The World Classical Tamil Conference 2010 was an international gathering of

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

s, political leaders and

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

with an interest in

Tamil people The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is one of the longe ...

, the

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

and

Tamil literature Tamil literature includes a collection of literary works that have come from a tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the T ...

. It was held in

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

between 23 June and 27 June 2010 with an expenditure of more than 500

Crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

Venue

The WCTC was held at CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex in Coimbatore and chaired by then chief minister of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, M. Karunanidhi and was organized by his

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Participants

The conference was inaugurated by the President of India,

Pratibha Patil Pratibha Devisingh Patil (born 19 December 1934), also known as Pratibha Patil Shekhawat, is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2007 to 2012. She was the first woman to become the president of India. A m ...

. Finnish Tamil scholar

Asko Parpola Asko Heikki Siegfried Parpola (born 12 July 1941, in Forssa) is a Finnish Indologist, current professor emeritus of Indology at the University of Helsinki. He specializes in the Indus Valley Civilization, specifically the study of the Indus scr ...

was awarded the Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi Classical Tamil award. Tamil scholar V. Sivathambi from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Director Arumugam Parasuraman, MP and political leader

Sitaram Yechury Sitaram Yechury (12 August 1952 – 12 September 2024) was an Indian Marxist politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who was a member of the Politburo of the CPI(M) since 1992. Previously, he was a Memb ...

of Communist Party of India (Marxist), D. Raja of

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (; VCK), formerly known as the Dalit Panthers of India or the Dalit Panthers Iyyakkam (; DPI), is an Indian social movement and political party that seeks to combat caste based discrimination, active in the state ...

President

Thol. Thirumavalavan Tholkappiyan Thirumavalavan (born in 17 August 1962 as Ramasamy Thirumavalavan), better known as Thol. Thirumavalavan is a political leader, scholar and activist from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is a Member of Parliament from Ch ...

and

Pattali Makkal Katchi The Pattali Makkal Katchi (; PMK) is a caste-based political party in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by S. Ramadoss in 1989 to provide political representation for the Vanniyar caste, a community found throughout Northern Tamil Nadu. It is a ...

founder

S. Ramadoss S. Ramadoss (born 25 July 1939) is an Indian politician. He is the founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, an Indian political party. Early life Ramadoss was born on 25 July 1939 in Kilsiviri (also spelled Keezhsiviri) village, Villupuram, Madr ...

participated in the conference. Dignitaries and Tamil scholars were gifted with an engraved Thanjavur plate.

Events

US Tamil scholar George Hart presented a paper on

Sangam literature The Sangam literature (Tamil language, Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam''), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil language, Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cā ...

and Indian epigraphist

Iravatham Mahadevan Iravatham Mahadevan (2 October 1930 – 26 November 2018) was an Indian epigraphist and civil servant, known for his decipherment of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and for his expertise on the epigraphy of the Indus Valley civilisation. Early lif ...

chaired a debate on scripts. Rononjoy Adhikari and Kavitha Gingal from the Institute of Mathematical Science, who were working on a mathematical model to relate the

Indus script The Indus script, also known as the Harappan script and the Indus Valley script, is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilisation. Most inscriptions containing these symbols are extremely short, making it difficult to judge whe ...

with the

Dravidian language The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia. The most commonly spoken Dravidian languages are (i ...

were involved in the debate.

Theme Song

The theme song, "

Semmozhiyaana Thamizh Mozhiyaam "Semmozhiyaana Thamizh Mozhiyaam" (; alternately titled Tamil Meet Anthem, World Classical Tamil Conference Theme or Semmozhi) is a Tamil song composed by A. R. Rahman, penned by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and performed by ...

" was written by then

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

M. Karunanidhi with music by

A.R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinema ...

. The video was directed by

Gautham Vasudev Menon Gautham Vasudev Menon (born 25 February 1973) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He has also directed Telugu cinema, Telugu, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Ma ...

featuring artists, musicians, singers.

Controversies

This conference was not approved by the International Association for Tamil Research. Not all agreed with the academic and intellectual rigor of the event. The conference and associated activities faced opposition and criticisms from various political parties.The political uses of Tamil
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References

External links

World Tamil Conference 2010ulaka thamizh chemmozhi - TamilWorld Classical Tamil Conference – a perspectiveThe Indus script and the wild assWorld Tamil conference 2010 (உலகத் தமிழ்ச் செம்மொழி மாநாடு)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamil World Classical Conference 2010 in India Tamil diaspora International conferences