tural orientation, neither fish, flesh nor fowl.
For a completely English language based education does not convert you into an English-man,
whatever else it may do for you.
The English language, in and by itself,
even if we utilise good English literature from
non-Anglo-Saxon sources, is no substitute for
a direct link with our Asian cultural heritage,
through Mandarin, Tamil and Malay.
In this connection, it seems to me that
Singaporeans of Indian origin are in danger of
a faster rate of deculturation than those of Chinese and Malay origins. The accusing finger has
to be pointed, not at the Government, which is
publicly pledged to provide facilities for Tamil
as a second language, but at Indian parents who
fail to encourage their children to opt for Tamil
as their second language.
What generally happens might be
best illustrated by reference to my own children. Only my daughter has opted for Tamil
as a second language, largely because of my
wife’s strong insistence that, as the only girl in
the family, she has to be the standard-bearer of
Hindu values and customs in the family.
My three elder boys reasoned that
they would acquire Tamil at home in any case
as they must communicate with their mother.
They therefore decided that they would become
trilingual, and not merely bilingual, and opted
for Malay as their second language.
They have since discovered, to their
cost, that Tamil merely as a means of communication with th eir mother is not nearly good
enough. It fails to supply that essential cultural
linkage with their own past.
Indeed, the situation has become quite
ludicrous, for I listen daily to lively conversations between mother and sons, conducted in
two languages – the mother speaking in Tamil
while the children speak in English. And they
understand each other perfectly well. I therefore
propose to impose a ban on the use of English
by my sons when they speak to their mother.
22
NUS Tamil Language Society
35th Executive Committee
Either they speak in Tamil, or not at all.
Several Indian parents, who are themselves English-educated, tend to look down
upon the Tamil lan-guage in a supercilious
fashion. This is cause for both sorrow and contempt, for it is an indication of the extent of deculturation they have themselves suffered. It is
all the more pathetic when one ob-serves that
what in fact has occurred in such cases is a deculturation process, without any compen-satory
acculturation process. They belong nowhere,
neither to the East nor to the West.
The future prevalence and use of the
Tamil language in our Republic is very much
dependent on parental attitudes. If parents of
Indian origin do not encourage their children
to opt for Tamil as a second language, the use of
the Tamil language most inevitably decline, to
the cultural detriment, not only of Singaporeans
of Indian origin, but of Singapore as a whole.
Sanskrit is referred to as the language
of the Gods. The only living language in India
which quali-fies for the same apellation is Tamil. For it ranks with Sanskrit and Mandarin as
among the most ancient and venerable of human tongues.
If parents of Indian origin close their
minds to Tamil, they close the doors, not only
to their own cultural antecedents, but also to a
language which is a living vehicle of the richest
and most ancient cultural tradition on the Indian sub-continent. It will be to Singapore’s advantage if this window on a rich culture is kept
open.
Tamil-speaking parents and educators
would do well to get together and form a society for the pro-motion of the Tamil language
in our Republic, not in any narrow chauvinistic sense, but with a view to ensuring that the
riches of the Indian cultural heritage contribute
to the making of the Singapore of the future,
alongside the best we can derive as Singaporeans from the Chinese and Malay traditions.