From: chandra@cs.tamu.edu (Chandrasekaran Periannan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: To be or not To be (soc.culture.tamil)
Date: 17 Apr 92 18:36:13 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University

In article <2538@creatures.cs.vt.edu> chandras@csgrad.cs.vt.edu (Chockanath R Chandrasekar) writes:
>
>After reading all the articles for and against soc.culture.tamil, I am
>really in a confused situation.  Is it wrong to have a separate group for
>tamils? I do not think so. But if every part of a country started to have a
>group what will happen? Disaster!?! 
>

	The point is that the call for creation of s.c.tamil is made not
just for the heck of having one for  Tamils all for themselves.

	Tamils in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia have a
history that predates the birth of almost any other living Indian language,
por at least the birth of any literature wirth the name in those languages.
The ties to these countries are from teh days of Cholas (900 A.D). 

	Their numerical strength, the problems (like in Sri Lanka) and
prosperity and political status (like in Singapore, where Tamils are and
have been president/ministers, and Malaysia) are distinctly different from
that of other peoples of Indian origin.


	As for every indian language having a newsgroup of its own,
what is wrong if there is a genuinely felt need for it? Nobody has even
suggested as a joke the creation of s.c.oriya, or s.c.gujarati. It is
simply the way the situation is with those languages/peoples. There is
nothing divisive about this. 

>The advantages(?) of having a separate group is that people of that
>on the other hand, one can read Tamil kavithai (poems), Tamil songs, discuss
>Tamil novels, etc. One need not scan through all the articles to find the
>right article (!). 

	Some netters have sugegsted why not use kill etc for avoiding
articles of not interest to Tamils not interested in purely Indian
articles. Have you tried to see how long it takes to do the killing?
Many times it gets hung because the news server is too busy and it cannot
feed the pattern matching module or whatever fast enough. I have beeb
surpried by how long it takes to simply even reach articles on a specific
topic (like soc.culture.tamil) using the /pattern facility; i used the
/tamil command to read articles on this topic and i did not get to read
this article to which I am replying. Why should anybody have to undergo
this trouble?

 >The newsgroup, if formed, will create a strong binding
>among Tamilians all over the world, but at the cost of what? People moving
>away from SCI (mainstream)?  I do not think many peple have time to read more
>than one newsgroup.

	I do not see this newsgroup as creating any such binding
whatsoever. It is simply a forum that facilitates exchanging the ideas,
views and experiences of Tamils whose origin is not necessarily Indian.
	
	As indicated above, it takes much longer choosing specific articles
than switching to another newsgroup and reading most of the articles there.

>
>Reading more and more articles for and against, I think many more are
>confused like me, to say Yes to the group or not to.

	If you are swayed by some of the articles against it, let me assure
that some of those who are against it have a ridiculous notion and fear
that it is like asking for a separate state in India...I myself would like
to know how the creation of s.c.tamil would in any way strengthen the
demand and struggle for creation of the Republic of Tamil Nadu...

>
>-Chandra                  "Loved Pascal, married C and going out with C++"
>chandras@csgrad.cs.vt.edu

chandra
chandra@cs.tamu.edu.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian