With the celebrations of Kannada Rajyostava beginning today, the city is gearing up to celebrate this annual event in different ways. While the Kannada and Culture Department seemed to be busy in preparing for the prestigious Rajyotsava Awards, City Express decided to take a look at how the Department is working to promote Kannada language and culture.
Apart from the annual awards, the Department holds year-long programmes to promote the language and culture(s) of various parts of Karnataka.
One among such programmes, the four-day training programme for the non-gazetted officers in each district, aims to teach the officials how to use and apply Kannada language for administrative purposes.
Speaking about training other programme officers of the Department, Mahadevaiah, Gazetted Manager of Kannada and Culture Department said,
“We also train non-Kannadigas in many private organisations, associations and factories. These organisations must give a written request to train the non-Kannadigas. We take into consideration the number of trainees and depute teachers accordingly. This is a three-month course. Classes are conducted twice a week for two hours each.”
Meanwhile, this Department also offers grants for the Postal Training Programmes conducted by Central Institute of Indian Language, Mysore. For those Kannadiga candidates who qualify in the prestigious IAS, IPS and KAS exams, the department rewards them with scholarship of `10 lakh. How do they promote culture besides promoting Kannada language?
“We grant funds for Mysore Dasara Festival, Hampi Utsav and Kadambostav. We also fund cultural festivals conducted in each districts,” said Mahadevaiah.
However, the Department also arranges cultural activities in private organisations and associations on request.
Mahadevaiah added, “If the organisation requests us to organize and send folk artiste troupe 15 days prior, we organize this especially for the national festivals like Independence Day, Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanthi and others.”
The organisations and associations can choose one among the 130 art forms like Dollu Kunitha, Veeraghase, Pooja Kunitha, Tamate, Somana Kunitha, Kamsale, Puravanthike, Koravara Kunitha and Lambani Nritya to name a few.
Kannada and Culture department also lends a helping hand to the budding and established poets and authors by encouraging their works. The Kannada Pustaka Pradikara financially supports them in purchasing the writer’s work in bulk quantity. To encourage the readership of Kannada books, the Kannada Sahitya Parishath which is part of the Kannada and Culture Department , is offering a discount on sale of books on the occasion of Kannada Rajyostva.
“We are offering over 15 to 75 per cent discount on books till November 30. The Parishath will sell books from 10 am to 5.30 pm on all days including Sundays. It is the right time for schools and colleges to make use of this opportunity and upgrade their libraries with the new editions.
The opportunity can be utilised by students, researchers and people who have passion towards literature,” said Dr Ko Vem Ramakrishne Gowda, Secretary of Kannada Sahitya Parishath. Only such programmes in the coming years will keep Kannada alive at the grass-root level while shaping and strengthening the language.