 Yn ni'n gwybod i chi oedd, mae'n gwneud. Mae'n ddrwy'n gwneud ei ddechrau am hyn yn y ffordd, mae'n rwy'n meddwl i'r ffordd o'r ddwylo'r ddwylaid. Mae'n ddweud bod yn rhan o'r carnatig rhan o bobl, ond rwy'n gweithio'n gwneud hyn teulu'r gyrnas. Mae'r gyrnau fiolig yn y ddwylo'r ddwylo'r ddwylo yn gyffredig, ac mae'n cael ei ddwylo yn y ddwylo'r ddwylo sy'n gweld, gyda chi'n ddweud o'r ddau. Rwy'n gallu i ddaf yn ddafodol i Dr Teij Pwrewel, rwy'r cyraint dyra, ysgoleth South Asia Institute. Fel hyn, amser. Felly, a i ddim yn ddafodol i South Asia Institute, yw'r ysgoleth fathiau fath ar hyn o'r fathiau ar y glorysledd y llyfr hwnnau, yw'r ysgoleth i fynd i gael y pethau'r llyfr, y Ddurfa Llyfr. We have an exciting programme for you this afternoon with presentations, performance, and finally a panel complaint at the end of afternoon in furthering our understanding of the significance of the Ddoddfaloevaróas well as the place of Thalm will language teaching and Thalm will studies here at sawas. This academic year marks Sawas's centenary and over the past 100 years, Sawas has had South Asian studies and the ynghylch o ysgolion sŵr ac yn ymdeithasol yma. Ysgolion sŵr ymddeithasol yn ydiolwyr o'r gwaith yn yr ysgolion sydd wedi'u gwaith i gyfnodol ac mae'n gweithio ymddangos i gael ei gweld o'r gwaith yn ei fachasol i gael ysgolion a'r gwaith bwydol o gwaith yn y syniadol, o'r gweithio gwirio oherwydd, o'r gweithio gwirio'r platformau a'r gwaith yn ysgolion ac, yw'n bwysig, y cymuno'r ymddur i Siad-Asia ac ymddur hwn yn bwysig ac yn bachodd. Rydym yn cael ei wneud o'r unig yma yw un 65 ysgoliaethau, allwch ymddur o'i gwylliant o'r ymddir yma yw ymddir, ymddir, ysgoliaethau ymddir yn enwyd, ymddir i Siad-Asia. Yn mod i, byddwn ni'n ddim o'r sgolau sydd yn y maen nhw ei bod yn ddiolch, ac yn y ddyn nhw i'r llwylliant ychydig, yn y ddwy o'r gael. Felly, mae'n meddwl, dr Crispin Branfwt yw'r ddechrau ar y Cymru, architekturau ar y Cymru. Prof. David Moss' yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r cystafell a chrystiannau ar y Cymru. Dr Stephen Hughes yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell. Felly, ac rwyf i'n meddwl yma ar y Cymru, os yw'r ddechrau cystafell yw'r gwaith yw'r Cymru ar gyfer y Cymru ar gyfer y Cymru, yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r cystafell yw'r ystafell yw'r cystafell yw'r cysig. However, I'm pleased to say that we are committed to now reversing this decision and reinstating Tamil language instruction at SOAS. In the near future, we hope to be teaching Tamil to undergraduate masters and PhD students from SOAS and the wider university community. And this will be part of the current multidisciplinary approach to the field of Tamil studies that you've already heard a little bit about from my colleague Tage. SOAS has a long established tradition of teaching languages that aren't taught elsewhere in the UK or even in Europe. It's an incredibly important part and a central part of the school's mission and purpose. In the next academic year, we'll be creating a whole new academic department within the school, which brings together current expertise from a range of smaller departments, a whole new department dedicated to the study and teaching of languages, cultures and linguistics of Asia and Africa. And we're determined to ensure that we play a leading role in providing comprehensive instruction in languages that aren't available at other institutions. The number one priority of this new department will be to ensure that we're teaching the languages that really matter in the 21st century. And Tamil is one of those languages. SOAS has recently launched a fundraising campaign called Questions Worth Asking. One of the questions is should we all speak the same language and clearly the answer from SOAS is we don't think so. Understanding the languages of a region or a country is essential for understanding its cultures, its literatures, its religions, its politics and its society more generally. Through learning and teaching languages, we ask different questions to advance development, prosperity, security, cohesion and mutual understanding. SOAS has bold ambitions that you're going to be hearing more about today for advancing Tamil studies at SOAS and in addition to re-establishing language instruction, we ultimately want to create a chair in Tamil studies as well. To meet these aims, we already have the intellectual ambition, we have the academic ambition, but we need the help of philanthropists from communities where Tamil is spoken today. And we hope that you all will accept our invitation to join us in thinking about the future of Tamil studies at SOAS and in the UK, and to help us in advancing Tamil studies at SOAS. So thank you very much everyone. I'd now like to invite Mr Rhamaswami Balaji, First Secretary from the Indian High Commission. Thank you Dr Natesh, Dr Ben, Dr John, Nandakumarol. It's a pleasure to be here. Tamil being relevant even in the 21st century. It's really a great honour to be part of that language, and it is the living language, which is the old one. So promoting that language in any possible manner, we should try for that. It is heartening that to learn that SOAS is trying to establish a chair. And if in any way the high commission can help you, we are there. Coming to Tirulawar itself, today I was reading that the God gave for the humans, it's the Bhagavad Gita. What man gave for God is Tiruwasakam. What man gave for man is Tirukwraif. It was really a beautiful thing to think. He has put it in 1330 couplets, how we can approach each and every problem of our life. So one thing was that such a statue being here was not at all known. Nobody was knowing that. Just when occasionally you see SOAS, there is a statue, but you can't clearly see that, okay, this is really Tirulawar statue. Then some, it started with our interaction with the Tamil community that the statue is in a bad shape and then we should do something for it. It all started with that, but somehow I think the telepathy worked and SOAS on its own. They took up the initiative and then they made the statue to a better condition. Still there is a lot of things that can be done. Like we would like to place this statue on a higher pedestal so it gives its own place. For that we are trying this thing and the efforts have started. Any help from your side or any help from our side, it can put together and then we can bring it up. Another thing I want to tell is that this being India, UK year of culture, more such things can be planned and we can take it up. Another thing I would like to mention is that High Commission as a part of its outreach, we are taking up programs with different communities and for the Tamil community, May 26th, we are organizing a program. Just a get together kind of a thing to know one another and how we can further contribute. So if anyone of you are interested, you're welcome. With those few words, thanks for inviting and it's a pleasure to be here. So as part of SOAS's centenary, I'd like to now highlight our campaign for SOAS around the idea which Ben just mentioned. Questions worth asking which asks fundamental and often difficult questions which is kind of a tradition here at SOAS. One being should we all speak the same language. I was going to show you a quick video. I think the questions the world should be asking. It's a huge question. What is a border? What happens after war? Is there a solution to the world's refugee crisis? Should we all speak the same language? What is the place of religion in the modern world? The first question that really struck me was why do we need equality? I see different stories shouting at me. Some of them really striking, some of them harrowing, some of them very beautiful. Common communication is incredibly beneficial but I guess you've got to look at the context that's born out. Do people want to go back to some sort of an abstract idea of religion and read and understand things word by word as it is written? Or they want to interpret it differently and use it differently in their lives? What happens after war? Societies and the populace tend to try to forget and I think the intellectuals and artists do their best to remind society. I think the people that tell the truth are those who are impressed, who are marginalised. Whose passports have how much value and how far you can travel with how much money, how much education you have. Physical borders that you can see and borders that are just imagined. All those refugee camps that have millions and millions of people living in them, I know where to go. We need to start looking at real viable solutions. So it's kind of uniquely placed to answer a lot of different questions and questions I don't think many other institutions could answer. It's such a unique position to be able to ask and meet all these people with all these different perspectives. It really does get you to think beyond your own world view. I've never had a conversation like the ones I've had it so has. That question highlights the importance of retaining the study and teaching of lesser taught languages such as Darmond. Often ones that have been affected by migration, displacements of its speakers, or those that do not have national status or patronage or recognition in their places of origin. In light of the challenges that government budget cuts to the teaching of such languages have presented today, through the commemoration of Thiruvaluvar, who sits so prominently at SOAS, we're highlighting SARS's drive to fundraise in order to reinstate Tamil language teaching and to more broadly highlight the significance of Tamil studies as a distinctive interdisciplinary field. Tamil is the 11th most widely spoken main language in the UK, and this table shows main language as those being, as the Office for National Statistics defines, those who claim it to be their first language. Now there's also something missing from this data. Is those people of the diaspora for whom it may be one of their main languages in a multilingual world, for whom Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, other languages may be used simultaneously, or for second, third, fourth, fifth generation Tamil diaspora, who are still retaining language being spoken at home, but it may not have been accessed through formal education. So Tamil is clearly a language that we here at SOAS would want to support, not only because of its high ranking here within the UK, but more internationally and as an area worthy of study, with language being so important to how we at SOAS value the study of other parts of the world. So this is an opportunity here at SOAS to develop a platform for Tamil studies, which crosses the borders of not only India and Sri Lanka, but also the extensive diaspora communities around the world. So in this spirit and in the presence