Fighting NEP is the laziest way to save Tamil

We often complain about the National Education Policy (NEP), but we fail to recognize that Tamil has deteriorated significantly due to poor education and the effects of Westernization. The situation has worsened to the extent that even government gazettes and street names contain spelling and grammatical errors. Most of our generation, especially Gen Z, struggles to read and write proper Tamil. Many of us can read the language but lack proficiency in writing because we have no practice. I believe we primarily learn languages for economic opportunities, but in doing so, we neglect our heritage. This phenomenon has repeated throughout history, which is why we lost a linguistic and cultural landscape like Kerala. Malayalam evolved from Tamil with Sanskrit influences, yet Tamil was widely spoken in the region until around 300 CE, with Malayalam emerging as a distinct language by 700 CE. The decline of Tamil in Kerala took several centuries, but in contrast, our current decline has occurred within just 20–30 years. Meanwhile, our Sri Lankan Tamil counterparts continue to speak the language with greater fluency and accuracy. I partly attribute this linguistic erosion to iconoclasts like Periyar and the Dravidian movement (DK), which propagated the idea that Tamil was outdated while English was superior. Additionally, caste and religious divisions have weakened our cultural unity, allowing political parties to exploit these divisions for their own gain. The NEP issue is a prime example—DMK claims to be protecting Tamil, but its solutions are superficial at best. Implementing NEP will not resolve the core issue, as our community has already become accustomed to speaking Tamil mixed with English. What difference does it make if a student learns everything in Tamil until the 5th standard but ultimately shifts to English in daily life, as most of our generation already does? We are now in a situation similar to what Kerala experienced in the past, and Tamil is gradually eroding. If this trend continues, the language may face an even greater decline in the years to come.