We must protect and promote Indian languages: M Venkaiah Naidu

Hyderabad: Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu, today called for protecting and promoting various Indian languages through the use of mother tongue in different fields from education to administration. He was inaugurating an online webinar on “Knowledge Creation: Mother Tongue” organised by the Department of Telugu, University of Hyderabad (UoH) and the Telugu Academy. Shri Naidu stressed the need for the state government to promote its official languages.

Observing that language was the lifeline of any civilization, he said it denotes the identity, culture and traditions of the people. It plays an important role in preserving music, dance, customs, festivals, traditional knowledge and heritage. Calling for imparting education in the mother tongue up to primary school, Shri Naidu stressed that a language would gain popularity only through widespread usage. He said it was a fallacy to think that progress could be achieved only if education was pursued in English. Research has shown that those who are proficient in their mother tongue can learn other languages with equal ease.

Chairman, DRDO, Dr.G.Sathish Reddy; Chairman, Shantha Biotech pharma companies, Shri KL Varaprasada Reddy; Director, Telugu Academy, Shri S.Satyanarayana Reddy and others took part in this webinar in the presence of Prof. Appa Rao Podile, Vice-Chancellor, UoH.

Faculty members of the Department of Telugu, UoH, other academicians and research scholars will be presenting papers in this two-day International Online Webinar during July 29-30.