of all of you here today, I'd like to now officially launch the Tamil studies campaign. I'd like to now welcome Dr Bala Subramanyam, Chatharun Bohan, from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the School of Advanced Studies, who has been a driving force along with our founding director, Professor Michael Hutt, who is here with us and who will be speaking later on today, behind the idea and planning of this event, and in providing invaluable connection with individuals and the various organisations present here today. Okay, I'm sure some of you have written nice. This was exactly on this day, 1996, that this particular statue was installed, and so we are today commemorating this particular great occasion. And when I was asked to speak about the statue, particularly its history, two things came to my mind. One is, how do you approach the topic? Do I just give dates, events, and then say that this is the history? This is very typical of learning where you recall facts, figures and so on. The second approach could be, what does the statue mean for the institution? What does it mean for the individual, and what does it mean for the community, and that community being local as well as global? So to start with the first one, so we started with this particular picture, and probably we'll go back to this particular picture and see you might be able to recognise some people here. Definitely Dr John Maher and Swami Naradhan, who is Mr Swami Naradhan, who will be joining us later in this programme. But then let me come to the present. This is a photograph taken from this year's Convocation, and here you see some other people with Rivalwar. These are the students who have graduated from Stoes, and so here we see that it's not only the official ceremonial part, but it is also the celebratory part in which the students are taking part. So between these two dates, which are very clear, I just wanted to ask a few questions, being an academic that comes quite naturally to ask questions. One is, what is the history, what is the background to this particular strategy? The decision to have a statue here was taken in 1995 at the World Tamil Conference held in Tanjavur, and then from that particular decision the government followed it up by other high commission and by the high commissioner of that particular time, who kindly contacted Stoes, Dr Swami Naradhan, sorry, Dr Blackburn, Stuart Blackburn, who was the head of department at that time, and then it was agreed that the statue would be installed here. In this particular decision, just this morning, I managed to establish contact with Dr Stuart Blackburn and then I asked him because he is a very well known folklorist who is very well aware of the traditions in Tamil Nadu. I asked him, why did you put Valluvar there? Is he supposed to be the village deity, the INR of the Soas village? Why didn't you put him right in front of this building then he would become a Dwarah Palaka who would be guarding the institution? Or why didn't you put him inside? Then he would be a vulnerable figure, almost a God inside. So the answer, I'm still waiting for the answer, but maybe you might be able to think of these three aspects of Valluvar that he is at the margins, but he is having an influence which goes beyond the location. He is also sharing this sacred space, what is called the knowledge quarter, the one mile square area of different institutions in this place. He shares this space with Rabindranath Chagur a few hundred yards away and with Mahatma Gandhi another similar distance. So between the three we have here, Soas is able to leverage this particular great intellectual strength from India and in order to look forward to the future. And as it was mentioned, the asks that are associated with this event are four. One is for a chair of Tamil Studies. The second is for having scholarships for people to come and study here. And the third for students from Soas to go to India or any other place where Tamil is as a regional aspect, as a regional language is useful for them to do fieldwork. And the fourth possibly to have an exchange, student exchange where students can go on a study abroad program to India and to other places. Now these are the four asks, probably there are too many, but they're not too many, they're all interlinked and they're all useful for restoring, not only the statue which has been now restored, but also to raise the profile of world over in the academia but also elsewhere as well in a global sense of the term. Thank you. Invited Dr Maar to say a few words and as you know he's a towering intellectual who has brought Tamil its great name within Soas and beyond. Dr Maar. Sa hodau, sa hodau regalee. Na nga rindu perol. Na nnum samsaramam. Na ma paria caluric o randafodane o remahici. Po ddim. It is very ugly to look past that. Quite a memorable occasion for both of us and also I should say for one of my best PhD students at Soas, Dr Nanda Kumara, so it is his college too to come back here after some years. Some of you outside would have heard that I retired from Soas in 1992 and I think I can say commuted from Soas to Parity of the Diabra and then in Kensington. And those of you who don't know us, please come to us also. Maar studies at Soas, the origins really are now almost mythology. Before the war there was a very eminent, do I call him a bibliophile scholar or what, Dr L.D. Barnett. My wife can just remember him. He was quite elderly when we were first there. Now he as far as one could ascertain represented apart from Sanskrit also an interest in Tamil. And so it remained until the end of World War II. After the war in 1947 the government published a report called the Scarborough report that envisaged the growth of what was then called Oriental and African studies at Soas and at other centres in UK. To that end, two teachers were appointed here. The first was one Kanakasa Parity Modalia who had in fact been an officer in the pioneer corps during World War II. The other was my own particular guru under whom I was more than blessed and fortunate was one MSH Thompson. Now Thompson Doree as he was always called was the first Britisher as far as it is known to acquire a degree in Tamil of Presidency College Madras. I still call Presidency College Madras by the way. It's in our statute or whatever. Thompson had studied under two very great Tamil vidvans. One was Dr Uwe Saminada Ayer. So therefore I have the good fortune to be in that Guru Parampariam as it were. And also Meenakshi Sundaram Prili, the author of a number of Stala Paranam in Tamil. So I had two teachers but the main one by far was MSH Thompson. He fetched up as Government Inspector of Schools in Bangalore and returned to UK in 1946 and as far as I know joined here in 4748 when I came here incidentally. Now I came into Sirass, I think the fairest thing to say is sideways. I won't say by the back door but I came in through the then Professor of Indian Archaeology Professor Caderby Codrington. And as a result I studied partly here and also the Institute of Archaeology whereby of course I had the inestimable privilege of studying under Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Any of you who is involved with archaeology will have come across him. I completed my degree in 1953. I should mention the other bit of the side door. The interest that I had in India stemmed from being attached to the Indian Army before and after independence and thereby I had learnt to read Telugu and Tamil both. And when I was first here I was also studying firstly Telugu and then Tamil and Sanskrit both. Sanskrit under what we in Scotland would call an old fashioned Dominic or C.A. Rylons. So look him up sometime. But there was a third member of that trinity as it were, Dr Arno Barker. Arno Barker had been a sysia aguradev that is Rabindranath Tagore before the war at Shantaniketan. And he was appointed in Sanskrit and Indian music. And because the whole powering of me if I can call it that the fuel had been Indian music from the very beginning when I was in the Indian Army. I encountered Carnatic music and that was and remains my fuel as those of you who were frequent above may have come across. Enough about me. I was appointed for Thamir initially in 1955 along with Dr Ronald Asher who came in by very different roots, came in via linguistics and French. And we were both appointed but our interests were very different. His was in modern Tamil and linguistics whereas I was attracted to Sangat Thamir on the one hand and the devotional writing of the Arwar and Nayanmar on the other. Ron Asher eventually commuted to Edinburgh and fetched up as Vice Chancellor of Edinburgh University. We never had a large number of students for Tamil and towards the end of my career I became also involved with Indian art and archaeology and the number of students for that meant that I really had very little room or time left for Tamil teaching. I think the largest number at any one time was six but among them were two extremely good PhD students. One I'm sure you will have come across that is Professor David Shulman who's now at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was one and the other a lady who is probably now in India our leading archaeo metallurgist that is Dr Sharada Srinivasan. And so I was very lucky with PhD students, rather more numerous than first degree students who remained always I'm afraid in single figures. Along with that we were involved with spoken Tamil course and here is where the third person whom I was very lucky to come as an associate with me, what we called an assistant, was one Potco, as you always abbreviate it. Dr Corr Underamon who in fact lived with us for a year while he and I were in devising the Tamil spoken course that was in fact funded by the government under the Voluntary Service Overseas Programme. So we devised a Tamil language course, illustrations by my wife by the way as she by then was. So the spoken course also took off. I retired as I said earlier in 1992 and I was succeeded by Dr Stuart Blackburn who I gather after some years commuted from Tamil to North East India somewhere. I met him I think just once or twice casually. I didn't have a very good record of publication in case you start looking me up. For the simple reason that I didn't want to write anything unless I felt I had something either interesting or original to contribute. So in fact by writing I fear strayed into South East Asia to wait the war ceremonies in Thailand on the one hand and on the other to work connected with the Shiva temple, the Ayuravateshwara temple at Dharasuram. Now I think my time is up so it just remains for me to say. I'd like to now invite the director of the Bhartya Vidya Bhavan, Dr Nanda Kumara. Namaste friends. I'm so grateful to have been asked to say a few words. We in the Bhavan we teach five