Should everyone in India learn Sanskrit to develop better character?

A rediff article about making Sanskrit as the people's language makes hilarious claims about how Sanskrit can eliminate India's plaguing problems like Corruption, Rape etc. New Delhi based Sanskrit

Bharati is on a mission to cleanse Indian languages from the evil influence of English, Persian and Arabic and infuse the holier than thou Sanskrit in their place so that Indians develop good character and become well behaved to not indulge in acts like Corruption and Rape.

Let's analyse some of the claims in the article and see how the whole initiative is against diversity, self defeating as well as doing a great disservice to Sanskrit.

>> Many feel that Indian languages are in a mess and what one witnesses is a mixture of English, Persian and Arabic in our regional languages. The question is, how do we purify Indian languages and remove the mix of various foreign languages? <<

=> Indian languages are in mess because there is not much worthy worldly knowledge exist in them. They are just fit for song and dance and some literature. When a language becomes unfit for commerce, technology and education, they definitely become a mess. Now, let's come to the mixture of other languages: No language survives or grows in isolation. Language, like a flowing river, keeps on absorbing newer words from other languages. Kannada has received words from Persian, Marathi, Tamil, Sanskrit as well as English and similarly other languages have received words from Kannada too and that's how languages evolve. Now, if someone wants to cleanse those other language words for Sanskrit, that's nothing but imposing Sanskrit in my view.

>>“Our organisation aims at the revival of Sanskrit as a mass communication language (janbhasha) and facilitation of common man’s access to its vast knowledge treasure.<<

=> Was Sanskrit ever a mass communication language ? It was a written language and was never a spoken language. Evidence? The grammar of Sanskrit has not changed. All spoken languages change with time. Kannada has a haLegannaDa, naDugannaDa and hosagannaDa form indicating the fact that as a spoken language it kept evolving with time, and for the point of accessing vast knowledge treasure what Sanskrit claims to have, the best way to do that is to translate those knowledge to people's language and making it available to the masses rather than asking everyone to learn Sanskrit. Latin has medicine knowledge, German has automobile technology,  now what is the best way to acquire these knowledge ? Asking everyone to learn those languages? or translating them and making it available in people's language? This should answer the futility of making a non-existent language as spoken language.

>>“While our first goal is to ensure that everyone learns how to speak the language, the next aim would be to teach them how to read and write. Once you learn how to speak the language it becomes easy to read and write,” Kamath notes.<<

=>Isn't this the modus operandi of Hindi imperialists too? They too want everyone to learn Hindi and then to read and write in Hindi so that India becomes "Hindi"stan.

>>It is important that everyone, apart from learning the bread-giving language, should also learn the character-building language -- which is Sanskrit. <<

=>Millions of Indians have no knowledge of Sanskrit, so do they lack character? Character building doesn't come from a language, it comes from what values parents and teachers instill in a kid. Associating Sanskrit to character building is like relegating other languages to something that spoils character.

>>Trust me, if everyone learns Sanskrit the culture among the people will change and it would only be a matter of time before crimes such as corruption and rape stop completely. This is the advantage of learning a character and culture-building language,” Kamath argues.<<

=> This is the most hilarious claim of the article. Learning a language doesn't solve Corruption and rape, what solves or at least reduces them is institutional solutions of reducing Corruption like downsizing the mammoth government, reducing the chances to give and take graft and better deterrence using law and order. Kamath's claim is nothing but a cock and bulls story.

>>Once Sanskrit is learnt one gets the feeling of being a Bharatiya.<<

=> This is a dangerous majoritarian view. To me, my bharatiyate lies in the fact that I am a Kannadiga. Like Alooru Venkataraya told I realise my bharatiyate only through Kannada. Like Sanskrit fanatics, even Hindi fanatics use the same reasoning by arguing that learning Hindi gives one the feeling of being Bharatiya. Both are against diversity and the plural Idea of India.

>>“At no point in time am I trying to say that people should stop speaking their regional language or mother tongue. I am only saying that each one should learn Sanskrit in a bid to protect their own mother tongue. Take a closer look and you will find that our mother tongues have become a mix of English, Arabic and Persian,” he adds.<<

=> Teach everyone to read, write, speak Sanskrit and then make it official language and then mandate it's usage everywhere and then come back to say "At no point in time am I trying to say that people should stop speaking their regional language or mother tongue". The first set of actions will invariably result in marginalisation of all spoken languages. Hindi imposition which is done in a very similar way is already eating into most natural language registers where Kannada was present in Karnataka. For example, the railways, airport, banks, post offices, income tax, PF offices and the likes in Karnataka are slowly making way for Hindi and Kannada is being pushed out of these offices. This is exactly what will happen if Sanskrit is forced down the unwilling throats.

Everyone is free to learn any language based on their need but the problem starts when chauvinists who are having majoritarian world views start imposing one language, one religion, one identity in the name of patriotism, dharma and nation building. Every Indian who believes in plurality and linguistic equality should be careful about people who offer such ideas that lack pragmatism and empathy towards diversity.