A thousand year old culture, apparently.
This is arguably the worst form of promoting regionalism and culture :
Free gold ring for babies with Tamil names.
CHENNAI : In a bid to promote Tamil language and culture, the Tamil Nadu government has started a scheme under which babies born in city corporation hospitals would be given a gold ring if they are given Tamil names.
I fail to understand how this would promote the culture, would be a gross understatement.
As you would expect, there isn’t any provision to counter parents who smartly decide to re-change the name after receiving the gold ring. Counter provisions are pointless in populist schemes anyway.
But in a few years, do not be surprised if you spot a dude in a mall in Chennai, rapping away to glory while listening to his iPod, dressed perfectly to suit hip-hop culture, complete with the jeans at the knees (beginning, not ending), until you approach him, “Magane, what is your name ?” and he replies, “Sivagopalakrishnaswaminathan Iyer”.
You would have to forgive him for the Westernization, for he is promoting Tamil culture.
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June 3, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Sindhuja
“Sivagopalakrishnaswaminathan Iyer” would be Sanskrit, for the most part.
‘Pazhanivelchamy’ on the other hand, might be considered Tamil (thamizh).
Note: ZH- is pronounced as an ‘L’ rolled, with some gymnastics of the tongue.
June 3, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Deepak Iyer
@Sindhuja : Pardon the ignorance. But would that mean that almost all Brahmin names are in Sanskrit ?
Conversely, does the law, in a sneaky way, apply only to the non-brahmins ?
I do know what zh is .. I am thamizh, in case the URL did not give it away [:)]
June 4, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Sindhuja
Sneaky. Wonder why no one brought that to question before.
(I wouldn’t want to be accused of leading you on to some concept which may/may not be true)
The comments in the TOI post:
“karuna fan,houston,says:definitely a great way to promote tamil names. I agree people are forgetting their great tamil heritage. Karananidhi is a genius. btw…The only people objecting to this project here are people with sanskrit names. probably tam brahms who are increasing feeling alienated from mainstream tamil culture.”
There you go!
I liked this one the best “Are you going to reject the taxes that you receive from people who are NRI’s, who works for non-Tamil speaking states/nation?”
I do wonder what the deal is, with the names. Few years ago, the govt announced tax exemptions for movies with titles in Tam.
And no offense meant @ ‘ZH’ explanation. It may help your readers!
June 4, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Deepak Iyer
@Sindhuja : It is just misdirected regionalism and part of the anti-Brahmin wave that is fast sweeping across many states, including Maharashtra, as you can see in the succeeding post.