. The cultural significance of the language is immense.