'Language can’t grow without wealth'

Jnanapith awardee UR Ananthamurthy (URA) gave a call to allow Kannada to spread its wings around the world in all sectors of society including literature.

“Kannadadalli Jagattashte alla, Jagattinallu Kannada irabeku (There is a world in Kannada, it’s time to make Kannada shine),” he told participants at the World Kannada Meet.

URA, who stuck to his stand that schooling should be in one’s mother tongue, said he has never been against teaching English at primary levels.

“However, we should take care that English should just be a manure, a tool to achieve knowledge and it should not overtake the learning of the mother tongue itself,” he said.

URA called upon IT companies in the state not to ignore Kannada as a communication tool in workplaces.

“I am hopeful we won’t see a day when Kannada would vanish from the streets of Bangalore. It should be alive forever like in the streets of our villages,” he said.

“Otherwise, as many fear, there will be divide in the country itself and it would result in an India for the rich people and the poor will remain in their Bharat as ever,” he said, asserting that a language cannot grow with literature alone and there should be financial and public backing necessary for the overall growth.