Taking inspiration from the bold move made by the Mathur grama panchayat to ban the use of ‘sir’ and ‘madam’ in its office, an
Assistant Professor at Government College, Chittur, has raised a demand to get rid of those salutations from the campus.
“Calling teachers ‘sir’ and ‘madam’ is from the British age. More than a respectful way of addressing the teachers, those salutations have a colonial hangover. We don’t want to take pride in the colonial hangover. We should rid our campuses of such terms that distinguish the people as the subjects,” said Pradeesh K., Assistant Professor at the Department of Commerce, Government College, Chittur, in a memorandum to the principal.
Mr. Pradeesh demanded that the students should be given the freedom to address their teachers using any terms they are comfortable with.
“A circular should be issued proscribing the students and other staff members from using ‘sir’ and ‘madam’ on the campus. This will set a new trend in the modernization of our language,” he said.
Mr. Pradeesh argued that teachers, especially those paid by the government, are supposed to serve the students who represent the
people at large.
“In a democracy, people are the most powerful. Therefore, making the students call us sir and madam is an injustice from a modern perspective,” he said.
Mathur grama panchayat near here had become the first civic body in the country to drop words like ‘sir’ and ‘madam’ from its official use when it adopted a unanimous resolution two days ago.
About four dozen civic bodies in Palakkad and neighbouring districts, including Palakkad Municipality, have evinced interest in the official language amelioration.
A silent campaign is on demanding corrections in the official Malayalam language used in government and related offices. A WhatsApp collective named Sauhruda Bhasha Group has been pushing for the purgation of several outmoded words still in official use in the State.
Words like ‘apeksha’ (request or application), ‘dayavayi’ (kindly), and ‘thazhmayayi’ (humbly) are prominent on the cleansing list.
Youngsters in hoards are joining the language modernization drive.
“We began this campaign at the root level after getting inspiration from some government and court orders. It’s just a question of
changing an ingrained habit. Neither is it mandatory nor obligatory to stick on to such antiquated usage. What we need is a clear perspective about what we are and what our future should be,” said Boban Mattumantha, the young social worker who ignited the drive.
“Those in power treated the people like subjects or slaves during the British Raj. That’s how we got so many words showing too much humility in people’s requests to the government. Gone are those days, and today, people are in power,” he says.
