Much more than most would think….
• One of three of the world’s classical languages and the only one still being spoken
• A large array of literature on varied subjects from love to politics to religion
• A treasure house of ethics and morals that is based on the equality of genders and NOT the sameness of genders.
• A dynamic language that includes mathematical and scientific terms
Of course, many erroneously believe that one can only contribute to a SA culture if one is a Tamil scholar or someone who knows the language well. There is room under the Tamil umbrella for many categories of Tamilians. If you speak and read Tamil, that’s excellent but we also have room for other Tamilians, whose role is also very important:
• Passive Tamilian – one who loves the Tamil language but does not know how to read, write or speak the language.
• Passive bilingual – one who can understand Tamil but not speak or write it
• Participatory Tamilian – one who is exposed to Tamil through film, songs or prayer
• Supportive Tamilian – one who is seldom exposed to Tamil but still takes pride in identifying himself / herself as a Tamilian. Not everyone has the desire to be a scholar of Tamil. but that does not make such a person less of a Tamilian any more than learning Tamil makes one more of a Tamilian. We each have a role to play and, together, we will take our language forward. That is why there is no plan to formalize TMK into an autonomous entity because we don't need yet another Tamil organization in SA. Stay in your organization and make it better, more dynamic and more inspiring. Let's build bridges between people and organizations so that we harbour dreams of unity within our hearts first before proclaiming it to others. By all means, do criticize but do that with love and a genuine will to change things for the better.