languages Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali and Tamil. I'm so happy that our Tamil teacher who is teaching at the Bhavan is here now. Shreemati Rani Srinivasan who has been one of the persons one of the organizers of this event this evening. At the Bhavan not only we teach languages we do teach various subjects in the field of our art, music, dance, drama, yoga and languages. Of these our courses in the field of Carnatic Music and Bharatnatiam Dance, Muradangam, violin, lots of students are interested in these. Through this we are able to introduce our children into the very special field of our culture. In our Vedas it is said Sa Vidya Ya Vimukh Daye. That is real culture which helps any individual to free himself or herself from all kinds of bondages. Our effort in the field of our art and culture is to make sure that our children are connected with our art and culture through which they would be able to understand the very essence of our heritage. I'm really grateful for all our friends here at South Asia Institute for giving me this opportunity to say a few words. In the past at the Bhavan I just would like to mention the names of some of our teachers who were there who used to teach Tamil. Another teacher who retired recently is Shreemati Manian who is sitting here. In the past we had one lady by the name Maitreyi Ganeshan prior to that one Pancanadan but at the moment Shreemati Rani Srinivasan is teaching. I'm so happy that a product of School of Oriental African Studies my guru is here, Dr. John Maar. I'm so happy that I have been asked to say a few words. Now you will be witnessing some aspects of our art and culture through music and dance by the students of the Bhavan. Our language students, our music and dance students with the help of our teacher. Thank you. Namaste. Ladies and gentlemen, while the dance team is getting ready for the Bharatanatium specially choreographed for this event, let me mention a few things that went into the planning of this particular program. When we met Dr. Nandakumara in his office to request the Bhavan to help us to bring in the cultural side of things, one request was that we should have a Bharatanatium dance, not just as a dance, not just with the traditional themes that you normally find, but we should have something choreographed specially for this occasion, specially on Tiruvalluvar and Tirukural. So the idea is that we are adopting a dance format for this particular occasion. So what you are going to see is something which has Tiruvalluvar and Tirukural as the themes and what we will see again here is an interesting combination of traditional art with a specific theme and with a specific appeal. So to explain these things, Lakshmi will be explaining the significance of the innovative dance that we are going to look at in a few minutes. Vanakum, in accordance with today's Tiruvalluvar celebration day, the next item will be a Bharatanatium performance by students of Guru Sri Prakash Yalakudir of the Bhavan Centre London. Today we celebrate the great Damla classic, The Sacred Verses, the Tirukural, a book for any individual in any situation during any lifetime. Pened by the esteemed Tiruvalluvar, he highlights the everyday virtues of an individual, the light of a righteous life and the wealth of wisdom, morals and practical principles that we strive to follow in our daily lives as our contribution to society. Today we have selected a few verses to present today. Alpha or Ana, the first letter in any alphabet and the source of birth. Likewise, God alone is the source of all in this universe and the first and foremost beyond all. Next, we appreciate the beautiful sound of the flute and the Yal instrument. However, it is those who have not listened to their own children's sweet babbling who think that such musical instruments are more beautiful. In the third stanza, we think about the joy a mother has on the birth of her own child. Yet this joy is nothing in comparison to the great happiness she has on hearing how her son has grown up to be a noble scholar and wise man. In the last stanza, the duty and the greatest gift a father can give his son is to make sure that he is first in the entire council of wise men. Tirukural in Raghmalaka and Tishramadhi. Introducing today's artists on the Natavangam, Guru Sri Prakash Yadukode. Sri Prakash Yadukode is one of the foremost exponents of Baradhanathiam today. With an unparalleled mastery of this divine art form and an incomparable dedication to teaching, he has played a significant role in shaping Baradhanathiam in UK today. Providing vocal accompaniment, students of three with the Sivisakti Sivinesan, Shankarira Jindran and Sivahami Sibi. The Sivisakti Sivinesan is a gem in the world of Carnatic music and has inspired hundreds and nurtured thousands of students of vocal and voona, with many of them performing at professional levels today. Shankarira Jindran is currently studying psychology at university level and Sivahami Sibi is currently pursuing her GCSEs. On the Murdangam tonight, Sri M Balachander, presenting the Palani Subramania Pillay style, Sri M Balachander combines a great adherence to the traditions of his gurus with his own unique and innovative style of teaching and playing. He is the most sought after Murdangist in Europe and is currently the resident Murdangam teacher at the Boven Centre London. On violin tonight, Sri Baluraguraman, an accomplished violinist both as a soloist and as an accompanist, Sri Baluraguraman has a way of soulfully addressing the heart and conveying the meaning, the beautiful meaning of the music to each individual listener. He is currently the resident violin teacher at the Boven Centre London. Baradunatiam students performing today are Priya Bhavanidhan, Shivangi Chandrasekar, Meenakshi Veeramani and Lakshmiku Hindran. Baradunatiam production, Sivoham, will be on the Saturday, 16th of July, performed by Akshay Prakash, son and senior disciple of our Guru Sri Prakash Yargudi. Thank you. The diversity of students here, seeing Tamil Meen to present through Kural, their enthusiasm and interest in the way they are presenting it. Doing this, it's very important to recognize that this is a book which plays emphasis on universality, on global perception, which is global perception of human beings without reference to man-made boundaries of religion, caste, creed, religion. Nationality and other, what Tagore calls, narrow domestic walls. And in this particular universal work, you'd find that the reference to God is very abstract. And also the book itself is a product of extraordinary contestation of ideas between different faiths in the southern part of India, including Christianity at that particular time, which was related to Saint Thomas making his way to Kerala and beyond. Okay, now we are starting the program. Thank you. It is believed that Thiruvalluvar, the divine poet and sage, lived between 400 BC and 280. It is a guide to ethical life. It consists of 1,330 couplets. Furthermore, it is divided into three sections, which are Aram, Righteousness, Bural, Material World and Inbumb Love. Here are a few Thiruqurals with translations by Reverend G.U. Pope. Aram, Adigaaram, Virendombal, Kural, En, Thonnuru, Moppa, Kureyum, Anicham, Mugam Thirindu, Noka, Kureyum, Virendu. The flower of Anicha withers away. If you do but its fragrance inhale, if the face of the host cold welcome could vey, the gas heart within him will fail. Naad inbar naad a walaeth anna, naad inla, naad a walaan tharu naadu. That is the land that yields increase unsought. That is no land whose gifts were toil or bought. Maritalum, nitalum, vanda, uragam, paritiddy o rithy wedyn. What's worth of shaven head or tresses long? If you shun, what will all the world condemn us wrong? Arathupal, Adigaaram, Kadaval, Varthu, Kural, En, Thonnuru, Agoramoddala, Yretellam, Adibagavan, Muditre, Ulugu. A as its first of letters every speech maintains. The primal deity is first through all the world's domains. And so I conclude the final part of this recitation with the first quran. Namaste. Tiruvallavad is a celebrated Tamil poet and philosopher whose greatest contribution to Tamil literature is the Rave Tirukaran. Tirukaran illustrates human morals and betterment in life and has been translated into several languages. The quras we have chosen for today's performance are Agoramodala, Yretellam, Adibagavan, Muditre, Ulugu. Ana is the first of the letters in all alphabets, in the same way that God, the primal deity, is the foremost in the entire universe. Piravi perangadel neem duvar, neem dar, irayvan adi seiradar. Only those who are united to the feet of God can swim the great sea of births. Selvatul selvam, sevichelvam, atchelvam selvatul illam talay. Wealth is gained by the ear. Wealth gained by the ear is the wealth of wealth. That wealth is the chief of wealth. Malar mesei yeginan, maan adi seiradar, nilamesei nidu valvar. Those who are faithful to God's glorious feet, who pass swiftly over the flower of the mind, shall flourish long above all worlds. Kachad anal aya payan, enkol valarivan, natral torar yenin. What prophet have those derived from learning, who worship not the good feet of him, who is possessed of pure knowledge? Por i vaill ainda widdan, boitir o rukam, neri nindrad, nidu valvar. Those who are not distracted by the five senses, who follow God's path, devoid of any sincerity, will succeed and live long. Ynghym. I have prepared a lot. I made my journey from Wales today. The only thing that is sticking in my mind is tech diversion. a junction 23's closed or something else like that. It's a joke. It's a joke. Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India says, dream, the dream doesn't come in your sleep. The dream which doesn't allow you to sleep. There are many dreams in my life. Wales Thamol Sangam is one among those. 2011 we have started that up by myself. The last event we hosted, we represented the entire Tamil community in Cardiff. We hosted the Diwali festival where Mr Rajan from India Time Commission been a guest for that event. Nearly 5,000 people attended that event. Mahatma Gandhi says, in my next birth I want to be a Tamilian just to learn Tamil language, just to learn the Thirukural. So imagine how strong that book is. There is a saying in my language, kadwchai thulwethu elgadol powrthu kurgu taritha kural. It's small like a little mustard seed, but the knowledge in it is like bigger than oceans. So I'm really happy to be shared this dios with a lot of brainies. When I heard doctors, professors, lecturers, my top body is okay, but my bottom is a little shaky. I'm still having that student mindset. I'm glad that they announced me as the founding chairman for Wales Thamol Sangam, but unfortunately I'm not the chair for the Federation of Tamil Associations, Mr Jacob Raviballan is the chair for Feta UK. He works immensely with the Indian High Commission and the rest of the Tamil associations around the UK to support the entire Tamil community in the UK. There are 700,000 Welsh speakers in the UK, 550,000 in Wales, and the rest of them spread around the country. So I'm happy to be here to fulfil one of my dreams. We are at a very early stage in translating Thirkural in Welsh language, but at this early stage, this would be my first stage for recognising that work. Thank you all of you. Thank you once again. Thanks a lot. