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Mis-use of Kannada by Registrar of Societies
Written By murali772 - 27 December, 2010
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The Registrar of Societies has a very important function to perform in the state, particularly with associations multiplying in their numbers by the day. As it is, they are short of capacity to handle the job they are assigned, effectively. On top of it all, are the fresh problems, brought on by themselves, in the name of promoting Kannada, but essentially for making under-hand money for the officials involved.
And, the Kannada usage is not confined just to correspondence, but extends to the entire set of related documentation.
Now, the Karnataka Official Language Act, 1963 (the latest amendment being on 9.3.82), clearly states that "English is to be continued to be used for official purposes until the government otherwise directs". And, the government has not directed otherwise until now, as per my understanding.
When questioned about this, under the RTI, the RoS responded (again, totally in Kannada), citing a government notice, which essentially directs the promotion of Kannada, but chose to remain totally silent on the legal aspects of the matter. I have of course gone on appeal to the Karnataka Information Commission.
We, in PRAJA, are ourselves a victim of this, with the office of the RoS sending us around in circles, while attempting to register as a society, since even a 'Kuvempu' will not be able to manage the language technicalities they are invoking. We have drafted and re-drafted our Memorandum of Association some five times, each time translating it into Kannada. And each time, it has been rejected, on account of some 'short-coming' or the other, the language mis-match becoming an effective tool in their hands, in the process.
The truth came out last week when a friend told me about how he 'sorted out' the matter with the help of a broker, the job getting done in a jiffy, but for a consideration of Rs 5,000/-, in cash, of course.
When I made a posting of my blog on a related matter on the 'SaveKoramangala' Yahoo-group, the following is what a true-blue Kannadiga office-bearer of an association wrote back to me:
Dear Mr Murali,
I am a Kannadiga by birth and Kannada is my spoken language. It has become almost impossible to deal with the RoS. I suggest that a group of associations should meet the Revenue Secretary to appraise him of the troubles they are facing due to Kannadisation. It is alright to sumit the covering letter in Kannada, but not the translations of technical details of the Minutes of Meetings of the AGM etc. Pl read the attachged letter I wrote to the president of an NGO whose details I tried to file with the RoS (The letter is attached, with the names masked).
The best way apparently to counter this would be for the Kannadiga's themselves to speak up, like the Koramangala resident has done, and to say a loud 'saaku' to misuse of their revered language.
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
We should promote local languages
srkulhalli - 29 December, 2010 - 11:48
If you were Spain, you would trouble yourself to learn spanish right ? or any other country for that matter. Just because the hosts are nice, doesnt mean we should not be nice to them and learn their language !
If they are corrupt, they would be corrupt in English as well - language has nothing to do with it - dont mix up issues.
Suhas (long time !)
murali772 - 30 December, 2010 - 07:18
@ Suhas
When you come on after a long time, it will be good if you could go into the fuller details of what is being written, and then make your comments, instead of mixing issues. As for promotion of local language and culture, there are many better ways of doing it - here's an example
srkulhalli - 31 December, 2010 - 05:09
I didnt read through everything - at some point I will - but we need to at some time discuss this at length - this is one of my new interests - saving our native languages - they are going to die out unless we work hard at preserving them
A lot of Kannada only folks face much bigger problems because they dont know English that well - thats probably more unfortunate because thats in Karnataka - we need to also be speaking up for them as well.
Your case is more red tapism - if they were genuinely interested in promoting the langauge they would have been nice to you since you took the trouble to get it translated. At least I am happy you did that much :)
murali772 - 31 December, 2010 - 07:47
@ Suhas - Every body is with you in not just saving, but even promoting the use of local languages. But, whereas it's all very fine when it comes to art and culture, if you want to extend it to law, engineering, medicine, etc, it's going to take a lot of doing. And, I am not quite sure it's worth the effort. I have elaborated more on that here. And, anyway, that's a separate debate altogether, a lot of which has already taken place on PRAJA, for eg here and here.
Also, the letter that I had appended (in the original post), in a way alleging reverse discrimination by the GoK, is by a true-blue Kannadiga (perhaps, more so than even you), who loves his mother tongue no less than a Kuvempu does. And, very clearly, these doings of the government johnnies do not come out of any love of the language.
So, let's be clear about what we are talking.
kbsyed61 - 28 December, 2010 - 02:59
Murali Sir,
If push comes to shove, you will be left with no other alternative but to shove. I think it is time to talk to revenue secretary and apprise him of the circles we have to go around. You can't take it laying low.
-Syed
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