Endorse the Language Petition
Telugu to Be Recognised as Australian Community Language
About Telugu language
Telugu is one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India and primarily spoken in two states (Andhra Pradesh & Telangana) and neighbouring states in India. Telugu is the third largest spoken language in India and over 180 million people speak, read and write Telugu all over the world. Government of India has declared Telugu as a “Classical Language in India” and has the largest number of articles in Wikipedia amongst all South Asian languages. 16th century Italian explorer Niccolò Da Conti, who visited the Vijayanagara Empire (part of South India), described the Telugu language as the Italian of the East, as he had found that many words are ending with vowels — similar to Italian. “Telugu (Tenugu = tene agu = honey like) is the most melodious, sweet Italian of the East”. Most of the devotional songs recited in South India (over 133 million other than Telugu people) are composed in Telugu language because of it contains melodious musical tunes and syllables suitable for music.
Migration to Australia
Migration of Telugu speaking people to Australia started in early 20th century but the mass migration occurred during the first phase of IT boom during the middle of 1980s. Since then the population is multiplied and now more than 100,000 live in Australia. Telugu migrants living in each city have individual associations organising language based cultural events with the help of respective State governments. Also, Telugu learning schools are being promoted widely for second/third generation kids by the local Telugu associations independently promoting their language and culture integrating with multi-cultural Australian society.
Telugu Community people migrated to Australia are primarily through skilled immigration into diverse professional areas. They are highly educated, knowledgeable, experienced, professional, soft speaking, multi-cultural and no criminal attitude. Telugu migrants have contributed to Australian economy from day one with their professional skills. Many of the Telugu community leaders were recognised with community/multi-cultural awards by local and Federal governments.
Commercial benefits
Two Telugu states (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) are highly commercial and dynamic. Both have got enormous potential business centres for many multi-national companies particularly in Information Technology, Pharmaceutical and many more industries but not limited to only these areas.
Telugu people are highly entrepreneurs and provide the best education to their children. There are many more technical educational institutions located in these two states and send them to Australia for higher education.
There are thousands of literary works available in Telugu language, which have been translated into other foreign languages because of its versatility and sweetness. Many of the second generation Telugu people are showing interest to read and translate Telugu into English. Now many Australians are working in Indian IT hub – Hyderabad in various positions. Telugu as community language will help them to perform their jobs in a better way if they are able to communicate in local language.
This is a great opportunity for local people to know about Telugu language, its culture and good potential for job opportunities. Telugu film industry (Tollywood) is the second biggest in Indian cinema on par with Bollywood. It has an employment of about 10,000 people with a market value of A$3.3 billion and dubbed several English films into Telugu. Many Telugu film shootings are happening overseas particularly in our neighbouring country New Zealand because they extend number of benefits and tax rebates for Telugu movies. There is more potential for building business relationships between Australia and two Telugu speaking states because of these two countries believe in similar value proposition.
Community Language Recognition
Federation of Telugu Associations in Australia requests to recognise Telugu as a community language and provide the benefits to the highly positive community. This would provide “Credentialed Community Language Points” to new skilled migrants with Telugu background. That would help Australia to attract well qualified professionals from India and also more students to get higher education in Australian universities. Through Australian Government available pathways will provide migrants to be more inclusive into the Australian society.
Endorse the Telugu Language Petition
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This information will NOT be used for any other purpose except to submit statistical information about number of signatories to Australian Government in case they ask for it and update you with progress on the petition.