From: kishore@argo.rice.edu (Ananda Kishore)
Subject: 2nd CFV: soc.culture.indian.telugu
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 03:53:13 GMT

Second Call for Votes on the formation of soc.culture.indian.telugu

Voting is in progress on the formation of soc.culture.indian.telugu.
This is the second call for votes. A mass confirmation of valid votes
will be posted along with the third CFV, in about a week. Thanks. 

Name:	soc.culture.indian.telugu

Status: Unmoderated.

History: The first RFD was for soc.culture.telugu, but a better
         choice seems to be soc.culture.indian.telugu as it aids
         in associating this newsgroup with India in the soc.culture.*
         hierarchy. There was a previous call for votes on soc.culture.
         indian.telugu that did not appear simultaneously on news.groups
         and news.announce.newgroups. Later the CFV was recalled and
         an RFD was posted with attention drawn to the name change. 
         This newsgroup is not meant to supplant any news groups in
         soc.culture.* hierarchy (in particular soc.culture.indian), but
         only to supplement them. 

How to Vote: 
         The only way to vote is to send an email to one of the
         following addresses. Do not post your vote on any news groups,
         it will not be counted.

         Please send mail to 
         
         yes_scit@power.eee.ndsu.nodak.edu if and only if you wish
         
         to vote YES for the formation of soc.culture.indian.telugu.

         Please send mail to  
          
         no_scit@power.eee.ndsu.nodak.edu if and only if you wish
         
         to vote NO for the formation of soc.culture.indian.telugu.

         The body of the mail messages will not be read, so please
         do not write under what conditions you would like to vote
         YES or NO. Mere sending of the mail to one of the addresses
         constitutes voting appropriately. In case some one sends
         mail to both addresses above, only the latest vote (determined
         by "Date" field in the mail header) will count. 

Voting Period:    Until 23:59 GMT, 5th August 1992.

A copy of the RFD is appended in the next page.

R.F.D: soc.culture.indian.telugu
---------------------------------
Status: Unmoderated
------
    It is proposed that a USENET newsgroup soc.culture.indian.telugu
be formed.  This RFD is a modification of an earlier RFD for
soc.culture.telugu (a name change). As such the period of discussion
will be limited for a week and a CFV will appear on or around July 6,
1992.

Charter:
------- 	
	Telugu is the twelfth most widely spoken language in the world
[1], the second most widely spoken language in India. It is a
Dravidian language spoken by about 69 million people.  Earliest
written records in Telugu date back to the third century A.D., while
polished written literature dates back to about 1000 A.D.  Andhra is
the Sanskrit name for Telugu, and most of its speakers are in Andhra
Pradesh, a state in the southern part of India. Telugu is one of the four
major languages of the Dravidian family, with its own script common to
all of its several dialects. Telugu culture dates back to the beginning of
Christian Era and it has evolved with the inputs from both Sanskritic and
Dravidic culture groups.

	The proposed newsgroup is expected to be a forum for
discussions on topics that are specific to Telugu culture, with no
apparent relevance to persons not interested in Telugu culture and
language. Postings relating to Telugu or Andhra Pradesh but are of
relevance to others are expected to be crossposted to appropriate
newsgroups (eg soc.culture.indian, rec.music.indian.classical).
Likewise, if a topic is not Telugu-specific, it is expected that it
will be posted elsewhere in an appropriate forum. Many postings on the
proposed newsgroup are likely to be in transliterated Telugu, with an
English translation not necessarily accompanying them.

 	The following is a partial list of such possible topics.

Arts:
-----
Performing Arts: Kuchipudi dance, its style and framework compared to
Bharatanatyam and other dance forms from other parts of the country,
dance dramas, evolution of Telugu theater, Telugu lyrics in Karnatic
classical music, devotional philosophies of its exponents.

Other Arts: Ballads, `harikatha', `burrakatha', their current
popularity.

Communication Media: 
------------------- 
Electronic Media: Quality of Telugu TV programs, State autonomy
versus privatization of the TV, relevance of various programs on the
TV, its role in social life, in politics, in government, in adult
education, its influence on common man, its role as a news media. Same
for Radio, with discussion on regional radio stations.

Print Media: News analysis, commentary, editorials, investigative 
and yellow journalism in Telugu newspapers, their quality in
comparison with national newspapers in English.
       	
Literary quality and popular literature in periodicals, soft
pornography in weekly magazines, science fiction, educational
magazines, children's magazines, comics.

Visual Media: Films: Various genres, modern trends, comparison with
other Indian or foreign language films, technical quality, dialects in
films, literary quality of songs, obscenity in sight and sound, social
issues in films, film personalities such as directors, actors.

Painting, sculpture, handicrafts, puppet shows and street plays.

Developmental Projects:
----------------------
Literacy improvement, adult education, primary health care,
eradication of social evils like `Jogin' system and bonded labor, NRI
interest in such projects, profiles of social service organizations,
social workers, governmental long-term projects.

History:
-------
Various theories on the history of the Telugu language and people,
life of a common man in various dynasties, current status of native
tribes, British influence on the region, migration patterns.

Literature: 
---------- 
Discussions on classical as well as modern literature may include
major literary movements, various literary forms and their
relationship to the content, diachronic evolution of the relationship
between form and content, influence of world literature and
philosophers, folk literature, children's literature, literature in
various dialects, translations from other languages, poets,
playwrights, novelists, story tellers and such.

Scientific Literature:
---------------------
Teaching science in Telugu, scientific vocabulary in Telugu, reviews
of science books in Telugu, taking science to rural children. 

Software:
--------
Good features of a transliteration scheme, various schemes,
typesetting in  LaTeX, what-you-see-is-what-you-get software based on
transliteration, special spell-checking problems in Telugu, optical
character recognition, merits of existing packages, ftp sites for
transliterated texts. 

Teaching Telugu:
---------------
Challenges in teaching Telugu to the second generation (born and
settled outside of Andhra Pradesh) - especially that outside of India,
designing textbooks, dictionaries and other learning tools for them. 

The above is only a small sample of possible topics. It is hoped that
the proposed newsgroup will generate discussion on many more such topics. 

------
[1] The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1992, whose source in turn is
Sidney S Culbert, University of Washington, Seattle. 

K. Sankara Rao
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.fishing,misc.rural,rec.backcountry,talk.environment,talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.guns,rec.boats,rec.boats.paddle,rec.hunting