Weeping that Kannada is on the brink of destruction will help us reach no end. Instead, we must work to develop the language and culture in all ways, advised Sa Raghunath.
The president of the 12 District Kannada Sahitya Sammelana urged Kannadigas during his speech on Saturday to ensure the splendour of the language remains alive forever.
“English should be a means of expanding one’s reach. It should never become a means of oppression and slavery to foreign culture. Kannada should be developed in such a way that it reaches the heights of English,” said Raghunath, adding that Sanskrit was equally important for the growth of Kannada.
“Attempts to accuse foreigners of attacking our culture are futile. We should identify the faults and reasons for weakening of our culture within ourselves. The growth of Kannada and Kannadigas is very much in our own hands, not in the hands of America or Britain,” he reminded.
“Also the charade of insisting that others send their children to Kannada medium schools while we send our children to English medium schools should come to an end,” he added.
Handling controversies
“Our lives today are surrounded by multiple controversies of all kinds- water, border, terrorism to name barely a few. In a status of requiring a permanent solution to all such problems, I would suggest that literature and literary meets become platforms to fight with vigour,” said the president, calling upon citizens to use literary meets to fight even for permanent irrigation schemes. “Yettinahole or any other project, regardless of what the administration takes up, Malur should return to its original state of magnificence.”
Another major issue today amongst us is that of borderland, reminded Raghunath, warning that if the borderland and mainland differences are not overcome, Karnataka will have its own Telangana. “While sharing of water has become a reason for us to fight among ourselves, we can certainly expect Tamil Nadu too to join the fight, demanding a share in the Yettinahole water in the future.”
Politicising farming
Comprehensive agriculture is the present day style, but the farmers should come out of the clutches of politicians. No form of agriculture can go on smoothly without a sense of symbiosis among the residents of villages. The government should work to relieve the farmers of their loans. Also, the votes of farmers should be given greater value. Only then will the demand for support price fall. We must also get local seed-culturing centre, to help farmers, advised Raghunath.
“The speeches made in the district demanding permanent irrigation scheme could go on for hundreds of pages. Stories on the cases of encroachment of forests, tanks and canals could be compiled into books. We need to clear all kinds of encroachments. This, however, can become a question of who would bell the cat. Therefore, the people who have encroached should withdraw the illegal activities. The citizens, in turn, should urge the encroachers. After all, we might be provided water through any scheme; but if we have already lost all water bodies to encroachment, where will we store the water?” he asked.
“Kolar is a district that fields Kannada, Tamil and Telugu languages, yet one finds no language-related clashed among the citizens in this borderland district. We should learn to deal with any issue on similar lines,” said Raghunath.
‘In the name of revolutionaries’
The speech of the Sammelana president Sa Raghunath caught the attention of the audience since he offered the honour to two famed revolutionaries. “Ramjan Saab was the only Kannadiga to have died for the cause of unification of Kannada land. Kotti Sriramulu of Andhra Pradesh died having fasted for 33 days against the language-wise division of states. I offer this honour of presiding over the Sammelana to the great fighters,” said Raghunath.
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