This blog is written by the author to celebrate and share the tremendous work and achievement of Mr K. Murthy, a member of the Tamil community and an avid editor who has recently crossed 10,000 articles on Tamil Wikipedia.
Vellore is a city located in southern India with various interesting histories of its own. Sepoy Mutiny at Vellore is considered to be a prelude to the Great Revolt of 1857 which led to the century long Indian Independence movement. Recently from Vellore K. Murthy, a government employee and a Wikimedian from 2013, has crossed the milestone of 10,000 articles in Tamil Wikipedia.
In early 2013, he brought a desktop computer with the intention of helping children’s education. While his children played and studied on the computer, he was excited by seeing Tamil letters on the Internet. Then he started reading everything available in Tamil through online searches. Once he came across Wikipedia by chance. The tagline of Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia that anyone could edit, attracted him and which made him learn editing Wikipedia. He started his journey with minor edits and gradually created new articles in Tamil Wikipedia
During his college days, Kaviko Abdul Rahman and Kaviyaruvi Abdul Kadar developed his interest in language. He also got inspiration from writers and poets like Pudhumaipithan, Jayakanthan, Mu.Va, Sandilyan, Sujatha, Metha, and Na. Kamarasan. He quoted Bharathiyar verse “Journey in all directions and bring me all the wealth Of all the arts and sciences” and realized the need for translating foreign content into Tamil. He strongly believed that if those were translated with quality, it would greatly help Tamil students’ knowledge development. He also expressed that language and literature alone are not enough to modernize the mother tongue.
Today’s students will come forward to study only if all current subjects are available in their mother tongue. That’s the reason for his continuous contribution and as a chemistry graduate, he started writing chemistry articles. Since 2023 July, he has done 78,000+ edits and 10000+ new article creation in Tamil Wikipedia. He is the first user to cross this milestone from his community. He has also contributed in other Tamil projects like Wikisource, Wikidata and Wiktionary
The thought of doing something for Tamil has been deeply ingrained in his subconscious, and the comparison that English Wikipedia has 6 million articles while our mother tongue has only 170,000 articles kept him motivated. Therefore, writing for Wikipedia has become one of his daily tasks. He said that “Whether I can’t sleep, whether there’s a sad event or happiness, whether I have to go to office early or leave late, even during lunch breaks, creating articles has become a habit for me.”
He also inspired his family to contribute and his wife, Gandhimathi is also an active wikipedia contributor. Gandhimathi is a high school Teacher by profession and mother of 2 adults. Below are few words from Murthy:
Why do you think Tamil Wikipedia is important in the knowledge ecosystem of your Language?
Our ancestors have passed down our language with thousands of years of tradition and handed it to us. We have the huge responsibility to make this oldest language of the world, with all resources, survive and pass it on for thousands more years to our generation. I think it’s our duty to our language that everyone should try to do what they can instead of lazily waiting for others to do it. Since the future is built by the internet, creating encyclopedias only in inscriptions, palm leaves, and papers is not enough for our current language. Since Wikipedia provides a good opportunity for an online encyclopedia, I feel the Wikipedia platform is very essential for the Tamil knowledge ecosystem.
Do you have any memorable experiences in Wikipedia?
There are numerous experiences. If I start telling all those experiences, it would become a series. Wikipedia has introduced me, an average person living in some corner among thousands of people in Vellore city, to important personalities of the Tamil language. Particularly in 2015, I met Mr. Udayachandran IAS, then secretary of the School education department of Tamilnadu, is an unforgettable moment in my life. Wikipedia took me to Punjab, Ranchi, and Orissa as a representative of the Tamil language without affecting my work or personal life. Wikipedia made many Tamil friends living abroad and throughout India with similar thinking as my friends.
He strongly believes that instead of talking only about the old glory accumulated in language, we should also update our language resources to meet future needs. He is very active in guiding new users and students to contribute to wikimedia. He also has a dream of college students and professors coming forward to create at least 700 articles per day on Tamil Wikipedia.
Now he is at the age of retirement from his government service. After his retirement, he planned to become an volunteer ambassador of Tamil wikipedia to spread the spirit of open knowledge.
K. Murthy is one of the most inspiring and energetic members of the community and if you wish to get in touch with him please feel free to write a message on his Talk Page.
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