A master’s degree in Tamil has been added to the accepted qualifications at the Pandit Deenadayal Upadhyaya Institute of Archaeology in India, following opposition from political leaders in Tamil Nadu.
The postgraduate diploma course in Archaeology at the institution initially listed master’s degrees in Indian Classical languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, Prakriti, Arabic or Persian as qualifications but omitting Tamil and other classical languages as acceptable qualifications.
Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that a Master’s degree in Tamil be included onto the qualifications list, following criticism from several political parties.
Last Thursday (October 8th), the centre announced before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, that the qualifications for the diploma have been modified to add a master’s degree in Tamil.
“Injustice that attempted to render Tamil students unqualified and deny them entry into the Archaeological Survey of India at its very doorstep, has been thwarted,” stated S. Venkatesan a Madhurai MP.
He added that the expert committee represented by the Ministry of Culture should conduct a study on the origins and evolution of Indian Culture should be dissolved. The Chief Minister also pointed out to Narendra Modi that the committee did not consist of any Southern state representatives.
Madras High Court observed that the exclusion of Tamil in the qualifications seemed to deliberate and drew up a number of questions to the centre. Among the questions, they probed the centre whether actions were taken against the persons responsible for the omission, as well as asking the centre to clarify which languages were classed as ‘Classical status’ and urged a caution to be issued for such offences in the future.
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