The World Tamil Conference - An overview
Tamil language that has an enviable history of more than 2000 years got its due recognition at national level when the Government declared it a Classical Language in 2004. The World Classical Tamil Conference which held at Coimbatore from June 23 to 27 was the outcome of this Classical status.
The World Tamil Conference was organized by the Government of Tamilnadu, which aimed at connecting Tamil people across the world. The five-day World Classical Tamil Conference was a potpourri of plenary lectures, symposia, panel discussions, and academic sessions, besides Kaviarangams, debates, and other cultural fiesta.
Inaugurated by President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, the five-day conference hosted experts in Tamil literature and history from Srilanka, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, United States, Finland, the United Kingdom, Germany, among others. President hailed Tamil which has the oldest literature among the living languages of the World.
Around three thousand delegates from 50 countries presented their research papers about the uniqueness and antiquity of the Tamil language, culture, art and society.
Kalaignar Classical Tamil Award to Asko Parpola
President Prathibha Patil presented the ”Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award” to Asko Parpola, leading authority on the Indus script and Professor Emeritus of Indology in the University of Helsinki, Finland. While praising Tamil literature Parpola said that the rich literature and antiquity of Tamilnadu matches many other traditions in the world.
Tamil Internet Conference
It was Chief Minister, Kalainjar Karunanidhi who inaugurated Tamil Internet Conference (TIC). He said that Books and documents on Tamilology available in any part of the world should be converted into electronic format and arrangements should be made to provide universal access to the treasures.
There were 500 participants and 110 papers presented in the Tamil Internet Conference (TIC). Some of the subjects covered at the conference were: e-governance, Wikipedia, blogs, search engines, character recognition and Tamil domains. Michael Kaplan and A. Kumaran from Microsoft presented papers on various subjects. A souvenir was also released and distributed at the venue. It had 130 articles.
World Classical Tamil Conference - papers
A wide variety of research interests enriched the breadth of papers offered at the conference at the World Tamil Conference. 913 papers on 55 subjects were presented. Of the total number of papers, 152 were submitted by foreign delegates. There were 2,605 delegates, including 840 foreigners.
The topics covered on First day dealt mostly with the status of Tamil as a world classical language, Sangam period artifacts, signs of Indus script, grammar, problems in translating personal pronouns, analyzing dictionaries, etc.
Second day witnessed a wide range of topics from Tamil to music, cultural relations with South East Asia, Sinhalese poetry, African American music, role of Tamil women in nation building process, etc. Most of the topics were in relation to international languages and their association with Tamil.
There were also interesting topics on ancient coinage, copper and silver plates of the Cholas, Dutch, and Buddhists, marine archaeological explorations, etc., on third day. Some of the other catchy topics were in relation to religions like the contribution of Islam and Hinduism.
The sessions on the last day of the conference touched upon translation, media and Tamil. There were also those which dealt with the status of the language in Australia, Mauritius, etc. Each paper was presented using multimedia aids.
Cultural programs
When intellectuals and scholars benefited by the seminars, discussions and paper presentations at the conference halls, common public was overwhelmed by the richness and variety of the cultural events showcasing the unique grandeur of Tamil culture and literature. Lakhs and lakhs of people enjoyed cultural programs. The evenings were devoted to impressive cultural events inside the campus on the days of the conference.
Exhibition
People stood in long queues to visit the exhibition halls, which have more than 700 artifacts depicting the rich cultural history, tradition and literature of the Tamils. There was an Exhibition focusing on language computing too. About 1.7 lakh people visited the general exhibition in the last four days. Over one lakh people visited the Internet Exhibition.
Major outcomes
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi declared that the World Classical Tamil Conference (WCTC) would be held in the state once in five years. Government is planning various programs for the growth and development of Tamil language and Tamil computing. There will be initiations to take the taste of Tamil culture to other cultures in India and abroad.
The Government would stop using all eight-bit encoding and migrate immediately to 16 -bit encoding. Unicode will be the main code to be used in all applications where support for Tamil is available.
Most interestingly, Tamil has got a chance to appear on a stamp. It is the first time in the history of India a special stamp is released for a language.
This overview should not conclude without mentioning two souvenirs released at the Conference. The WCTC souvenir contained 129 articles and 34 poems was released and TIC souvenir with 130 articles was released and distributed. Both will benefit language loving people.