Old is Gold

The GO of 1971, which allowed the use of the New Lipi, specifically reads that it was meant for only the print and typing and that the Old Lipi should be continued to be used for all hand-written documents. Thereafter the public at large and the teaching institutions in particular, who were forced to read all printed Malayalam script in the New Lipi gradually stopped using the Old Lipi, which should have been properly named ‘The Thanathu Lipi’, even for writing. No action was taken by any government to prevent this and the New Lipi gradually replaced the Thanathu Lipi even for hand written material.

Despite this, the students who completed their secondary education before 1971 continued to be the users of the Thanathu Lipi for all hand-written material. But by the year 2011, on attaining the age of 55 this category of supporters of the Thanathu Lipi ceased to exist in Key positions in Kerala Government. How many supporters will the Thanathu Lipi have? The Old Lipi, as they call it, is, as far as the present generation is considered, a script foreign to them. They refuse to acknowledge the fact that it is actually the New Lipi, meant for the typewriter and printing, that is foreign. The Thanathu Lipi is under controversy even in the IT field, with very few supporters, because the majority of the people in the IT field joined school after the year 1971 and is familiar with only the New Lipi, its Fonts and software created for the purpose. This leaves behind only a handful of people in the IT field outside Kerala, who are very active on the internet, in either Malayalam Wikipedia or a Malayalam blogger, to be the strong supporters of the Thanathu Lipi.

The present generation of officers in Government between the ages of 45 to 55 years consists of the students who did their basic education in school between the years 1971 to 1981 and were exposed to both Lipi during their basic education. They remain confused about which Lipi is to be used for hand-written documents. The generation that joined Std: I after 1971, who have no confusion over using the New Lipi, and at this point time are below the age of 45 years, will continue to remain in Government service till at least 2022 and will be taken over by the generation to come, unless the GO of 1971 is revised NOW, in 2013. In the event of that happening, NOW being the right time, it will take another 10 years, the year 2023 perhaps, for the Thanathu Lipi to become the rule.