50 SOCIAL SCIENTIST 66 Tamilil Ilakkiya Vimarcanam, Madras 1974, He is the 'historian* of the movement, nostalgically hanging on to the past. 67 Vaiyapuri Pillai (1891-1956) had an abiding interest in creative literature and occasionally dabbled in: it. He has to his credit a few poems in translation, a couple of short stories, and a novel, Raji. His essays dealing with modern Tamil literature arc collected in Tamilin marumalarci, Madras 1947. He was a good friend of the poet-scholar, Dcsigavinayagam Pillai (1876-1954), and wrote a few appreciative essays about his works which are collected in Kavimani Desigavinayagam Pillai, Nagarkoil 1967. He worked closely with K A Nilakanta Sastri. 68 For representative collections of his literary and cultural essays see Itaya 0 li, Madras 1958 and Arputa rasam, Madras 1964. He is said to have coined the word panpatu as an equivalent* to the English term culture. It has virtually supplanted the earlier word kalacaram.For a brief critical evaluation of T KG as he was known see K Kailasapathy, llakkiyamum Tiranaivum (Literature and Criticism), second edition, Madras 1976, pp 43-48, 121-123 passim. 69 I have discussed this point in a historical perspective in "Tamil Studies in Sri Lanka", Newsletter of the S S I S, Vol 10, No, 1 November 1977. Also in a seminar paper for the International Writing Programme, the University of Iowa, October 1977, "Tradition and Change—A Glimpse of Modern Tamil Literature/' 70 The Most Dangerous Decades,? 12. In Sri Lanka the late fifties and early sixties saw a sharp struggle between the 'progressive' writers and the Tamil literary establishment over the use of dialectalism and neologisms. Some purist members of the establishment had called the language used by certain writers, ilicinar valakku, 'the usage of vulgar (low caste) people.' The matter had socio-political undertones. For a quick glimpse of contemporary Tamil writing in Sri Lanka, see K Kailasapathy, Tamil Nsival Ilakkiyam, Chapter 6; K Sivathamby, Tamilil Cirukatai-yin torramum Valarciyum, Madras 1967, pp 14^-152; K S Sivakumaran, Tamil Writing in Sri Lanka, Colombo 1974;and Sundararajan and Sivapathasundaram, op. cit., pp 261-272. 71 Smile of Murugan, p 287. 72 Nambi Arooran, op. cit., p 346. 78 Das Gupta, op, cit., p 184. 74 Wexler, op, cit., p 13. 75 Some contradictions in the personal life of Vedachalam have always troubled his friends and admirers. In contrast to his insistence on Tamils using their language in all walks of life, he maintained his diaries in English. Tirunavukkaracu, Marai-malaiyatikal Varalaru p 153. Likewise he also corresponded with many in English. T V Kaliyanasundaranar refers to such matters in Rils autobiography Valkkaik Kurippukal, p 168. 76 GJ Baker and D A Washbrook, South India, Bombay 1975, p 16, 77 Cf Selig S Harrison, op. cit., p 7. 78 Mohan S Kumaramangalam, India's Language Crisis, Madras 1965, p 71. 79 Besides Vedachalam, a person like S Somasundara Bharathi (1879-1959), a lawyer who turned to Tamil studies (like many others of that era—S Vaiyapuri Pillai, KN Sivaraja Pillai, K Subramania Pillai), flourished in the self respect atmosphere. He even occupied the Chair of Tamil at Annamalai University. A fanatical purist he later campaigned against the imposition of Hindi but eventually argued for the retention of English. Likewise M S Purnalingam Pillai (1866-1947), who was a colleague of Suryanarayana Sastri at Madras Christian College and wrote Tamil Literature, (1929) the first history of Tamil literature, favoured the use of English. In contrast, TV Kaliyanasundaranar consistently pleaded for the use of Tamil in education and administration. 80 A feature that became noticeable during the last fifteen years or so is the lavish use of English—words, phrases and sometimes whole sentences—in prose and poetry by some Tamil writers. They either use English alphabets or transliterate the