Date:25/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/25/stories/2004122505901100.htm

National

Milestones have scripts, not languages

By Iravatham Mahadevan

As a lifelong student of Indian scripts I would like to share my reflections on the `milestones issue' with your readers.

Much confusion has resulted from the incorrect reference to `languages' appearing on the milestones along our national highways. The milestones merely indicate place names and distances (in km.). `Chengalpattu 18' does not change its `language' in whatever script the message is recorded. Once we realise that the issue relates to scripts (Tamil, Devanagari or Roman) and not languages (Tamil, Hindi or English), we can look at the facts objectively and decide the question on the basis of the greatest convenience to the maximum number of travelling public.

In Tamil Nadu, the Tamil script is understood by the greatest number of people and should be, in deference to local sentiment, placed at the top on the milestones and (if space permits) engraved in bolder or larger lettering.

The second place must go to the Devanagari script in which Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and Nepali languages are written and which is understood by the largest number of our countrymen. In fact, as the Devanagari script is very similar to many other related scripts like Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, etc., the number of persons who can read the script is much larger than that of the Hindi speakers. Surely, it is common courtesy to our fellow countrymen (pilgrims, tourists and traders) who travel through Tamil Nadu and may not be familiar with the local script, to provide information in the script they understand best.

It is absolutely necessary to retain the Roman script on the milestones even if it be relegated to the bottom place. The Roman script, in which a large number of world's languages is recorded, has a much wider reach than even the English language which is fast becoming the universal language of the globe, thanks to the internet and e-mail. It is sheer hypocrisy on the part of some Tamil politicians whose English-educated sons and daughters are flourishing abroad or hold high office in the Central Government to call for the removal of `English' from the milestones. Tamil Nadu, which aspires to become the tourist and business hub of India in the Information Age, can ill-afford to remove the Roman script from the milestones guiding both foreign and upcountry travellers within the State.

Only the international form of numerals (which are of Indian origin, if that satisfies our ego) must find a place to indicate distances in km. on the milestones. In many of the North Indian States, Devanagari numerals are still used on the milestones, sign boards on buses, etc., causing much avoidable inconvenience to travellers not familiar with the local numerals. It is a matter of satisfaction that in Tamil Nadu the demand made by a few politicians for the resurrection of the centuries-old Tamil numerals has not found many takers.

Whatever be the merits of the three-language or two-language formulas, the sheer utility of the `three-script formula' for marking on the milestones along our national highways is indisputable. Let us keep politics out and follow the dictates of common sense in the matter.

(The writer is a specialist on Indian scripts. He was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1970-72) for research in the Indus script. He was also awarded a National Fellowship by the Indian Council of Historical Research (1992-95) for his work on the Tamil Brahmi script.)