LANGUAGE
POLICY OF RAMAKOTISWARA RAU
P. KODANDA RAO
I
knew the late Mr. Ramakotiswara Rau more by his magazine Triveni than
through personal contacts with him. We met very occasionally. He used to honour me with a visit whenever he came to
I
have been a great admirer of Triveni and admired the way he maintained
its high literary standard in spite of difficulties which should have unnerved
most of the editors.
The
other contributors to this special issue will tell, from their long and
intimate relations with him, of his life and work, his patriotic sacrifices and
literary achievements. I will content myself with a short reference to his
linguistic policies.
When
Mahatma Gandhi inaugurated the non-violent non-cooperation movement and called
on lawyers to give up practice in the law courts, and teachers and students to
quit educational institutions controlled by British Rulers, Ramakotiswara Rau
gave up his practice as a lawyer and joined the Andhra Jateeya
Kalasala Masulipatam to impart “national education”
to students. He taught politics and history. With commendable linguistic
patriotism, he adopted Telugu as a medium of his lectures. As he was
himself educated through the medium of English, he drew on books in that language
to give his lectures in Telugu. In the nature of things, his services through
Telugu were limited to the Telugu speaking people.
Later
on, his mission expanded and took in the whole of