[Mr. Khatri said he was not yet recovering the 150,000 rupees, or about $2,500, that he invests each month in the 16-page weekly newspaper, which is published out of Delhi . But he is optimistic about ad revenue: He hopes to garner one ad from each of the 29 states and each of the 45 central ministries per month, added to revenue from private companies. He projects his eventual advertising revenue as 10 million rupees a month. After that, he wants to expand to FM radio out of the holy city of Varanasi , which is Mr. Modi’s constituency.]
By Betwa Sharma
 |
The front page of the Sanskrit newspaper Sajal Sandesh after
Narendra Modi’s party won the general election, with a
headline that translates to “Miracle, Miracle, Miracle.”
|
The Saturday after Narendra Modi
and his Bharatiya Janata Party’s historic victory in the country’s
parliamentary elections was announced, some 40,000 subscribers to a weekly
Sanskrit newspaper woke up to a resounding headline:
“Miracle, Miracle, Miracle,”
printed in bold Sanskrit over the top of Sajal Sandesh, which means “Gentle
Message.”
But for Deven Khatri, who manages
an edible oil export business as his day job, there may have been a double
meaning in the headline. He saw the election of the Hindu nationalist leader
and his right-of-center party as not just a political windfall, but also an
economic one.
Mr. Khatri, 42, started Sajal
Sandesh in May 2013, partly in anticipation of a new government, which is
likely to be friendly toward the revival of the ancient language, and therefore
could provide a much-needed platform, promotion and advertising to his fledgling
paper.
“The Modi government very much
prefers Indian culture, and they are very keen to promote Sanskrit,” he said. “We
have met B.J.P. leaders, who have assured us of their support.”
In March 2013, he met with
Shankaracharyas, the heads of Hindu monasteries, who predicted Mr. Modi’s
victory. He saw it as a good omen for his business.
“They were very firm about this,”
he said. “They are very wise. They know what will happen one year, and after
five years.”
Popularizing an ancient language
with a history of use only among upper-caste Brahmin priests, and which only 50,000
Indians identify as their first language according to the most recent census, might
be difficult — but Mr. Khatri has a plan.
In an interview, Mr. Khatri spoke
less about the glory of ancient Hindu culture and the beauty and purity of
Sanskrit, and more about business.
The paper is now eligible for
government advertisements, since it has been publishing for a year, and Mr. Khatri
and his team say they have been meeting with politicians from state governments
and leaders from the national party for two years. They intend to run ads from
states, which put out information including education and health programs, job
postings and notices inviting bids for public projects.
Mr. Khatri said he was not yet
recovering the 150,000 rupees, or about $2,500, that he invests each month in
the 16-page weekly newspaper, which is published out of Delhi .
But he is optimistic about ad revenue: He hopes to garner one ad from each of
the 29 states and each of the 45 central ministries per month, added to revenue
from private companies. He projects his eventual advertising revenue as 10
million rupees a month. After that, he wants to expand to FM radio out of the
holy city of Varanasi , which is Mr.
Modi’s constituency.
Mr. Khatri said that he had
spoken with B.J.P. leaders, including the health minister, Harsh Vardhan, who
expressed their support for the paper.
This month, several B.J.P. politicians,
including top ministers like Mr. Vardhan, took their oaths in Sanskrit at a
ceremony in the Indian Parliament.
“We have a great love for the
language,” Mr. Vardhan said in a phone interview, explaining why he had taken
the oath in Sanskrit. “It is our oldest language, and we regard it as the
mother of all other languages.”
Mr. Vardhan described Sajal
Sandesh as a “positive effort that had to be appreciated” for bringing to the
public “an advanced and scientific language.”
“Anything which is good for the
country, in the larger interest of the people, and strengthens the culture, then
it is the moral duty of the government to support not only this but every such
mission,” he said.
Rajesh Misra, editor of Sajal
Sandesh, said that he had even taken it upon himself to prepare a draft of Mr. Modi’s
prime ministerial oath in Sanskrit, in case Mr. Modi had decided to be sworn in
in the language, to run in the paper.
To publicize the newspaper, an
additional 30,000 complimentary copies are delivered to religious and
educational institutions, as well as the upper and lower houses of Parliament.
Others have also made efforts to
revive Sanskrit, including another paper, published from the Mysore
region, which is struggling to find readers.
Before starting the paper, Mr. Khatri
said, the Sajal Sandesh team had also sought advice from holy men in sacred
Hindu cities like Haridwar and Varanasi .
“The priests told us that they
wanted to know about current affairs like what Modi ji was saying today,” he
said, referring to the prime minister with the Hindi honorific.
Mr. Misra, 43, said that the
newspaper had 20 freelance reporters, who send dispatches in Hindi and English
that are then translated by Sanskrit experts in the Delhi
office.
Mr. Khatri said that the
reporters, some with degrees in engineering, business and mass communications, were
also expected to promote the paper and increase subscriptions — earning about 100
rupees for each one.
Mr. Khatri said he believed that
there were more Sanskrit speakers in India
than the census had recorded.
In Delhi ,
Mr. Misra has counted 39 colleges that offer postgraduate Sanskrit courses and 23
religious ashrams, called gurukuls, where Hindu boys live and study.
“And that is only in Delhi ,”
he said. “So we see huge potential to grow.”
Vikas Tiwari, who runs a gurukul
for boys between the ages of 3 and 14, said that he receives four complimentary
copies of Sajal Sandesh every week. Mr. Tiwari said that the younger students
used the newspaper to practice speaking in Sanskrit, while the older boys
brushed up on current affairs.
“It helps them increase their
vocabulary, make sentences, and be more conversational,” he said.
Mr. Khatri said that popularizing
Sanskrit corrected an imbalance in the supply and demand of the language.
Today, Mr. Tiwari said, more
students from lower castes than Brahmins are being educated at his gurukul.
“Now we want everyone to know
Sanskrit, not only Hindus,” Mr. Khatri said. “Sanskrit is knowledge, and that
brings equality.”
