Tamil Sangam of Seychelles inaugurated |01 October 2019
Vice-President Meriton (left) officially inaugurated the new association
Tamil Language speaking people have been living in Seychelles for many centuries and have integrated themselves well into the multi-cultural fabric of the Seychellois society.
As residents living away from their origin, their aspiration was to follow their language customs and cultural traditions. Based on that, a new association called Tamil Sangam of Seychelles was inaugurated by Vice-President Vincent Meriton in a grand inaugural and cultural programme in the Baha’i Centre, Bel Air on September 22, 2019.
Indian high commissioner to Seychelles, Major Dalbir Singh Suhag, delivered a greeting message and in his speech he highlighted the greatness of Tamil language, which is an ancient classical language with a very rich literature.
During the event, Patrick Victor, honorary cultural ambassador, was specially honoured for his contribution to Seychelles culture.
Two special speakers – Dr G. Sivaraman and K. Sivakumar – have arrived from Tamil Nadu to speak of the importance of Tamil culture and current life style in relation to physical, mental and social health.
Chairman Veera Pandiyan also addressed the gathering.
According to the findings of the researchers of world languages, many languages like Tamil, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Basov, Lithuanian, Chinese and Farsi are more than 3000 years old, but Tamil language continues to be the spoken language of people in many parts of the world and has surpassed time.
The scholars of Tamil language state that Tamil was born even before the emergence of rocks and sand on the earth.
English, the link language of the world, came into being in the 10th Century; French was born in the 8th Century and German, in the 6th Century, whereas Tamil is older than 3000 years.
It is an official language in the countries of India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. In 2004, the government of India announced Tamil as the first legally recognised classical language (Semmozhi) of India. This further endorsed the fact that Tamil is an ancient language with a rich literature and heritage.
Here, the government of Seychelles has proposed to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the First Settlement in Seychelles in the month of August, 2020. It is to commemorate the first settlers of Seychelles who entered this country on August 27, 1770. These first settlers include 15 white colonists, 7 slaves, 5 Indians and 1 Black woman. These 5 Indians were Tamil speaking people from Pondicherry.
Subsequently, many Tamils migrated to Seychelles and continue to contribute to its commercial and economic development.
Works of Tamil Sangam:
Indians, especially the Tamil speaking people from Tamil Nadu, have been serving in the trading and other public and private sectors for a long time and rendering their services to this country for many generations. To cater to this purpose, the work proposed to be undertaken by the newly launched Tamil Sangam can be summarized as follows:
- render social service to the citizens of Seychelles.
- promote Tamil culture along with the Creole culture which is followed by the citizens of Seychelles.
- make efforts to teach Creole, the language spoken by the people of Seychelles, to the Tamil people and Tamil language to the people speaking Creole.
- undertake other tasks for promoting social welfare.
The inaugural function continued on Praslin at the Baie Ste Anne community centre the following day, September 23.