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Michael Hutt. I'm a professor of Nepali and Himalayan studies here at SOAS, which is just about as far as you can get from Canywkumari without leaving South Asia. But I'm very delighted to see this programme taking place today. It's something that a number of us have been talking about as a possibility for the last couple of years, so it's great to have you all here. What I would like to talk to you about is actually a Nepali translation of Thirkural that was produced, I hasten to add, not by myself. I'm afraid I've never had the opportunity to study Tamil myself, but actually by the father of one of my better Nepali friends. My friend is named Dr Prachush Anta. He is the research director of an academic NGO in Kathmandu called Martin Chautari. His father is Tirtharaj Anta, who is here on the screen, who has had a long and interesting career in many different capacities in Kathmandu and in Nepal, and is also a good friend of mine. A few years ago he said, oh, by the way, I've just translated this work from Tamil. Here's a copy of it. And I said, oh, thank you very much. I looked at it rather briefly, I have to say, and then set it to one side and carried on with my own work. And then a couple of years ago I was invited by the Tamil reading group to come to the Tiruvallode. And I suddenly remembered this book and I mentioned it. I was excited and pleased to know that this great work had been translated into Nepali. So when I knew this event was coming up, I wrote to Tirtharaj Anta and said, could you just give me a few words to say from yourself about why you translated this work into Nepali and how you went about it? And he very kindly sent me some words. So what I'm going to do is read you his words about why he translated this book into Nepali. So he writes as follows. I wrote this book from a student from Madras, now called Chennai, who came to Nepal to appear in the BA examination of Chabuvan University. This is the National University of Nepal. As a private candidate in the late 1960s, he brought this book as a gift for me. The book contains the original Tamil text on the left-hand side. The English translation is given on the right-hand side. I read this book then and found it both interesting and useful in guiding humans in different aspects of their lives. After reading it, I put this book away in my collection. As the years passed, I almost forgot about it. As a regular reader of Indian newspapers for over five decades, while reading The Hindu dated the 6th of August 2004, I came across a news report that reminded me about this book. That news item stated that the then President of India, the former scientist and great thinker philosopher Dr A.P.G. Abdul Kalam, displayed various excerpts from the great epic Turukural in the Rastrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The news report also mentioned that he had written commentaries on this epic. This epic, believed to have been written over 2,000 years ago, is regarded as the Gita of South India and read with great love and devotion. It has been translated into more than 90 languages. After reading this news report, I recalled that I had also read this book a long time ago. I looked for it in my collection and I found it. I read it and re-read it several times. Having translated several books earlier, a thought of translating this book into Nepali came to me. I began translating Turukural into Nepali from the English text I had sometime in August 2005. Turukural has 133 chapters and each chapter has 10 maxims, each of which are deeply related to our lives. It took me about five months to complete the first draft of the translation. I was not happy with the initial draft and hence I kept revising it. I revised the whole translation more than five times. When I had a much revised version of the translation, I thought that someone who knows both Tamil and Nepali should read my translation and suggest to me if my Nepali text was faithful to the original Tamil text. Since I did not know any Nepali who could read Tamil, I contacted the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu. The then cultural secretary serving at the embassy suggested to me a Mr Krishna Swami, a Tamil speaking chartered accountant who had been living in Nepal for over 40 years, could possibly help me with this task. I contacted him and he very kindly agreed to read both the Tamil and Nepali texts and help me revise my translation. We met several times to go through the text together and I revised the Nepali text as per his suggestions. Subsequently he opined that the much revised Nepali version was quite near to the original Tamil version and carried the thoughts encompassed in the epic Turukural. Upon my request, Mr Krishna Swami agreed to also write a foreword to the Nepali translation. In it he expressed his satisfaction and happiness about the fact that the great epic written in the Tamil language was now also available in Nepali. I made the arrangement to publish this book through the Onta family trust named Guna Ontaseva Pratistan. It was published in the year 2012 and was launched in a modest ceremony organised at the Kathmandu valley public library in downtown Kathmandu. Personal speaking, I am very satisfied with this translated book. This is the first Nepali translation of any work originally written in any South Indian language. Those who have read my translation have expressed their satisfaction and found the book to be very useful. So as I think there are no Nepali speakers in today's audience, I won't read you too much of the translation but just one of the many maxims which is from part 73 verse 1. So the Nepali reads So my English translation of that with that reference to the Tamil what happened, I hasten to add is as follows. If scholars who are past masters in the art of speaking assume that the assembly they are addressing is a powerful assembly of the most excellent listeners they will make no error or mistake at all. So thank you kindly for being a powerful assembly of the most excellent listeners. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to now watch a video which was recorded especially for this occasion. When we were planning this event we thought of inviting three eminent professors who are specialised in this literature in the literature of this era and in Tirgyrra, in particular. And one of them was Professor Arivunambi, the head of department of Tamil at University of Pondicherry. And the second one was former head of department of Tamil at the University of Adras. And the third was Professor Manuel from Sri Venkateswara University Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. The idea was to bring to the meeting three different areas, three different political units but encompassed within a single cultural unit. Because the borders of Tamil Nadu were described as Vada Vengadam, Thin Kumari. Southern part was Anya Kumari, the southernmost part of India and the northern part is Tirupati or Vada Vengadam as it is. Vengadam is the name for Tirupati. So, unfortunately, Professor Arivunambi while waiting for correspondence from us, correspondence particularly with regard to his air ticket and also his visa and things like that, he died of heart attack. And so we miss him today. The second one was unable to contribute for various reasons, personal reasons so to speak. And so we have the professor from Tirupati, Sri Venkateswara University, giving his presentation today. And so the important aspect of this is that the overlap between political borders and cultural borders might be different. And so we would probably want to reflect on the position of Tirupati beyond political borders of Tamil Nadu and other formations that we think about. And so I would play this tape and if there are any questions willing to field one or two of them but I would probably forward those questions to Professor Manuel and then get back to you with the results or with his comments. But at the moment let's enjoy his presentation. Thank you. I would like to thank Dr Bill Woodoff, dear Ramosami Balaji, esteemed Dr Navtej Marwar, beloved friend Dr Bala Subramanyam Chandra Mohan, ladies and gentlemen. Wanakum. At the outset, I would like to thank the authorities of School of Oriental and African Studies University of London for inviting me to share my feelings in this historic event on Tiruvannuwer. Tiruvannuwer and Tirukural is very famous names in Tamil Nadu. The biography of Tiruvannuwer is not known clearly but he lived during the first century AD. He belongs to a former family. He may be associated or served in the court or a personal secretary to the king. All these experiences should have molded Tiruvannuwer to the highest level of thinking. There are so many stories, tales on the life history of Tiruvannuwer. None of them have authentic proof. Therefore, I leave this matter to the audience's conscience because he belongs to a age about 2,000 years ago. In the very beginning, he invoked one supreme being or God in 10 couplets common to all people professing several faiths and living in different parts of the world. That itself is an indication that the subsequent chapters contain universal truth that is applicable to all. It may be said that Tiruvannuwer is a codification of human conduct in this world. It deals with spiritual life, domestic life, how the king should rule and how the minister should advise and act, etc. The benefit derived from a treatise will be virtue, wealth, enjoyment and even paradise. First and foremost, he deals with education. He said that education is amongst everyone. Education is not only productive of national wealth but constitutes by itself imperishable and flawless wealth. Tiruvannuwer sees in education a potent force for good in every sphere and lack of it a sure means of disaster. Tiruvannuwer has given us a life affirming philosophy based on sound principles of morality which is designed to bring happiness and peace to any society that apps for it. We are proud of his priceless ideas. That's why, why Supreme Lord Bharati says that the Tamil Nadu has achieved high renown by presenting Velluwer to the world. A study of Tiruvannuwer will reveal how he is more a fundamental thinker than a traditionalist. The validity of thinking and the of Tirukural arises from the fact