Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to direct the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to amend its guidelines to include the postgraduate degree in Tamil language as one of the minimum qualifications for admission to PG diploma in archaeology in Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute of Archaeology.
In his letter, a copy of which was released to the media, Mr. Palaniswami referred to an advertisement for admission to the PG diploma course in archaeology for 2020-2022 at the institute and pointed out: “There are about 48,000 inscriptions in all the languages that have been published so far by various agencies in India, including the Archaeological Survey of India, of which more than 28,000 inscriptions (which is over half) are in Tamil language alone.”
While it was a laudable initiative to create a suitable talent pool in a consistent manner that will unravel the country’s glorious past in a professional way, some of the guidelines served as “entry barriers for the aspirants across the country especially for people from Tamil Nadu”, he contended.
The minimum qualification criteria prescribed was a Master’s degree in, among other relevant subjects, Indian classical languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Arabic or Persian, he said. “Unfortunately, among the listed languages, only Sanskrit has been declared as a classical language in 2005. Furthermore, Tamil, which was the first language in India officially recognised as a classical language in 2004, has been completely ignored,” he underlined.
Keeping in view the above facts, the admission process could be made more inclusive, Mr. Palaniswami advocated and sought the Prime Minister’s early intervention in this regard.
