[For
several millennia, Sanskrit has been the sole medium of not only religion and
ritual but also of philosophy & metaphysics, poetics, mathematics and the
sciences, law, jurisprudence etc. Sanskrit has always been the common language
of all literate persons pursuing studies in various traditional disciplines. To
this day, in scores of gurukulams, and in several Sanskrit departments, the
medium of instruction and the common language for everyday interaction is Sanskrit.]
Dr. Shrikant Jamadagni
In
my previous column, I had raised the possibility of adopting Sanskrit as the
national language of India
Hindi
is a regional language
Based
on massive historical evidence in the form of lakhs of books in Sanskrit
written by authors spanning over several millennia and spanning the length and
breadth of India and covering every imaginable branch of knowledge, one can say
with confidence that at the pan-India level Sanskrit is mukhya (principal) and
all other languages including Hindi are gouṇa (subordinate). What is mukhya can
never become gouṇa, and what is gouṇa can never become mukhya. No power on
Earth or Heaven can alter this fact. This is the essence of my argument that
Hindi as official language is such a deeply flawed idea.
Firstly,
lets us look at the number of Hindi speakers in the country, who incidentally, belong
only to North-India. As per the 2001 census only 25% of population had declared
Hindi as their native language. An additional 20% speak one of many dialects of
Hindi. Even if we add these up and say that about 45% of India
Secondly,
Hindi, like other regional languages, but unlike Sanskrit, has never been a
medium of higher learning. This should be actually the most important criteria
for a language to be elevated as a national or official language.
The
third problem is the vast gulf between ‘official’ Hindi that is loyal to
Sanskrit and the popular ‘Hindi’ on TV and in ‘Hindi’-movies that is completely
overrun by Urdu. Though geographically speaking Urdu is an Indian language, it
is rooted in Persian and thus disconnected with the greater Indian civilization
that is firmly rooted in Sanskrit. This two-faced nature of Hindi is confusing
and the Urduized ‘Hindi’, which is the public face of Hindi, is completely
disconnected with the essence, heart and soul of Indian civilization.
Why
Smriti Irani needs to introduce Sanskrit on a war footing
Finally,
even the use of ‘official’-Hindi is more of a window-dressing since it is not
used in the most important tasks of the Government; for example, the actual
making of the laws, i.e. putting a law into writing, is done in English. Only
the original English text is considered official and authoritative and not the
Hindi translation. Most of the official documents like international agreements
etc. are also in English. This is the situation in spite of repeated efforts at
pushing Hindi for almost seventy years by the Government. The Government has
failed to do what it preaches.
It
should be clear to any rational person that Hindi as official language has
failed. Therefore it is time we reconsidered Sanskrit which was anyway the
choice of half of the Constituent Assembly of 1949 that voted on the choice of
official language.
On
September 11 1949, the then Law Minister Dr. B.R.Ambedkar supported by Dy.Minister
for External Affairs Dr. B.V.Keskar and Mr.Naziruddin Ahmed sponsored an
amendment declaring that the official language of the Union shall be Sanskrit. The
amendment had thirteen other signatories of whom eleven hailed from South-India
including nine from Madras
Why
Sanskrit?
For
several millennia, Sanskrit has been the sole medium of not only religion and
ritual but also of philosophy & metaphysics, poetics, mathematics and the
sciences, law, jurisprudence etc. Sanskrit has always been the common language
of all literate persons pursuing studies in various traditional disciplines. To
this day, in scores of gurukulams, and in several Sanskrit departments, the
medium of instruction and the common language for everyday interaction is Sanskrit.
The
logical structure and power of expression of Sanskrit is well-known. Especially,
Sanskrit is distinguished by the extraordinary vastness of its vocabulary. The
size of Sanskrit vocabulary as testified by the dictionary project at Deccan College
There
should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about ability of Sanskrit to cater to the
needs of the modern scientific & technological age. As early as the 1940’s,
the great Sanskrit scholar, linguist and nationalist Acharya Raghuvira single
handedly compiled a dictionary which he called ‘A Greater English-Hindi
dictionary’. In this dictionary he had coined one lakh fifty thousand Sanskrit
words for more than thirty-two areas of Administration and Law and for scores
of scientific disciplines. His visionary idea was that this dictionary could
serve as a reference for all Indian languages thus facilitating use of Indian
languages in all modern education. Unfortunately, this pioneering work was
quickly forgotten as the states failed to appreciate its importance and the
threat that English would eventually pose to regional languages.
Declare
Sanskrit as National Language
In
summary, the following unique qualities of Sanskrit make it the only choice as
national language of India
(a)
Unlike other regional languages, it is an independent language, i.e. it has a
built-in mechanism to generate new vocabulary based on a vast store of base-words
and roots. This incomparable power of generating words for every human
endeavour and aspiration is Sanskrit’s greatest strength.
(b)
It has proven its ability to not only to be the medium, but due to its innate
power, also a driving force in the pursuit of man’s worldly pursuits as well as
his aspiration for highest spiritual knowledge and enlightenment.
(c)
It is the only language that for several thousand years has been continuously
link language for educated people from ALL parts of India
(d)
No state or region can claim Sanskrit as its own, but at the same time its
vocabulary pervades ALL state/regional languages thus giving it a
national identity. This simple fact seems to have been lost to those in the
Constituent Assembly who voted in favor of Hindi.
Therefore,
the position of Sanskrit as the national language and also the official
language is unassailable. Fortunately, though English and Hindi were chosen as
official languages for the conduct of official proceedings, the Constitution
did not declare any language as the national language.
Therefore,
Parliament should declare Sanskrit as national language and the Central
Government should envisage a National Mission for Sanskrit Literacy. The status
quo may be maintained – for now – with regards to English and Hindi as official
languages.
An
awakened and united India
But
what could or should Sanskrit literacy achieve? Surely this cannot be about
merely replacing one language with another. The advent of Sanskrit as a common
voice will help unite all Indians by awakening them to their shared history. People
will find out for themselves, as did Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, that India India