that he was speaking to a free society whose conduct is governed by reason and wherein there is no room for dogmatism. His views on socialistic life, individual character, good society, prosperity, power, et cetera can be known from the following couplets. Share your bread with Needy. Now all the breathes on health. All these are the greatest souls expectations. Oral 322. The noble maniless which looks not at the wife not at the wife of another is to the wife not mere virtue but the very law of the being. Oral 148. That body where love even in the seat of life all others are skin-clad bones. Oral 80. Love, modesty, impartiality, sympathy and truthfulness of the five pillars of nobility. Oral 983. On wealth, Thiruvalur says whether it is the individual or the state that is engaged in acquiring the wealth everyone should take meticulous care that at every stage the moral code is kept in view. According to Thiruvalur the wealth acquired with the knowledge of the proper means and without formal practices will yield virtue and happiness. Men should act quickly. Men, otherwise, men should act shall oriented. Me a talk, not enough, many things but won't act. Some people chuck out the plan but neither initiation nor perseverance according to KAP Thiruvalur insists nearly two other couplets that need other perseverance of any work immediately in order to get fruitful result. If we go through some of the couplets we can understand is critical mind on research also if anyone is asking it can be read by me Oral 23 so if the eye of the eye can be seen in the eye Oral 503. One must not believe blindly by simply hearing For example, I quote, Malarionwm melliadw cwamwm sylwraddann chefbi thalipodwyr. 1,289 Malarionwm melliadw cwamwm sylwraddann chefbi thalipodwyr. 6 is very sensitive and important too. It should be under very carefully only a few who are matured enough can delete smoothly and affectionately. Brothers and sisters, recently the Central Institute of Classical German published a Compundium of Thirukural Translations in English, in which the editor Mr A. A. Manawalan selected 80 different versions of English translations He also mentioned about the translators, nodes and details of obligations. I understand that this great Thirukural is being translated in almost all languages in India and a good number of foreign languages also added in this list. I would like to conclude. If Thirukural is a work for all times, how relevant is it to the modern world? Thirukural deals with the essentials of human nature. Its observations go beyond nationality and language. Hence, it is acclaimed as a universal book of humanities for all ages and climes. I once again thank the authorities who have given me a chance to stand before you and say and share my feelings in Thirukural, the great masterpiece in Tamil. Thank you one and all. I would like to wrap up this particular video with one piece of information which I want to share with you that the Government of Tamil Nadu instituted a chair called Thiruvalluvar chair at Srivankateswara University. So we hope that we will have a chair in so has two. Thank you. Okay, could I call the round table participants to the stage please? That's Professor Hart, Mr Suresh Kumar, Mr Kudyandaswami and Mr Swaminathan. Okay, thank you very much. This is the last item in our program today. My name is Dr Mira Sabarutnam. I am a lecturer here at SOAS in the Department of Politics and International Studies. I teach and study international relations. Unfortunately I don't teach and study Tamil, but hopefully we'll have a chair soon and I can go in my lunch break to take some better classes. I'm delighted to be involved in this event. I'm coming at this not as a scholar of Tamil, but as someone who's heritage is Tamil. So my family is Sri Lankan Tamil and from a young age I've been going to a lot of Tamil cultural events. At the Hertfordshire Tamil School I learnt my Anna Arvina and my sari gama Father Nisa. I'm not sure I'm very much better than I was, but I hope that's something that will change. So the purpose of this round table is to really ask about the future of Tamil studies. We have seen from today that we have a very rich heritage which is full of thought. It's a very old heritage which deserves to be heard about. And I've asked these lovely speakers to come and share their thoughts about what the future should look like. So I'm just going to begin by introducing our speakers and I'll start on my far left. I'd like to introduce Mr Kothiandasami, who is President of the London Tamil Sangam. He's a graduate of engineering from India. He's worked as a teacher, a lecturer in a polytechnic and also as an engineer in a thermal power station. He's done a postgraduate diploma in advanced social research and statistics and for most of his professional career he's been at the London Borough of Newnham as an education welfare officer and then Deputy Chief Education Welfare Officer and since then he's worked for charity. Now today he's here in his capacity as President of the London Tamil Sangam since 2013. He was also a voluntary Tamil teacher and the head teacher for the Tamil School between 1994 and 2000. Thank you and welcome. Next on my left I have Mr Suresh Kumar who's here representing the Tamil Reading Group at Brent Library and if you are interested in joining a Tamil Reading Group I would recommend getting in touch with him afterwards. Suresh Kumar is also an engineer academically and has been an administrator by profession. He developed his interest in Ilakia Tamil from his school days thanks to his Tamil teachers and he has written more than 100 Haiku style poems widely known as Puttu Kavide. He is quite interested in analysing Tamil history and the living style and the heritage of Tamil civilization which has been collecting materials and he's also visited over 500 ancient Tamil temples. I'm very pleased to welcome Mr Kumar today. Mike Hart you have already met today but he is our professor here in Nepoli and Himalayan studies. He was also head of the South Asia Department at SOAS and he has served as Associate Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Cultures and he's also been appointed the chair of the British Academy's South Asia area panel. So the British Academy is obviously an important national institution for the promotion of the arts and the humanities. So it's very important that we have Mike in that role. And finally I'm delighted to introduce Mr Santanam Swaminathan who is a journalist, writer and teacher. So Swaminathan has worked as a part-time tutor at SOAS and he's presently chief examiner for A-level Tamil at Cambridge University. He's working as a Hindu chaplain also for the Her Majesty's Prison Services. He has postgraduate degrees in history and literature and he passed all the Sanskrit and Bhagavad Gitaig exams at the Bharatavya Vidya Bhavan in Bombay. He had a long career in the media and most of you will probably know him in terms of his work for the BBC World Service where he was producer for the Tamil section and he's also written and worked for dinner money newspaper in India. He has written three books and over 3,000 articles and subjects on Tamil literature and journalism and you can find many of these online on one of his many blogs along with his online Tamil lessons. I highly recommend the blogs, they are a very rich treasure trove of information. And since retiring he's been doing research on indology. So I am very, very privileged to have such a wealth of experience on the stage with me today. This is also going to be an audience participation event and so we will have a few questions from the panel members and then I will also ask you to get involved. OK, I'll start with Mr Kutiyan Dasami. So you're president of the London Tamil Sangam which was founded in 1936 and registered as a charity in 1960s. It's a very old organisation. In your view, what is the present state of the educational Tamil language and culture in the community compared to previous decades? Thank you, Mr Bharatnaw. Acara mwlaeddallol adi pa cafann y treibwlaethu. So you've heard so many couplets in this composition of the monarchy. So it's my turn to say that Acara mwlaeddallol. So we have London Tamil Sangam started in as Mr Bharatnaw said, started in 1936 by eminent personalities from India. You know those are the people, the first finance minister of India and also the veteran communist leader. So since then it was visited by the father of the nation, Makathana Gandhi, and then moved into East London. Since then the London Tamil Sangam is propagating the Tamil language and the culture in a very creative way. We run a Tamil school of 180 children on Sundays. They are coming since the age of 4 and up to the A level. We are the London Tamil Sangam's registered examination centre for the Cambridge University GC Tamil and also the A level Tamil studies. So at the Tamil school we are, for the students coming from variety of even, we have a student, a elderly student from French who started to learn Tamil. And we had people from Netherlands to study Tamil and we have so many people coming to learn Tamil. In our Tamil school on Sundays only 2 over tuition is done by the volunteer teachers. We start from year 4, the age of 4 up to the age of 16. Since then we have people coming from other institutions like teachers in Tamil, people who are teaching other subjects in other colleges who come to promote Tamil. Like A level, if you study A level Tamil, which is considered as one of the A level subjects to capture your UCAS points when you go into uni, that we ask the teacher to come and talk about it so that they can gain as any other subjects massively science Tamil. If you study A level Tamil you can get these 120 points, 160 points, whatever may be the grade, whether it's A grade or B grade. So since then we have so many students coming in to study Tamil. And that's the Tamil Sangam is doing fantastically for the past 20-25 years in the East London. On the cultural side, a London Tamil Sangam is organising well promoted event like Pungal Veda, once a year which will be attended by around 700-800 people all over the UK. So where we promote our culture like any other culture of how we, as a Pungal, you know the Pungal, how people will invite and people to provide food and everything. So we also, as part of Tamil school as well, we are creating the world in Tamil games like the thiam and other kind of activities as part of our Tamil school annual day celebrations, sports day celebrations, which also attract so many people, the younger generation, get to know the older generation. We are also getting visitors from India, Tamil Nadu and also the grandparents who come to visit the grandchildren in UK also come to talk to those children what's the importance of, you know, learning those cultures, why we need them. As