What is Harvard Tamil chair? How will it impact Tamil?
I’ll tell you at the end what this picture is about.
What?
What is a “Chair” anyway? An endowed chair for Tamil is an academic unit under the Tamil department at Harvard University to teach and research, with the financial support of donors and it lasts indefinitely. The endowment will cover the faculty salary, research and continues in perpetuity.
Why?
So, what can the Tamil Chair do to Tamil? To the least, it can bring about the following 4 benefits:
- There is a LOT of potential for research in Tamil, and the Tamil chair could be a way to get research grants
- This will encourage many foreigners to take up studying Tamil. Moreover, this could gradually lead foreign schools to offer Tamil for students (so many Indian Tamils all over the world can make their kids study Tamil!)
- With a Tamil chair, our old literature can be preserved and digitized. (Do you know how many old Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts are locked up in Tamil Nadu archives and Saraswathi Mahal library being eaten away by termites? We are losing these treasures every minute!)
- Finally, we live in a day and age where everybody follows the West. So if Harvard (America) approves Tamil, then the whole world would approve it.
Unfortunately, in a sense, we’re needing a foreign university like Harvard to brand Tamil, because all of us — Indian Tamils have neglected our beautiful classical language (What a shame!)
Back to the picture on the top — this was taken in Aug 2016, when a group of friends and I got together, worked on a Tamil stage play for 4 months and raised $20K for Harvard Tamil chair. Trust me, this was one of the most satisfying moments of my life! 😇
And the great news is, the mission is accomplished! Including eminent personalities such as actor Kamal Haasan ($30K USD) and government bodies such as Tamil Nadu government ($1.5M USD) and many Tamil enthusiasts like us have contributed to the noble cause. As per latest announcement, Harvard University has started the search process to find the most suitable scholar for Harvard Tamil Chair.
Long live, mother தமிழ்!😊
P.S: I’m running a blog and a YouTube channel for the past 10 years+ on our majestic culture, the greatest Tamil Kings and the greatest Tamil literature, but there not a lot of takers! If you care, I’d ask you to take a look — and share our proud heritage!
