ABSTRACT
The Telugu-speaking parts of Madras presidency under the British rule witnessed a wide-ranging debate during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the propriety of using spoken language in writing examinations as well as literary texts. There was a clear-cut distinction between written Telugu and spoken Telugu throughout the history of written literature in Telugu, spanning from the eleventh century till the 1850s, decades after the entry of printing and sprouting of newspapers and early modern literature. Gidugu Ramamurthy's thrust was on developing modern Telugu on the lines of modern English and other European languages. While the attempts of J. A. Yates and his friends were going in the direction of popularizing the use of modern Telugu, the government announced new changes in education and examination system in 1909-1910. The meeting and the resolutions were seen by the modernists as an attempt to take over the Telugu Board of Studies of the government's education department.