one of the participants said here, as a guest, when you host a guest, how the Mopakurey Manicham, Mwgamgrindu, Nokekureyw, Virundu, those kind of stars only we can learn in Tamil school and the Thrukurell advances that kind of activities through our Tamil Sangam. Thank you. Thank you. So it sounds like, at least in the London Tamil Sangam, it's a very healthy situation at the moment for the study of Tamil. I'm now moving over to Mr Swaminathan. You have many years experience as a journalist and a teacher and an examiner. I'm really asking you now what can we do here at SOAS to complement the efforts that are being made at the community level? Since I got the post in earlier, I have prepared some answers, but one warning, Tamil's no only commas, no full stop, please stop me. I will. Thank you. Dear friends, good afternoon and vanakam. Thanks for giving us an opportunity to express our views on the development of Tamil studies at SOAS. The very fact that the Government of India approached SOAS to get some space for the installation of Thiru Rurus statue and the very fact that the SOAS readily agreed to show us the importance of Tamil care. What are the advantages SOAS has got over other institutions? This is a prestigious institution with a long history of supporting South Asian culture. It is a huge library with a very rare and old Tamil books. Very near, we have got the world famous British Library with a treasure trove of old Tamil books. I have been posting on Facebook all the 100-year-old books for the past two years. I have touched only a fraction of the treasure trove. This has got the tremendous potential for research. If one night person starts describing the beauty of nature or the arts, we know that the person hasn't got the full view of the things he describes. Mother India, Barth Mata has got two eyes. That is Tamil and Sanskrit. Sanskrit is available here. We have got a big department here, but Tamil is not available here. SOAS is like a one-eyed giant. It is a handicap for a person without Tamil. Tamil is not anywhere in the UK universities. It is a black mark on the country which boasts of your multicultural society. But we have Tamil at Cambridge University giving only year-level and world-level examinations. As I mentioned earlier, SOAS is the best-to-pay place to teach Tamil. Great Tamil poet Valver, as inspired generations of Tamil scholars, is here to inspire us and guide us. Next is the Tamil zone. We know that London is the financial capital of the world. It is in such a time zone, it covers the early morning Hong Kong share market, Tokyo share markets and later even New York market. No need to say that it covers all the European markets as well. Friends, I tell you that London can be Tamil capital of the world. We have got 100,000 Tamils living in the country. Plain loads of Tamil personnel are coming every week to work in computers and other industries. There are over 25 Tamil Hindu temples here and there are over 130 Tamil organisations listed here in the yellow pages and 100 dance and music schools are here. So, Tamils are living here without the language taught here. They all need the help to learn the language, particularly foreigners who are attracted to Tamil culture are very keen to learn the language. Every day, British tourists are landing at the airports of Tamil speaking countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Central Asia, South Africa, and foreign refugees, Mauritius and Guyana as well. In the past, they tried to organise Tamil summer schools here, but they tried without much success because the community was not involved. They need our help. If we have the service to bring more people here, service can help to support the language. I used to meet my Sri Lankan Swedish friend and chat with him on various topics. He was for a separate country in Sri Lanka, but I was second to him. Once we touched the topic of teaching Tamil at the University of London, then I said it's going to die very soon because I have been working here for 20 years teaching Tamil. He asked me. I told him that there are departments of Nepalese, Burmese, Singalese, et cetera, which have got off the population of Tamil in the world. He asked me why. They are from a country, so they refer to the country. That's why I'm fighting for the Tamil country. I was surprised and shocked. I reached out to another topic quickly. So do the showers want us to divide a country just to get your language important here? And British, where I was recruited by BBC Tamil service to come to the countries on 1st of January 1987. I have been living in this country for 30 years. That service after 70 years is solved three weeks or one week ago on 30th February. What did they stop it? Because there is no sea level politics. So they want politics. They want a separate country, then only they will have a department. If it's not ridiculous, please start the department with such activation. And the last thing I wanted to teach is Tamil training. Sorry, I've been stupidly. I told that there are over Tamil weekend schools in London alone. Last week a Tamil organisation was launched in Chilmsford. The teachers need good training. They need the uniform service. They need the structure. And they need a certificate from a good student like ours. So here we came by a big role. And I have got other topics. If there is a question at that time, I will discuss about the other topics. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you also for the comment about the commas and the full stops. It's so fascinating that I will indulge my speakers a little. I now turn to my colleague, Professor Michael Hutt. You've led SOAS's efforts to promote the study of South Asia for some years. In your time, what have you learnt about what it means to promote languages and cultures in an institution like this? Thank you. I'm not sure which punctuation I'm specialising to. The unique feature of SOAS, as I'm sure you know, is this particular focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East. And we teach a whole range of different humanities and social sciences disciplines here in our approach to those societies of the world. But one of the most distinctive features of the school as a whole is the way in which it actually also incorporates training in language and more broadly in culture and so linguistic fluency and also cultural fluency in enabling our students to become not a very popular phrase at the moment, but I think one, in vertical circles, but I think one that still rings true here, citizens of the world. And when we teach a language here, when we pursue the study of a language here, it's not just the instruction at an elementary level that we wish to maintain. It's a whole range of courses so that students can then come through the front door not knowing a particular language at all and three or four years later, perhaps, if they're undergraduates, they will leave able to read, write, speak and understand that language to a very advanced level so that they are actually able to interact with its literature, its rituals, its society, its culture in its own language. And that's something that's so asked us uniquely, I think, in the UK. Now, I came here as an undergraduate in 1976 and I came to the South Asia. What was then the India department, actually? I think John. John was a member of staff there. At that time, so, I was quite a small college of the University of London and I think the India department probably had more professors than students. My Hindi class, I remember my first year Hindi class, I think there were three of us at the time. And the number of subjects and languages offered by that department in its various shapes and forms has shrunk over the years since then. So, back then, 40 years ago, it offered courses in all levels in Hindi, Nepali, Bengali, Urdu, Sanskrit, Marathi, Urdu, Sinhala, Tamil and possibly one or two other languages that I can't remember. It now offers only five of those languages across the degrees and these are degree level courses that are taken for credit. So, it had a large government subsidy. People weren't worried about the numbers of students. If there were no students for a particular subject one year, then the professor had more time for his or her research and it wasn't a great crisis. Nowadays, we've moved into a very different financial and political environment. So, us is a very much bigger university and a much more independent institution. We have around 4,500 students on campus, roughly 50% undergraduate, 50% postgraduate, a very large proportion of students from beyond the UK, from continental Europe and the wider world. The undergraduates, of course, are now having to take out loans of £9,000 a year for their undergraduate degrees. If they're home students or European students, students who are further afield have to pay a great deal more. So, student decisions about which course and which programme to follow are much more influenced now by their career and job prospects. Which means that of the languages we offer, we see reasonably good and growing enrolments in languages such as Arabic and Chinese. But in languages of Africa and South Asia, with the possible exception of Hindi, we've seen a decrease in undergraduate demand. And we are in a market environment now. If there isn't demand for something, it's taken off the shelf when the person who teaches that subject retires because the department can't make a financial case to the management of the university for replacing that person when he or she retires. So, the government subsidy has gone. We are ended on income. I'm running out of time. Okay, just a little bit more. So, the financial environment is quite hostile to subjects like my subject, Nepali, to the subject, Tamil. And we have to look for ways of maintaining these subjects that involve special measures. The government is talking to the university sector and so has in particular about a new scheme which would involve the government offering some kind of matched funding for subjects for which the university has raised private philanthropic funding. We don't know in what measure yet. We don't know the exact details of this. But it makes it a little easier for us to go out to people who are friends or so out of our particular interest in subjects we wish to maintain to say if you can help us financially the government will match your donations or your help in some measure. And through the South Asia Institute, I'll skip one more mention, through the South Asia Institute which has been up now for just over three and a half years we have managed to have some success in raising money for scholarships on the first case from the government of West Bengal to whom we took our concerns about the future of Bengali language and culture teaching here. And they have funded for two a year