For nearly a week now, ever since the row over Hindi imposition made the headlines after DMK MP Kanimozhi spoke about her experience at an airport, former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju has been actively advocating for the Tamil population to learn Hindi. The former judge, who has also served as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court has been extensively using Facebook to reiterate that Hindi is the ‘link language of the sub-continent’ and that it would be beneficial for the Tamil population to learn it.
In this campaign, Justice Katju has been sharing accounts of Tamil Facebook users who message him criticising or rubbishing the Dravidian ‘anti-Hindi’ politics.
While one cannot distinguish if most of the messages which Katju shares are genuine or sarcastic, the post from one user identified as ‘Prakash Alagar’ which Katju shared on Monday, was evidently sarcastic. However, the former SC judge completely missed the joke.
— Bala (@naartthigan) August 17, 2020
‘Prakash’ claimed that he was from a village called ‘Kalakeya’ from Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu. He further said that his tribe speaks ‘Kiliki’ language, which was ‘neglected by the Tamil politicians.’
Supporting the argument made by the former judge, Prakash said, “If I speak 'Aardha bhos.. Kkraakvikana Bhhumle.. Mohinoojukooo…Lioohakvee… Unu Kaasthaa..peezzraaa.. RoopuveeMinn.. Bahathhee' in our language. They won't understand its a loss for us only. Being in Tamil Nadu we feel we are supposed to learn and speak in Tamil. Same way being in India, we must learn Hindi which is the language of Majority. Tamil Politicians should stop this hypocrisy an double standard.” (sic)
The references – as any keen fan of south Indian movies would by now have caught on to – are from the blockbuster hit film franchise Baahubali. Kalakeya is a fictional tribe that prominently feature in the film Baahubali: The Beginning, and the language KiLiKi was created by lyricist Madhan Karky specifically for the film.
‘Prakash’, whose trolling of the Hindi imposition debate was clearly lost of Katju, further wrote, “Please share this message to all the Indians. Let them know the plight of 13,124 Kalakeya Tribes and our Kiliki language which survived Tamil Supremacy. I want say to say this to you, our beloved Katju sir in our language 'Dambadamba jivla baahaa-na Katju' which means 'You are a Genius Katju sir'.” (sic)
The Baahubali films made by SS Rajamouli and starring Prabhas, Anushka, Rana Daggubati and others, were a huge success across the country. These films went on to make unprecedented records in the history of Indian films.
According to Karky Research Foundation (KRF) founded by Madhan Karky, KiLiKi is designed to be a minimalistic language using a minimum number of syllables and the KiLiKi alphabet comprises 22 symbols. Though the idea to create the language was limited to the film, now it has evolved into a language with script, grammar, and more than 3,000 words, KRF claims.
Going back to Katju's post, though many have pointed out in the comments that Prakash was playing a prank, the post remains. (Or does the judge know that Kiliki is fictional?)