Federation of Tamil Sangams in Tamil Nadu unanimously elected Kumaran Sethupathy, the descendent of Sethupathy kings, its president, and resolved to take up with the government its demand to build a memorial for Pandithurai Thevar, the founder of Madurai Tamil Sangam, also called the fourth Tamil Sangam.
After a meeting here on Sunday on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, office-bearers of various Tamil Sangams, elected Mr. Kumaran Sethupathy, who was also the president of Madurai Tamil Sangam.
In a resolution adopted at the meeting, the Federation urged the State government to celebrate the birth anniversary of Pandithurai Thevar on March 21 as an official event and build a memorial for him in Madurai.
Stating the United Nations had listed Tamil among endangered languages, the Federation urged the State and Central governments to take steps to protect the language which faced the risk of falling out of use. The governments should declare Tamil an official language in the High Court and all other government institutions in the State, another resolution stressed.
The Federation also urged the State government to introduce Tamil as medium of instruction in all schools and accord priority in government jobs to those who had taken Tamil as the main subject. It urged the Centre to declare ‘Thirukural’ a National Book.