The Hindu

Bangalore, Jul 20: The “Anakru Nirmana” Award, instituted by the Anakru Foundation, was presented to writer and critic U.R. Ananthamurthy here on Sunday.

Dr. Ananthamurthy emphasised the importance of making Kannada compulsory between standards one and 10th.

He said that “whatever the decision of the High Court [of Karnataka] on the case of making Kannada or English the medium of instruction in schools in the State, we must give it (Kannada) importance.” He said that language should not be used “in the way that the Shiv Sena used it”.

He also said that “because the State was a ‘mini-India’ comprising people who spoke different languages, we should also give importance to other languages, but without neglecting Kannada”.

“The rich go to private schools and convents and the poor go to government schools,” said Dr. Ananthamurthy.

He said that the middle class was under the impression that good education can only come out of English-medium schools.

He added that many writers, including himself, who had studied in Kannada-medium schools had command over both Kannada and English. Advocate-General Ashok Haranahalli presented the award worth Rs. 1,10,000 to Dr. Ananthamurthy.