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.>>“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.<<
>>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.<<
>>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.<<
>>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.<<
>>“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.