'Kannada schools need govt help'

Childrens emotional world needs Kannada; English can come later: Kambar

Speaking after being felicitated by Suttur Seer Shivaratri Deshikendra at JSS Women’s College here on Thursday, Dr Kambara said English was keeping the children and their emotional world distant from the culture of the soil.

“It is time government runs schools in Kannada medium starting from kindergarten to SSLC. Kannada has to be the medium of instruction. English can also be taught as children go to higher classes. But, the emphasis should be on teaching chaste Kannada so that it creates foundation in the minds of students for anything more he/she may wish to learn, even if it is English or any other language,” he said.

Sharanas had their communion with God in Kannada; and we shared nine kinds of relationship with god, Kambara said. “If children are far from this soil, they will go into cultural and emotional bankruptcy,” he observed.

Referring to orality, Kambara said the tradition stressed on the extension of culture where men became the medium for legends of times to live on. “Their dependency was never on the script. Every generation added its bit to the surviving story. Hence, creativity never died,” he said. Quoting Panchatanta, Kambara said this country had taught the world, the art of story-telling. “No other country has such rich tradition as we do in India and it’s a pity we are looking at west for everything today,” he rued.

Tracing his writings and the ‘untrodden’ route he took in creating his literature, Kambara said when everyone was aping west, he came to choose ‘desi’ or the native mode of telling stories. “My village Shivapura turned into my centre of the world. And I continued my literary journey through that,” he added.

During his time, he recollected, every writer, including playwrights, were busy creating literature that responded to the world’s tragedies such as II world war etc. “Evam Indrajit a play that became huge success, was about the tragedy of wars. Lakhs of people died here too, when India and Pakistan were divided, but the world didn’t respond in literary sense,” he revealed.

Reacting to the today’s need in saving Kannada, by way of incorporating it into computers and creating high end technology to support Kannada in the era of computers. “Former CM Yeddyurappa had given Rs two crore for the cause of Kannada in the era that was dynamic as for technology. However, there needs to be political will to execute it,” he said.

Executive officer of JSS Mahavidyapeetha B N Betkerur, writer Jaraganahalli Shivashankar and Ma Gu Sadanandaiah were present.
DH News Service