‘Jnanapeetha Award’ recepients ?

by M K Vidyaranya

Kannada, has been recognised as classical language from the Government of India and it is really noteworthy that Kannada litterateurs have scaled new heights by winning the highest number of eight prestigious Jnanpeetha awards – the country’s highest literary award instituted in 1965 It pains to note that the 2000 years ancient language is suffering a great deal in Karnataka, its home land, due to other regional languages and from within.

Based on the recommendations of the 9 member Committee of Linguistic
Experts, appointed by the Ministry of Culture, the Government of India
officially recognised Kannada as a classical language on October 31,
2008, bringing it into a league was occupied by only Sanskrit and
Tamil.

A provision to confer classical status to languages was made by a
constitutional decree in 2004. Among the criteria by which this is
judged are the antiquity of the language, its existence as the root
language for others, well-established theory of language, and a rich
body of literature. In July 2011, it set up a Centre for study of
Kannada as a classical language at Mysore to facilitate research and
other activities related to Kannada, which will function under the
aegis of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL ).

A language with classical status gets two international awards for
eminent scholars in Kannada, a centre for excellence for studies in
Kannada and professional chairs on Kannada are created in Central
universities under University Grants Commission (UGC) .Only languages
which have a proven antiquity of over 1,500 years can qualify for this
status.

But so far, nothing has moved–notwithstanding the noises raised by
various Kannada organisations in the state following a Petition filed
by an advocate in the MADRAS high court. Since the PIL challenging
classical tag for Kannada has been pending in the Madras High Court,
the Union government has not yet released the grant of Rs150 crore
that is made towards promoting a classical language annually. Kannada
is yet to get even a single paisa.

It would be appreciated if the Sadananda Gowda Government installs
bronze busts of all the eight ‘Jnanapeetha Award’ recipients -
namely-Kuvempu, D.R. Bendre, Shivaram Karanth.Masti Venkatesha
Iyengar. V.K. Gokak, U R Anant Murthy.Girish Karnad and
Chandrashekhara Kambara in front of Kannada Bhavana on the JC Road or
at any appropriate place such as Lal Bagh or Cubbon Park in a
befitting way, arrange a separate place to facilitate study of their
work and multimedia exhibition about their works so that Kannada
Language can be propagated among the majority of the present day
children and youth who have lost interest in studying Kannada.

Long live Karnataka ,Kannada and Kannadigas who have made us proud.

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