Gandhi’s Observations on the Tamil Script

For a language to thrive and a culture to prosper, scripts play a critical role. I am concerned by the steady decline in the number of people who are able to read and write Tamil. While Tamil continues to be widely spoken today, the current pace and trend of Tamil script usage is troubling.

The good news is that Tamils and the broader Indian diaspora are spread across the globe. This has been true for centuries. Tamil-speaking populations have historically been found across Asia and beyond, having traveled for trade and other pursuits.

However, the not-so-good news is that many of these communities are not fluent in reading or writing Tamil.

Over the last 50 years, we’ve seen significant migration of Indians to the United States and other parts of the West. I deeply appreciate the Tamil Sangams and community networks that have been built in these regions. Tamil schools have been established across the United States almost every state has one. This is something to be proud of and grateful for.

That said, while many children in these communities can understand Tamil, they are often unable to read or write it. And this issue isn’t limited to the diaspora. Even within Tamil Nadu, fluency in reading and writing Tamil is in decline. This is a problem we’ve allowed to develop over time.

Just last week, I was reading a few pages from Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth, where he talks about the literary training work he undertook. Instruction was provided in Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, and Urdu. Gandhi made an effort to teach Tamil, and in doing so, he offered this observation:

“The Tamil boys were all born in South Africa and therefore knew very little Tamil and did not know the script at all.”

In contrast, he found it easier to teach Urdu:

“It was comparatively easier to teach the Musalman boys Urdu. They knew the script. I simply had to stimulate their interest in reading.”

(Gandhi was in South Africa between 1893 and 1914.)

One key takeaway for me is that the decline in Tamil script literacy is not just a recent development or one of the last 50 years. It existed even a century ago. Unfortunately, we have allowed it to deteriorate further in recent decades.

I don’t believe this is an unsolvable problem—but it does require collective will and conscious effort. We need to take small, consistent steps to begin turning this around. And we will.