[lg policy] Sanskrit: The Real National Language Of India

[Harold Schiffman]

Sanskrit: The Real National Language Of India
December 5th, 2010 by Leave a reply »

Sanskrit is a language which can be regarded as the real identity of
India. There is  an urban  superstition in India that Sanskrit is
language of Brahmins. On the contrary, Jains, and Buddhists created
thousands of high quality literature in Sanskrit. Even Virashaivism
has   faces of  Sanskrit in good quantity. Ancient roots and modern
sprouts- this is the real nature  of  Sanskrit.

Modern Sanskrit  is wonderful fusion of ancient inspiration with fresh
approach. Grammar, Philosophy, religion, studies in classical
literature, Ayurveda, novels, short stories, lyrics, poems using
ancient prosody- everything is  created afresh in Sanskrit even today.
Like  other Indian languages, the authors of  this language are being
conferred awards.

The world of journalism  is very well rooted in Sanskrit.
Sambhashana-sandesha and Sudharma these have been spreading  the
modern Sanskrit fragrance all over the world. Enthusiasts are
contemplating to start an online Magazine in Sanskrit !  A publication
company namely Serene Woods has already published a humorous Sanskrit
work  in  E-book form!

‘‘So what? Sanskrit is one of the languages surviving in India. Is it
a matter of dance? ’’ You   may ask.

Yes. Really. It is a matter of great pleasure that an ancient language
not only has modernity touch but also emerging as a  powerful
language  of  India. It is not considered language of any particular
area or state. It is nationwide. That means it does deserve having
status as National language of India. There is strong opposition
now-a-days regarding inclusion of  this language in education. Self
styled  rationalists are shouting with  illogical arguments from their
 rooftops. ‘Sanskrit is dead language. So, simply forget it. ’The ones
who  have read the previous portions  of this article don’t mingle
with them.

At present, Government of India is  for three language policy in
education in some states: Hindi, English and local  language. It  does
not  apply to Tamilnadu and some states of Northern India! Two
language policy is prevailing there. By calling all the state
languages as local languages  the government officials  are insulting
all Indian languages, particularly Southern Indian languages. What
about Kannada which is more ancient than Hindi?

Is only  colloquial  majority enough to  declare  any language
national  language? The Indians of southern part are tolerating Hindi
because of Hindi movies. You may have watched in the interviews that
all the heroes and heroines Hindi movies are good  in English. So much
so they answer only in English being questioned in Hindi. In most
cases the interview programmes of  Hindi  super stars are conducted
only in English.

It is a fashion to  quote Swami Dayanada Saraswathi among  pro-Hindi
lobby. Dayananda Saraswathi had said  that the Vedas shall be read by
every Indian. He also had said  that Tulasi-Ramayana shall not be
studied. Purposely sidelining these  two opinions of him, the
pro-Hindi arguers always try to take support from Dayananda’s
half-quoted sentence: Hindi shall be national language of India.

One may object Dayananda’s  contradictory statements. Every Indian
shall study Vedas means  every  Indian shall know Vedic language and
not Hindi. If every Indian shall study Vedic language, why not
classical  Sanskrit?  Nobody shall study Tulasiramayan means nobody
shall study Hindi! If  three language policy includes Sanskrit instead
of Hindi, every state of India will have common  language policy in
education.

The language with most ancient identity will be emerging as common
language  of India.

 I born in the year 1956, I  would  like to  become fulltime writer in
Sanskrit.

Aabhaanakajagannatha, a collection of 1300 of  my own Sanskrit
proverbs is recently published.

My another  work is, ‘dve mukhe(two  faces)’. It is a work of two
humorous long  poems. It is available at ‘Serene Woods. com’ As  per
my knowledge goes, this is  the first time a Sanskrit work  is
published online.

http://www.pawritingprojectnetwork.org/2010/12/sanskrit-the-real-national-language-of-india/

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