CHENNAI: In a first such attempt in four decades, the State Government has planned bring out engineering, medicine and other technical books in Tamil.
Sources in the School Education Department told Express that plans are underway to sell these books at subsidised rates through Tamil Nadu Text Book and Educational Services Corporation (TNTESC) sales counters across the State, as well as online.
Presently, patronage for Tamil medium is shrinking in schools, while the Tamil medium in Anna University is seen as a mere tokenism. Experts feel that the prevailing circumstances in higher education is primarily due to the unavailability of content in Tamil.
“Once we ensure that there is adequate material available in Tamil, more students will be enthused to take up these courses. Without this, expecting the next generation to learn in Tamil is unfair,” said a senior official from the TNTESC.
As a first step, the corporation has held talks with private publishing houses to ascertain their interest and also obtain copyrights. After this, the translated books would be made available in public libraries before being sold through online and offline counters. Many scientific terms used in the old books printed by TNTESC are not currently in use, said retired zoology professor Sargunam Stephen, also a Tamil translator. Some words, he added, were mere transliterations.
“Rarely was there any attempt by the government to standardise it. Attempts at university levels never got popular. For instance, common glossaries were brought out by professor Pa Aruli from Thanjavur Tamil University in 2000, and erstwhile Tamil Nadu Virtual University six years ago,” added Sargunam who was a part of the TNVU committee.
Prominent Chennai-based Tamil translator G Kuppuswamy said with no homogeneous application, people including those involved in translating government documents into Tamil started using non-standardised terms. To cite an example, biodiversity was referred as ‘paluyirthanmai’ and ‘uyirpanmai’. So experts suggest that before they start translating, a workshop should be conducted to come out with a common glossary. The corporation was originally set up to create content and publish books for all educational purposes including schools, but has of late been reduced to a mere printing house after the State Council for Educational Research and Training was set up in 1990.
Translating books into Tamil was taken up with much vigour especially during the late 1960s, a period which was marked by fierce anti-Hindi agitations led by DMK. The government promoted these books by sanctioning a separate fund, and books were distributed to Tamil medium students in all colleges including arts and science courses.
One of the first books printed by the corporation in Tamil, on Oceanography, is considered to be a rare piece of academic work. Officials of the corporation said copies of this book along with 1,100 old treasures were missing, adding that they were trying to trace them. Officials believe many of these might have either been sold or found their way into private collections.