For a group of people who faced oppression from various forces, it seems like Tamils are continuing the erasure of their roots.
I was reading an article about an excavation done in Tamil Nadu when I was taken back.
The article referred to city of Thoothukudi as Tuticorin.
This made me wonder, why are we Tamils still using the colonial names to talk about our cities?
Weren't these butchered versions of our names made because colonizers could not be bothered to learn or respect our Tamil names?
So by using these names are we not validating their oppression and agreeing that there is something wrong with our names?
Now one could argue that these colonial names are just English names and needed.
To that I ask, why?
Why do we need English names that are clearly different from our Tamil names, when we are expected to learn and pronounce intricate and long European names?
Names hold a lot of history, meaning and gives great cultural insight.
If someone is going to take the time to travel to another country, is it not common curtesy and a sign of respect to honour that countries' customs?
Of course the pronunciations of names will not sound the same.
The way a native Tamil speaker would pronounce the name Thoothukudi vs. an English speaker is obviously going to sound slightly different.
But the name would be spelt the same, making it clear universally to everyone what/who they are referring to.
I often think about how as Tamils we are made to feel like such an inconvenience and become apologetic of our names.
Perhaps this thinking we Tamils hold, justifies that Tamil is too hard and we need English names.
I don’t think the people who globally oppressed half the world were ignorant.
I think the disrespect and changing of names of places was done on purpose.
Europeans colonized us for hundreds of years.
Many studied and became fluent in Tamil, they translated Tamil texts, and many even married locals.
I think changing up the names of our cities was probably another tactic for us to not be able to retrace our roots.
Let's take யாழ்ப்பாணம் yazhppanam, a city in the north of Eelam.
யாழ்ப்பாணம் = the land where those who played the யாழ் (the harp's ancestor) lived.
During colonization Yazhppanam was called Jaffna and many still use this term today.
Like Yazhppanam,
Thanjavur is Tanjore
Mattakkalappu is Batticaloa
Thirukonamalai is Trincomalee
What happens in the next 200 years when people barely use the word Yazhppanam?
Will we just blindly believe whoever claims that Yazhppanam is mentioned in historical texts but is probably a mythical city because the name doesn't exist on a map?
Will we take part in discrediting our own history?
I mean, did we not have a similar problem with the use of the Eelam?
By adopting words that were just created to please the western tongue, whatever their true intentional was, is still a loss for us.
A name is not just a label we give places or people.
It allows us to trace back our lineage,
and gives us direct information about the city or its people.
This just speaks to how much questioning and unlearning we still have to do as Tamils.
Colonization was only one to two generations ago.
There are still many oppressive norms we still have yet to confront and challenge.
The good news is, change is possible.
Because it just starts with you.
Are you willing to change a few words in your vocabulary to preserve the history of your people? Or will you continue to contribute to the erasure of Tamil roots.
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