master's scholarships and one PhD scholarship for students from West Bengal to come to SOAS to pursue their studies to enable us to make a stronger case for the continuation of Bengali. And we've also been talking to a number of private individuals about creating scholarships for students to take particular courses particular degrees and the biggest success we've had so far is with Mr Michael Palin of the Monty Python fame who gave us a two year scholarship for a student to take South Asian language and culture at postgraduate level. So those are the couple of the ways in which we can try to maintain the ambitious subjects and revive those that we no longer are feeling able to to offer. Thank you. Thank you Mike. And last but very much not least Mr Suresh Kumar you're a big enthusiast for Tamil literature and a poet in your own right. What do you think an education in Tamil literature in the 21st century means? Thank you Dr Meera. Anewa rychwm anekam gydweinig. And a very quick brief of where I come from this is from the Brent reading circle of the Tamil and interestingly they started at 2006 and we meet on every month last Saturday and we choose a specific topic to discuss especially interestingly we start with the dirkural and maybe it will be read and people will translate in the and of course in the version of and then people will give their own ideas and how the dirkural would have been meant for the present situation and we go for different topics every month on month a lot of people from India and Sri Lanka comes and join and give their discussion on unity and the topics will be given two weeks before the mail and people will be ready for the loving Saturday when we will come and meet so it looks like a family gathering and not only become friends a lot of cultural exchanges are happening that is in the front. Coming to your interesting question what will be the Tamil literature how it looks in the 21st century I think what literature we should see is the global economy and growing technology see Tamil are done trades in the 11th century when Cholas have gone and gone to Far East and Asia Pacific and they have gone they have done the trade during those years even in the 7th century where they are the very famous traveller Iwan sang when he came via silk route and of course thanks to he came up to Conchiburam of southern Tamil Nadu and was surprised to see my Chinese friend is there laughing I could see them so he came and he was surprised to see the trades were happening in multi level trades were happening and I mean people from different origins comes and trade there interesting thing is the cultural like conchi university is one of the very leading university like Nalanda university he has recorded both Nalanda and conchi university and the conchi university also takes multi I mean linguistic people from different part of the world and very interestingly it was the soirs of I can see there is a replica of soirs in the 7th century I think so I really feel that the global economy and of course the technology which is the driving forces of the present world both of these things has to be a part of the 21st century literature of Tamil Thank you Thank you to all my speakers for their interventions obviously one of the things that has come through over the course of the afternoon is how global and Tamil in every continent in every industry in every part of the world and that globality that spread and that reach is a very old phenomenon and one can think of course about the contributions of Tirucharal in an age like this when Professor Manuwal was speaking about the importance of truth I was thinking about Donald Trump and his fake news alvers and how important it is to still think about studying the truth and promoting education today I have a question which I was going to ask to my panel but I think I'm going to throw it maybe directly out to the audience so can I Tejas got a roving mic so my question to all of you I mean feel free to contribute it's really about the future of Tamil studies what should we be doing here at SOAS university we're in London maybe London is the city of the tunnels to connect them around the world wherever they are it's certainly a place with facilities it's a place we're at SOAS with a great library and we have a very lively young population of tunnels especially so what should the future priorities for the study of Tamil be in this city we have Dr John Ma who's straight off the well I'm encouraged by one of the participants and of course a salutary note from Mike Hart there of the other 9000 a year to be an undergraduate that's the discouraging bit the encouraging bit is Tamil reading group at Brent now why do I single out these two things I have the privilege at Bovan of teaching a number of the children some of whom you've seen, done, and heard sing how many of them whose mother tongue is Tamil and there are others by the way other languages how many of them read the script they speak the language but they don't read the script they are living in a totally different language environment and if you doubt that then a girl whose name we all would know both in this audience and at the Bovan a girl whose name is say Vanita what will she come out as Vanita with a stress moved and this is one of the problems is the redistribution of stresses in the words one of the benefits that I had many many years at SOAS was a first rate phonetics and linguistics department and they put the fear of the Lord into one didn't pronounce these properly now with Tamil the necessity is to read the script then you will know where the long vowels are and even there one said to pronounce the consonant at the end of the word Tamil don't worry, the Greeks couldn't work it out the Romans couldn't work it out Ashoka, edrych couldn't work it out either so there we are but this is my point is that it's necessary to retain the phonemics of the Tamil language and the only way is to insist on being able to read most of the children now of what one would call the third generation whom I teach I have to teach through the Roman script admittedly the approved international version with dots and dashes and so on simply because they cannot read Tamil they cannot read Kannada they cannot read Telugu there are exceptions and I accept it but surprise was expressed when it was found that Dr Luxembourg Gohendran who directed the dance items and announced them she's a practicing doctor she was many years ago I'm delighted she's one of my students she reads Tamil and this was a matter of surprise John, John John, John, John, John so my plea is for Tamil script to be used and also to make a career of language acceptable in a climate of 9000 a year or I'm going to be a doctor I'm going to be a lawyer I'm going to be an engineer how do we change that I'd like to take some further interventions from the floor if you could keep them as brief as possible so we can include as many of you as possible that would be marvellous I'll start here with my friend there and I'll come back in a round thank you I'll break the trend and speak in Tamil okay have a a a a a a a a a a a a a a I think my comment is more about Sir Asfis. I will go around the room. I will take these two gentlemen on this side. If you wait until you have the microphone then the recording will capture you. Sorry, just wait until you have the microphone please. My name is Kannan Swamy. My question is directed towards Sir Asfis on the stage and to Professor Swamy. I have a passion for Tamil language. I would like to follow Sir Asfis on the language. The question is, despite the Hori tradition, despite our culture, despite the literature, the other languages can't even match. Most languages can't even match. Why do we still struggle to propagate the Tamil language? And we struggle even within the Tamil community and with institutes such as SOAS if they can't go find the funding for it. How are we supposed to develop, how are we supposed to take Tamil through to the next generation? Because you've been part of this university and you've been a professor. My question is directed towards you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take a few other questions. There's a model of brevity, which I liked a lot. Thanks for taking Jennifer behind you. Are you going to give a chance to the panelists? We'll take a few and then we'll come back to the panel. Sorry, my name is Sivanathan. Staying with the pronunciation part of it. Now, Tamil is actually, when you say it in Tamil, it's Tamil. And when you write it, you write T-A-M-I-L, Tamil. There's a slight contradiction here. So why not SOAS take the lead and get the correct pronunciation, the spelling on the dictionary and so forth? Tamil as T-H-A-M-I-L as opposed to T-A-M-I-L. Okay, I will come back for another round of questions. I'll take one more on this side and then all of you who I've been neglecting on this side I will come back to. Hello, my name is Karthik and Sivam. What I have to say follows on from every speaker that spoke before me. First, the gentleman who spoke first. I can't remember your name. Apologies for that. But I pay a lot of respect and I offer massive props to you for speaking and sorry, pronouncing Tamil as it's meant to be pronounced Tamil. And then following in from after that, the gentleman who spoke. I can't remember what exactly was said, but my point is that Tamil is extremely intricate and it should be addressed as such. But the history of Tamil people all over the world, I think that needs to be acknowledged more so. The indentured labourers from India who went to Sri Lanka who live still in Skwala to those in Malaysia and Singapore. They need to be acknowledged within the studies of SOAS and other institutions. I would also like it to be known. I would like the awareness to be spread as to why non-Tamels appreciates and have wonderment towards Tamil culture and the Tamil language. I think that's what needs to happen. We need to understand the inequalities that still exist across the Tamil diaspora and also why non-Tamels appreciate Tamil culture and the language so much. Thank you. All right, thank you. There's a lot of very great contributions from the floor. I will take a quick set of answers from my participants here on the stage and I will go back out for some more questions. But we've only got about six more minutes so I will ask you to be brief if you have anything to contribute. I would like to say a few words on the issue of bringing Tamil to the children. It's a very sad issue to bring to the children at this age. I'm telling my own experience. I'm telling my son Ponni and Salon's story every night. I will tell my son Ponni's story and he will come home early to study. I will tell him about 60 minutes every day. I will ask him about that from now on. I will tell him about bringing Tamil to the