Tamil Virtual Academy reached 17.2 cr. people in last four years: Minister

“Through Tamil Virtual Academy website, we have taken Tamil to about 17.2 crore visitors in the past four years,” said Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.

Speaking at the celebration of ‘Tamiliyakkam,’ a forum aimed at promoting Tamil, at Thiagarajar College here on Wednesday, he said the website had only 1.5 crore visitors between 2015 and 2021.

“With more content and digitalised materials such as Olai chuvadi, audio and video contents, rare books, translated books and materials, we enabled the people of Tamil origin across the world to access the rich resource materials,” he said.

Sending certified Tamil teachers to foreign countries, he said, was another initiative taken by the government to promote Tamil among non-resident Indians of Tamil origin. Also, the effort to support various Tamil associations in other countries by deputing trained teachers had paid good results. In the past four years, the website had been made available to 199 Tamil associations across the globe, Mr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan added.

Tamil Virtual Academy had been made a member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) to recognise foreign students who had trained in Tamil language in their jobs and higher education, he said.

Lauding educationalist G. Viswanathan for his ‘dedicated and sincere’ service to society through an education institution like Vellore Institute of Technology and an initiative like ‘Tamiliyakkam,’ he said the efforts had become an indelible part of the Tamil community.

This initiative, focused on development of Tamil language, its culture and tradition, was also a counter-narrative to the imposition of ‘one nation, one language, one culture’, he added.

Referring to Keeladi excavation and museum, Mr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said they were essential to emphasise the existence of “our rich culture and heritage”.

K. Hari Thiagarajan, college secretary, recalled his grandfather Karumuttu Thiagarajar Chettiar’s role in opposing Hindi imposition in the 1960s. Emphasising that he was just opposing the imposition and not the language, he said he even involved the college students in the fight against Hindi imposition.

At a time when the State was still Madras Presidency, Karumuttu Thiagarajar Chettiar founded and published a magazine named ‘Tamil Nadu’ to establish the wish of the Tamil people in the name for their State, he recalled.

“Though the magazine suffered losses, he continued publishing it. The prime motive was to introduce Tamil people to new vocabularies and glossary of rich translation of English words,” he added.

Writer and poet Arivumathi was awarded ‘Tamiliyakka Viruthi’, carrying ₹1 lakh cash prize. M. Sukumar, State secretary, Tamiliyakkam, welcomed, and Abdul Kadar, general secretary, delivered the keynote address.