Title Mania
of the Tamils
Pre-fixing a title to
their names is peculiar to Tamilnadu and it almost defines the deep rooted
desire of the people to glorify themselves. There is a total lack of humility that
all the Tamil literature want Tamilians to have. This desire to pre-fix a title
to their names cuts across caste lines, political affiliations and the economic
divide. The trend perhaps started with the filmdom.
There is not a single top star in Tamil
screen who does not have a title. From Nadigavel,
to
Vaigai puyal the list is endless. One of them calls himself Ulaganayagan
(hero of the world) although his films are seen only in Tamilnadu and among Tamil
speaking Diaspora. The poets prone to
exaggeration, call themselves Kaviyarasu, Kavi Perarasu and Kavi ko. ( trying
to be one-up) .
This mania spread to
several spheres including the academia. I received an invitation for a seminar
on Translation from an English Department of a college in which the Head of the
Department has described himself as “Ilakkiya Sudar” and the secretary of the
College has been called “Kalvi Thanthai.
That there were at least four errors in the invitation is beside the point. In
one of the comedy clips on TV, I saw a powerful satire on this Kalvi thanthai since too many people are pre-fixing
the title now. The owner of a college would proudly boast,” Do you know how hard I have come up gradually, from being
a beedi gatherer, pick pocket, liquor brewer, local Dada now I have become
Kalvi Thanthai.” To claim privileges is
a mark of the rich and somehow they want to belong to some exclusive club.
.
All this can be fun if
you do not take it seriously. But when they do something unlawful, then it is
to be questioned.. I refer to the Padma Awards. That the Padma Award is only an
award and not a title does not dawn on
many who don it and flaunt it as a title. I can understand the ignoramus in the filmdom
who do it.. But eminent contributors to
industry, top musicians, educationists, in
Tamilnadu have no qualms about
pre-fixing it to their names as if it is
a title. Their letter-heads, visiting
cards and announcements of their programmers mark it loudly.. Satyajit Roy, Rajkapoor, or Nandan Nilekani or Anil
kakkodkar, E.Sridharn, or Narayana
Murthy and many others never
pre-fixed their awards to their names as titles nor did they carry any other
title.
The Ministry of Home
Affairs in its reply to my RTI query clarified that “ the national Awards do not amount to “titles “ within the meaning
of Article 18 (1) of the Constitution and they should not be used as suffixes
or prefixes. If this is done, the defaulter should forfeit the National Award ….” It has
cited a Supreme Court judgment delivered on Dec.15th, 1995 by a
Bench led by Justice A. M. Ahmadi CJI in Balaji Raghavan vs Union of India.
. A press note issued by the Government of India
in 1968 warned the Awardees that the awards should not be used as titles on
letter heads, invitation cards, posters books etc., and warned of forfeiture if
misused. A complaint to the Home
ministry with proof will result in forfeiture.
Andhra
Pradesh High Court asked producers Mohan Babu and Brahmananda to surrender
their awards when a case was filed against their misuse of the awards. Supreme
Court ( April 12, 2014 The Hindu) asked them to give an undertaking not to
misuse, in an appeal.
The Supreme Court ( 1995) also recorded that Conferment of Padma awards without any
firm guidelines and fool-proof method of selection was bound to breed nepotism, favouritism,
patronage and even corruption. It recommended an extremely high standard and
the limitation of awards to a fixed number in each category. Let us hope that
this Government restores its value.
S.
Pushpavanam Free lance journalist
consumerpc@rediffmail.com(661)
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