children from a young age. I will tell him about the big story of my son Ponni's story. Thank you. It's delightful to hear Tamil spoken here. Not all of our speakers will have it. Some of the points you may want to also repeat in English for the benefit of some of the non-Tamil speakers here. Thank you. On the question of how to go about it and why it hasn't happened so far that we have a dedicated position on Tamil that's so asked. I'm not a representative of so asked management so I can't obviously speak for the school's executive board. The way I see it is that there's a range of possible provision. One is the minimal level which is basically to have somebody paid for a number of hours to teach beginner's Tamil language to students that wish to take it and to make those courses available in a whole range of different syllabus as we have it so asked. Just about every student at least in theory can take a language regardless of which degree programme they're in. That's the minimal provision. One language course for students that don't already know Tamil. Maybe also a literacy course for students who do know Tamil but haven't learned to read and write it. The other end of the scale is a position where you have, again, a professionally trained and excellent language teacher for Tamil but you also have a scholar who is conducting research, supervising PhDs, teaching graduate level courses on Tamil literature, society, culture, music, whatever the field will be. The situation at the moment is, sorry, very briefly, we do have a number of people whose work focuses on the Tamil speaking area of India but that's sorted by accident because when we recruit, for instance, an anthropologist, the anthropology department will look for somebody who does a particular kind of anthropology, cultural anthropology, political anthropology, social anthropology or whatever and they will bring their regional expertise with them and that's kind of random. What we're looking for here, I think, is an opportunity to find a way of creating positions that are actually wedded to a region and will always be that way so that there is a Tamil interest at SOAS, as there is currently at least a Nepali interest at SOAS Incarnate, if I can use that word, in a particular scholar or pair of scholars who handle the language, the culture and undergraduate, graduate and research levels as well. Thank you. Swami, would you like to? We are going to finish the meeting in five minutes. So what is the way forward? I will touch the funding goes in here, sorry. I reached out the courses that were stopped very recently. Great teachers from India and secondment and like the BBC World Service meet every third month to maintain the momentum and get the Tamil community involved in it. Start a movement like the Harvard University Tamil chair movement and start collect funding. Involve all the Tamil in the organization by organizing every third month, some event and the Tamil excuse. So when the Vivekananda Rock number was set up in Kanyakumari, we went to every office and gave a Vivekananda picture and asked only one rupee at that time, 40 years ago. So we can collect one poem from everyone by giving Thiruvandur a book or Thiruvandur picture. Why was it stopped in SOAS and what do we do for funding? We have got funding. It has been going on for 20 years and suddenly they stopped it. They were playing games. I will tell you the secret. It is called poaching. Poaching means secretly hunting illegally. I didn't even know that way. When Stuart Blackburn was my professor who recruited me to teach Tamil out of four words community, he was meeting me in the library. I said, it is going to die very soon. So still the poaching is going on. What is poaching? First of all, when the South Asia Department had this approach with the young students, they will say, sorry, we don't know whether Tamil is going to run this year or not. They will be discouraged. Because they have got a Nepalese department, because they have got a singleese department, they first push the students to them because they are getting fat salary. They will justify the departments running here and then the last four students will be there. They will be chunking into the ships and they will be called to me, sorry, can you please come and assess this student. When you come here, that is the day to sign the course. Sorry, this evening we are going to sign the course. Will the course run? Sorry, I can't promise you. I can't spoil your life. I will take another quick round of questions from the audience. Can you put up your hand clearly if you want to? There are more hands than I will have time for. I will take the gentleman here in the pink shirt. I will take the lady up in the corner and I will take the gentleman holding the camera on that side to begin with. Tajik, can you come here? There is one mic here. Yes, I think we have one. Manakwam, adein peir Selvaraj. Naan kettw pwng gelwi, ynddyn nhw'n palgalaeth y gallai asilyr yn y cwmwysigol maen nhw'n gweithio'r angyleth yw'r gweithwyr yng Nghymru. Manikwm. When Dr John was telling about his passion on Sangat Tamil, that is classical literature, I felt very ashamed, not only as a Tamil, but also as one from Etaiapuram. So my question to the panel is, is there any way we can make the children interested in Tamil literature, not just read and write, but go further and interested in the Tamil literature. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, the lady at the back. Hello, my name is Arini. Thank you very much for such a great afternoon. I want to go back to answer the question you asked, which is what can so us do for us. Being someone like you who was forced to go to Tamil school to learn Tamil, I think, and now doing exactly the same thing to my children and sending them to Tamil school, I know there's a lot of Tamil schools in the London area really promoting Tamil who are filled with wonderful volunteers who try their very best to teach our children. I'm very grateful to all their help, but I wonder if so us can help them by improving the level of teaching by sending younger students from so us who are enthusiastic about the subject who can then show the younger children like my children how great a language Tamil is and what it can do for them. And that would be wonderful. Thank you. And we had a question from the young man just on this side. Good evening, everyone. I just would like to recall two people's great contribution to around this through a lower statue. One is Mr A Selvaraja, who conducted a Tamilology conference in 2013. So we got the opportunity to attend that function and accompanied by Mr Jacob Ravipalan, President of the World Tamil Organization, President of FETTA UK organization. We both found that the statue was not in good condition and then we took it to the Soyuz management and in 2014 we organized our first get together. In 2015 we organized the first through a lower festival day and in 2016 the statue was not there and in 2017 we did it and we have promised to do it again and again every year. This is one thing which I would like to recall two people into this forum. And my request is Soyuz holds the largest collection of Tamil manuscripts and as we know Tirukurellis again came to Tamil culture only after 18th century. There are several such treasures hidden inside the manuscript form and Soyuz can take the lead initiative to translate them or to put them back to digital format. So I would like to request on behalf of the Tamil community to take leadership on this role to the head of Soyuz now. Thank you. Thank you. I will take one more comment. Actually our South Asia Librarian is right here in the room so I will ask her actually to just contribute on this point. So thank you very much. My name is Farazana. I am the South Asia Librarian here at Soyuz. We are always looking to raise the profile of Tamil language. We have a number of palm leaf manuscripts actually that have very limited catalogue records. They are quite fragile need conservation and we are looking actually for donation money for this. So just to let you know it is something that is not being left on the wayside. We are very much interested in raising the profile of Tamil. I think also what would be great is if we could have more community participation with schools, with the library, with scholars, with lecturers, academics. If we could all work together to perhaps, as you say, raise the profile of Tamil literature. So we would be very interested in your interesting offer and perhaps later we could talk about that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. There are more hands up but it is 5.30 now so I think I am going to draw this session to a close and with the speakers indulgence I won't come back to them for a final round. Thank you all very much. These are extremely constructive suggestions and as we take forward this new drive to raise money and to raise awareness about Tamil studies we will certainly be incorporating all of these. What we hope to do is be part of that Tamil ecosystem in London, parts of the Tamil schools, with the Tamil community, with the reading groups, with the young ones and to play the role that a university should play which is a space for advanced study, deeper learning, criticism, discussion and involvement of the different kinds of areas so we have already talked about history and economics and so on. This is it for this slot. We have a vote of thanks which I believe will be given by Tej but thank you for your participation. Thank you all for spending the entire afternoon. We know how precious our weekends are. On behalf of the organizing committee of today's event which includes Dr Mira Savaratnam, Professor Michael Hutt who actually was part of the inception of this in conversation with Bala Savaratnam, who has obviously been here all throughout the day, the SOAS Development Office and of course the South Asia Institute. Thank you for sharing in this day and commemorating Thiruvalavar and also sharing in your enthusiasm for the support for taking the idea of reinstituting Tamil studies here at SOAS. I think you'll all agree that it's been an enriching and enjoyable afternoon and also that the commemoration that we've done in the garlanding and in the discussions and talks show that it's not just about the statue of Thiruvalavar that's here. He might appear as a sort of icon of Tamil studies but he's also a very precious icon of SOAS and we would like to continue this conversation. So in reaching out to you on behalf of the South Asia Institute, I would like to encourage you to spread the word. If you would like to yourselves or know of people who will be interested in getting involved in supporting Tamil studies, please do get in touch with us and to carry this conversation on. So thank you all and I wish you all safe journeys home.