The Madras High Court has rejected petitions against conducting a Sanskrit Week at all schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) from August 7 to 13 in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil educationalists supported by Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa opposed a circular suggesting that Sanskrit, a root language, was the mother of all languages in Tamil Nadu and studying or researching it could help students better their linguistic skills.

Jayalalalithaa stressed the heritage of Tamil language and said: “Any official celebration of ‘Sanskrit week’ in Tamil Nadu is highly inappropriate. It would have been much more appropriate to have organised a classical language week in each state based on the linguistic heritage of that state.”

Overruling these arguments, the court said celebrating one language would not dilute the use or richness of Tamil and pointed out that the circular used the word ‘may’ instead of ‘must’ to conduct the event.

Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of languages, while Tamil, that is also a root language, comes from the Dravidian group of which 73 dialects are spoken today in southern India and northeastern Sri Lanka.

Man held for
‘honour killing’
of daughter

Police have arrested the father of a teenager for disguising her July 7 death as suicide when forensic reports confirmed it as murder or ‘honour’ killing, in southern Ramanathapuram district.

Allirajan’s daughter Divya, 16, had reportedly eloped with Saranraj, 24, of another caste.

Based on Allirajan’s police complaints the couple were picked up at Sivaganga, about 73km away. Divya was sent back to her parents as she was a minor, while Saranraj was arrested and a court banned him from meeting the girl.

On July 7, Allirajan reported that Divya had committed suicide by consuming poison. However based on Saranraj’s suspicions, police interrogated Allirajan who admitted to have fed her poison and smothered her face with a pillow. He said her determination to marry Saranraj provoked him.

Meanwhile another couple have appealed for police protection, as the girl’s father had threatened to kill them for marrying on July 16 without his consent at Aranthangi in eastern Pudukottai district.

Inter caste marriages are a taboo in rural Tamil Nadu and often result in caste clashes or harsh punishments from village courts.

Robbery during
fire at housing
complex

Fire broke out at a rubbish dump at the base of an apartment block, forcing flat owners to vacate the building when the smoke permeated through their garbage chutes at Villivakkam in Chennai last week.

In the melee, at least 12 sovereigns of gold jewels were stolen from a flat whose owner Subbalakshmi had not locked her apartment properly. She discovered the robbery after the fire was brought under control. Fortunately no human lives were lost as neighbours and passersby volunteered help with fire fighters.

However fire personnel complained that the apartments lacked smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and other safety features.

In a separate incident, a policeman was caught for stealing jewels confiscated from robbers in Pollachi in Coimbatore district last week.

AIADMK man
is deputy speaker

M Thambidurai, a senior politician of Tamil Nadu’s ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhanag party was elected as the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha last week.