New P.E.I. monument memorializes Bedeque-born Tamil translator, scholar

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CENTRAL BEDEQUE, P.E.I. — CENTRAL BEDEQUE, P.E.I. – Slightly-known piece of P.E.I. historical past has been delivered to gentle.

On July 15, the Canadian Tamil Congress unveiled a monument in Decrease Bedeque in reminiscence of George Uglow Pope – a Bedeque-born man, famend in India as a translator and scholar. He specialised in Tamil – the world’s oldest residing language.

“He’s such an necessary individual within the Tamil language and historical past,” stated Sivan Ilangko, chair of the G.U. Pope Monument Marketing campaign.

The monument was erected subsequent to the current monument for his relative James Colledge Pope – a Bedeque service provider, shipbuilder and first premier of the province of P.E.I.

The brand new monument contains a bust of Pope alongside a plaque commemorating his life and achievements.

The challenge has been within the works for a number of years. Initially, Ilangko hoped to unveil the statue in 2020, marking the two hundredth anniversary of his start, although COVID delayed plans.

Regardless of the setback, Ilangko is happy to have the ability to put up the monument now.

Along with the statue, the Bedeque Space Historic Museum has added a small poster, which supplies guests to the museum a short overview of Pope’s life.

Doug Sobey, president of the Bedeque Space Historic Society, was delighted when the Canadian Tamil Congress approached the museum relating to the monument.

Till now, Pope, stated Sobey, was a “utterly unknown” a part of Bedeque’s previous. He’s excited that the museum and monument will give Islanders the prospect to find out about him.

“This places Bedeque on the map to a level, for an additional well-known Pope, or individual,” stated Sobey. “So it’s fairly necessary. We cooperated proper together with them (the Canadian Tamil Congress).”

Who was George Pope?

Though he was born in P.E.I. in 1820, Pope was an toddler when his household packed up and moved to Nova Scotia – and 6 years previous when he and his mother and father moved from Canada to England.

Pope’s notoriety, although, by-and-large comes from his time in South India. When he was 14, he started getting ready for missionary service. Three years later, he started studying the Tamil language and was conversational in it by the point he turned 19. He then got down to work within the South Asian nation.

Throughout his time in India, Pope labored as a missionary earlier than transferring onto training – founding and instructing at faculties in quite a lot of cities. Not lengthy after, he turned to translation work, even writing a Tamil-English dictionary.

He returned to England in 1881, although he by no means severed his connection to Tamil, instructing the language and Tamil literature at Balliol School in Oxford. When he wasn’t instructing, Pope devoted a lot of his time to translating Tamil works into English.

One of many texts he translated included the Thirukkural – a bit on ethics, advantage and morality which dates again to someplace between 300 B.C.E. and the fifth century.

“That’s the foundation for the Thirukkural to get translated into greater than 40 completely different languages,” stated Ilangko. “The Thirukkural type of influenced Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi and outstanding world leaders of historical past.”

Chatting with SaltWire forward of the statue’s grand opening, Ilangko was excited for the prospect to commemorate such a major determine. He additionally hopes that the memorial will assist convey consciousness of Pope to the broader neighborhood who might not presently find out about him.

“It’s an honour for us to honour G.U. Pope after 200 years,” he stated. “We’re happy that we’re ready to do that.”

Kristin Gardiner is a reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. She might be reached by e mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @KristinGardiner.