Thrissur, Thrishur or Trichur?

I have been an enthusiastic follower of Shashi Tharoor on twitter, through his campaign for the Thiruvananthapuram lok sabha constituency and after his victory too. I have been fascinated by the exposure, through tweets, to the day to day life of an MP, especially someone young, energetic and new to the Delhi political scene. Although in what follows, I express disappointment at and try to argue against two of his tweets, on the whole I think he is good for Thiruvananthapuram and has a bright future in Delhi.

"example is the absurdity of changing the accurate spelling of Trichur to the sub-literate "Thrissur"!"
So tweeted Tharoor about 14 hours ago expanding on his irritation at being spelled Sasi by some Malayalees instead of Shashi as his name is spelled. Although his irritation at his name being misspelt even in a foreign language is understandable, I don't find his larger comment about Malayalees' transliteration skills convincing. To start with, in the traditional scheme for romanising Malayalam, "ch" is the sound similar to the first syllable of cherish, cherub or Chad, using which would make തൃശൂര്‍ sound like ത്രിചൂര്, which is not correct. Anyone who has spent time in Kerala would have encountered Malayalees who use the latter pronunciation of Thrissur, simply because it used to be writter Trichur, probably as a legacy of the Raj. Apparently, this English spelling was enough to convince proud Malayalees to shed what they knew was the traditional pronunciation and embrace ത്രിചൂര് , but this impressionability to anything English-related is a topic for another day. However, when the English spelling is corrected (according to the way Malayalam is romanised) to Thrissur, which would enable right pronunciation among Malayalees, it is unfortunate to see someone of Tharoor's stature and obvious intellect not appreciate it.

When another reader objected to Tharoor's branding the usage Thrissur "sub-literate", he responded-
"@ajinair but u r not writing Malayalam, u r writing English. And Engl renderings of Ind names shld be written to be pronounced by Eng spkrs."

I disagree again. Although English is not an Indian language, it is not merely a foreign language in India. It is the language of business, higher education and government. The very fact that an MP like Tharoor tweets in English is an indicator of its central role in modern Indian life. Thrissur should be transliterated into English in a way that most people who are likely to come across the transliteration would understand. Given the role of English in India, and thus Kerala too, these are mainly the Malayalees and to a lesser extent, other Indians. For most Indians, the right pronunciation might fall between Thrissur and Thrishur, but is definitely not Trichur. The latter might be suitable for a Francophone fringe, but not to the overwhelming majority who are likely to come across the transliteration. Besides, it is not in the character of a self-assured society, or a leader of one, to fuss over how romanisation of words in its languages might not be second nature to every foreigner.

Transliteration is never perfect. Neither Chinese, nor Arabic, Hindi or Malayalam can be transliterated perfectly to every native English speaker's tastes. I think it is interesting, in this regard, how the world is now learning to pronounce Chinese sounds rightly from their transliteration in the Roman script, and many native English speakers take pride in doing it too. There is obvious correlation between this trend and China's rising star in the world sky. One earns respect from one's peers only when one learns to respect oneself. Once a system for Romanisation of a script is in wide use, it is wise to accept it and get on with real work, which I am certain Shashi Tharoor faces no dearth of...