M. Gautham MachaiahThe latest to be bitten by the language bug is Chennai Mayor M. Subramanian, who has taken the drive against non-Tamil name boards on commercial establishments to ridiculous levels.
On the face of it there is nothing wrong in the Mayor’s campaign. In fact, the first citizen’s diktat is mandated by the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishment Rules, 1948, which state that the name board of every establishment should be in Tamil and wherever other languages are also used, the English version should be in the second place followed by other languages, if any.
To be fair to Subramanian, he has not imposed a blanket ban on the use of English or other languages. All he is insisting on is that Tamil should occupy 60 per cent of the sign board while other languages should be given lesser prominence.
The operation began during the countdown to the recently concluded World Tamil Conference, and so far, over 4,000 boards that do not comply with the rules have been pulled down. Buoyed by the encouragement from all quarters including political rivals, the Mayor has now chartered unto a course which he should not, in the process biting more than he can chew.
In one of the most ludicrous moves he has directed two hotels to change their names from Taj Mount Road and Rain Tree Mount to Taj Annai Salai and Rain Tree Anna Salai! His argument is that the name of the road was officially changed from Mount Road to Anna Salai several years ago.
By that logic, the use of Madras too should be banned. But would the worshipful Mayor have the gumption to direct that the Madras High Court should henceforth be called Chennai High Court? Why has he not turned his ire against Madras Rubber Factory (MRF), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; the public sector, Madras Fertiliser Limited; or the State-run Madras University?
Subramanian has earned a name for himself as a proactive Mayor and it is better that he reins his horses before his imagination runs wild.
Who knows? Tomorrow, he might want Madras eye to be called Chenn-eye!
(Picture sourced from www.chennaionline.com)
4 comments:
if Mr Vatal Nagarj - our own Kannada guy looks at this, then he will also start making such things like Bendakalur!!!
Changing names is such a ridiculous exercise. In a country like ours all signposts, buses etc should carry names in three languages English, Hindi and the state language specially if one is trying to attract tourists. It's difficult to ride/ drive around the country without readable signposts and it's not possible to learn every Indian language. Thiruvanathapuram is such a mouthful and even Malayalees do not pronounce it as it is written. Cherian
Good Read Gautham!! Especially the finishing touch....'Chennai Eye'!!!!
I agree with u 100%. There should be a limit to this regional fever!! Thats why I feel personally that we South Indians should not resist Hindi as the national language. End of the day all Indians can speak in one language which is not an international one!!! Anju-Hyderabad
Very nice article,
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