Telangana Telugu or Andhra Telugu?

Dear members,

In one of the discussions (unfortunately I deleted it)
a member raised a concern about English replacing
Telangana Telugu (TT) or Andhra Telugu (AT) replacing
Telangana Telugu (TT) or something of that sort.
Although I do not see English as a possible
replacement, but I do see a good possibility of Andhra
Telugu (AT) replacing TT. The concerted moves by the
AP Government to structure the Telugu curricula in
schools on the lines of Andhra Telugu, hiring of
Telugu teachers from Andhra region, favoring AT for
news media and journals will definitely have an effect
on replacing TT. More importantly, use of AT in Telugu
movies will accelerate this process.

Every one of us should be proud of what we are, what
we have, and where we come from. TT is what we have
and we should all fight to retain and protect it.

The argument that AT is better than TT has no
substance. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Make no mistake that AT is a dialect. It is a
derivative of the Dravidian language known as Andhram.
Today’s AT is a mixer of Sanskrit and Tamil words.

TT is also a dialect. It is a mixer of Sanskrit,
Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Marathi words. Tabaadla,
Nimaaish, Damaagh and Pareshaani, are all urdu words.
Kaakayya, Porgi, and Athiya are Marathi words. Kakayya
stands for uncle.

Hindi belt in India has many Hindi dialects. Hindi
spoken in Haryana, UP and MP differ in many ways with
Hindi spoken in Bihar. Haryana Hindi is heavily loaded
with Punjabi words. Biharis would like to call their
language as Brij Bhasha. Personally I find Brij Bhasha
very pleasing. The song, “Sawan ka mahina, pawan kare
sor…” is written in Brij Bhasha.

Therefore, AT and TT are two distinct dialects and
anyone suggesting that they are just one and the same
dialect is dead wrong. Telanganites may very well call
TT differently. You may call it a Telangana Bhasha or
Telangani (like Marathi) or Telani. I like a short and
sweet name. But it is too early to think of a name
now. We should leave that decision to the days
following the Statehood. For now, let's concentrate on
how best we can achieve the Statehood.

As for English, English is the backbone of Physical,
Biological and Medical sciences. Students from English
medium schools have done extremely well in these
studies. For this reason almost all affluent families
send their children to English medium schools. Sonia
Gandhi is one example. Manmohan Singh is another
example. Frankly if I were living in India, I will
send my children to English Medium Schools because
that’s where I went to.

So it is not wrong to stay that our villages should
have some English medium High Schools. If 40%
Telanganites prefer to send their children to English
medium Schools, then 40% Government High Schools
should be English Medium Schools. This does not mean
that TT will disappear. There will always be some
classes in TT.

I hope this sheds some light on the controversy.
Jai Telangana

- Gopal Alankar