LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 10 October 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Personal Names and Politics –
A Case Study of Tamil

L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

1. Introduction

On every occasion thousands of people eagerly wait to hear the speech of their leader in party meetings organized by Dravida Munerrak Kazhagam, DMK. The crowd maintains absolute silence when the leader M. Karunanidhi starts addressing the party cadres by name. When he utters the phrase `en uyirinum meelaana anbu uTanpirappukkale!’ “You, my loving brothers and sisters, who are more valuable than my life” there is great roaring applause with passionate enthusiasm. In fact, the crowd has been waiting for that utterance from the mouth of their leader. In response to the address from the leader, they shout ‘kalaingar! Tamilinakkaavalar! vazhka’ (Hail Kalaignar, the protector of the Tamil race).

This enthusiastic response from the followers of various political parties (with different words and phrases of greeting to greet their leaders) is and was seen and heard in Tamilnadu for M.G. Ramachandran and Ms. Jayalalitha and others. These leaders’ beginning sentences addressed to their cadres greatly enthuse them and everyone around is affected with passion and love for their dear leaders.

Each leader has his or her own phrases to address the general public and their party cadres. Invariably, the phrases refer to kinship relationships between the leaders and their followers – brother, sister, elders in the family, etc. For an outsider, these may look strange and they may wonder as to why they use kinship terms in the political meetings which are formal gatherings. Why does the crowd hail the leader with some titles instead of their names? What is the role of this title in political domain? Why do they not use personal names? What is the politics of naming?

In this context this paper tries to explain those aspects with a brief introduction about the language of politics.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Central Institute of Indian Languages
Ministry of Education
Government of India
Mysore 570006
Karnataka
India
ramamoorthyciil@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.