Society.Culture.Tamil

Charter of Society.Culture.Tamil News Group

Tamil Culture and Tamil language are estimated 5000 years old and Tamil is one of the living classical languages of the world. Native to South Asia, Tamil is recognized as one of the national languages in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. It is also spoken widely in other Indian ocean Islands like Mauritius, Fiji, as well as in U. K., U.S.A, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etc. Tamil speaking population around the world is about 65 million.

As per the linguistics, Tamil is a member in the Dravidian family of languages comprising about 21 languages. The earliest Tamil work available dates back to the pre-Christian era [300 B.C.]. Tamil is very rich in its classical and modern literary tradition. The highly acclaimed Tamil moral work `Thirukkural' by Thiruvalluvar dates back to 50 B.C and indicates the existence of highly civilized and consolidated society of origin, a few thousand years earlier to that. What made this culture and language to survive milennium interests everyone. Also, the Tamil epic poem Manimegalai [200 A.D.] gives a summary of six systems of philosophy which is interestingly the earliest comparative account we have of the ancient schools of Hindu philosophy.

What would be the role of Tamil language for the next millennium? Tamils around the world have a strong desire to establish a newsgroup on the Usenet to share their views on Tamil history, ancient and modern literature, ancient Tamil civilization, Tamil culture, religion, art, drama, philosophy and related topics. The proposed newsgroup is intended to serve as a niche for the Tamil language and culture in the electronic communication network.

Activities in the proposed newsgroup

I. Electronic News Magazine.
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* Discussions on Ancient Tamil, Literature, Culture, Philosophy, etc....
* Book, Movie, Magazine , Drama reviews, Poems, Stories, Essays , Jokes etc...
* Current news from the Tamil region
* Current news about events of Tamil interest in North America
* Projects pertinent to Tamil interests
* Matters related to investments in Tamil region
* Matters of interest to Tamils born outside the native region.

II. Computer Language Society
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* Software announcements, reviews, discussion
* News about Computer Software for Tamil language printing
* Learning Tamil transliteration software
* Joint effort to develop software for on-screen display and editing
* Effort for usage of Tamil language in multimedia
* Development of word processing packages for Tamil

III Cultural and Social forum for Tamils
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* SCT will become nerve center for all Tamils who have access to the network all over the world.
* Meeting place for old friends and acquainting new friends.
* News about concerts, seminars, festivals and other programs
* To seek and help others in education, job or travel.
* Matrimonial discussions
* Discussion on Religion, Religious personalities
* Discussion on philosophy

IV . Tamil Literature Society.
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* Translation of Tamil novels ,short stories and poem in English. (Contemporary literature) 1950 - present
* Translation of Tamil literature of 19 th century and early 20th Century. 1800- 1950
* Translation of Ancient Tamil Literature. 300 B.C to 1800 A.D.