Shiban Khaibri
” Prejudice not founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument ; prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.”
It was exactly in July 2019 when through the same columns , this writer had deeply lamented about what was told in respect of the mother of numerous languages – The Sanskrit _ as “being dead and the Hindi language too having no literature at all “. Not only this, it was further told that “standard of debate and discussion in Parliament had considerably deteriorated due to use of Hindi”. It was Vaiko (G. Gopalswamy) founder of Marumalrachi Dravidra Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) , the then Rajya Sabha member who, while debating in Parliament, had mocked ,belittled and demonstrated extreme prejudice for the two great Bharti languages – Sanskrit and Hindi – and had out rightly written off both of them as totally “worthless” and had instead strongly vouched for a non Indian and alien language – English. After six years in a row , and again in Parliament , this time in Lok Sabha , Dayanidhi Maran , a member of the DMK , an ally of Congress, was seen agitated and strongly objecting to Sanskrit “also” included in 22 languages through which the members could get the proceedings of the House interpreted to their convenience. Maran was , therefore, upset over ” unnecessarily misusing ” public money on Sanskrit language as it was not a communicable language and wanted it to be removed from amongst the 22 other Indian languages . However, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla asked Dayanidhi as to which part of the World he was living in and not knowing as much as the basic original language of Bharat having been Sanskrit , saying further about availability of translation of proceedings in 22 Indian languages to the members in the House , again asked Maran “but why do you object to Sanskrit and Hindi languages only .”
Incidentally or coincidentally , the name of the Honourable member is itself in Sanskrit language – Dayanidhi – Daya + Nidhi , or a treasure of kindness and compassion. Besides, being from a well known Hindu family , he must be performing pooja etc and reciting from Holy scriptures in Sanskrit only but why this brazen objection to and disapproval of using the two proud Indian languages in the country , especially in the Parliament ,which approach inelastic in nature, has unfortunately graduated to being more or less hereditary with Tamil politics ? Why did not even a single member from Congress or other constituents of INDI alliance object to Dayanidhi’s standpoint , is quite baffling especially when most of their members were seen frequently displaying copy of the constitution showcasing their ”utmost respect” for the constitution . Moreover, many of the stalwarts of Congress of yesteryears having been great Sanskrit scholars, that party must feel proud of and thus come in total support of the great language rich in every aspect.
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak , a Congress leader was a great Sanskrit scholar for whom Max Muller had said , ” My interest in Tilak is that of a Sanskrit scholar.” It is he who had convincingly argued that Rigved and Sanskrit are 95000 years old. The freedom movement veteran and Bharat Ratna C. Rajagopalachari, himself a Tamilian was a Sanskrit scholar and had strongly advocated for compulsory education of Hindi in educational institutions in the then Madras state during his tenure of being head of the government of Madras for which he faced opposition and earned the nick name of destroyer of Tamil Thai. Bharat Ratna Shri Madan Mohan Malvia ,the three term President of Congress Party was a renowned Sanskrit scholar and great educationist. The list is long . William Jones , a gem in Greek and Latin languages had remarked that Sanskrit was a wonderful language — more perfect than Greek , more copious than Latin and more refined than either –. Sanskrit has neither any beginning nor any end , it is eternal , divine, everlasting and had been first used in Holy Vedas and thereafter in other scriptures and texts.
Great epics , especially Mahabharat , known as encyclopaedia of knowledge , were written in Sanskrit. Great poets , writers, philosophers, economists and thinkers in India had written in Sanskrit. Panini’s grammar has no parallels in the world. Not only art and literature, divinity and spiritualism etc but scientific literatures, Metrics, Law, Science of politics, Love, Medicine, Astronomy, mathematics, astrology and the like have been lucidly written in Sanskrit. Brhamgupta the great Indian mathematician gave to the world the concept of zero writing in Sanskrit. In short, instead of feeling proud of such a language and promoting and spreading Sanskrit , it is totally unfortunate and disgusting that there should be so much brazen hatred and hostile attitude towards this language bringing in irrelevant and manufactured stories and generating unfound doubts and fears in the minds of people.
Is such an unacceptable approach towards Sanskrit all due to ignorance or sheer prejudice or both , but why? Shakespeare , in this context had aptly said, “Ignorance is the curse of God, knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven” . Is it not ludicrous that English is verily preferred and for unspecified years and even centuries but a slight move to also learn Hindi and Sanskrit termed as ” thrust on us” and ” imposed on us” as Dayanidhi Maran charged the government with promoting and furthering the ”agenda” of the RSS by including Sanskrit also in other 22 Indian languages.? What is this “agenda” of the RSS which is lavishly but with ulterior motives , under cheap politics being peddled ? None is against the English language but English is not our language . Sanskrit is, Tamil is, Hindi is, Punjabi is, Bangla is , so on and so forth. So much hatred for our own language depicts colonial mindset and sheer servility .
In our country, in addition to English and Hindi , languages like Bangla, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu, Tamil, Dogri, Kashmiri, Telugu, Konkani, Assamese, Manipuri, Kannad, Nepali, Malayalam, Orriya, Punjabi, Santhali, Bodo , Sanskrit , Maithili, Sindhi are used in Parliament under 8th schedule of the constitution of India . Dayanidhi is all well with 21 Indian languages enjoying constitutional recognition for using in the Parliament but sees furtherance of some agenda of the RSS in having Sanskrit as one of the languages. Totally unacceptable and untenable stance , this – which must be reviewed and changed.
This country is blessed with so many sweet , rich and widely spoken languages depicting beauty of diversity – a unique characteristics of Bhartia culture and tradition– and we feel proud of such a legacy being duly recognised by our constitution but in the burst of hidebound and parochial politics, Hindi and Sanskrit have constantly been pooh poohed , trivialised and underplayed as to their relevance and what is termed as being “non communicable” and thus opposed . One speaking in English only is knowledgeable and in other Bhartia languages , especially Hindi , deemed to be less knowledgeable is such an approach which deserves contempt and sneer. We have political leaders who take immense pleasure in downplaying their own country and preaching to learn from China in making batteries, drones and what not forgetting that this country has travelled quite far ahead of that and India was making drones much better than China for defence, mapping, surveillance , security etc. Those leaders who from foreign countries are advocating the innocence and greatness of China and blaming India for not ”changing its confrontational approach towards China” claiming that the threat from China had been blown out of proportion should clear their position. Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda sermons that India should adopt a policy of collaboration rather than that of confrontation. So , Sam feels India as aggressor and China as a victim which the people of this country need to think over and perceive how from within , we have tendencies of projecting India , its Sanatan, its rich culture, its legacy and its achievements in all spheres very poorly . Hatred for Sanskrit too stems from such a mindset.
It is unfortunate that Sanskrit was recently downplayed and opposed during the days when a tirade against Mahakumbh was in full sway which is now shockingly termed as “Mritukumbh” ; when Mahakumbh is certified as “Faltoo ” when it is questioned whether the dip in the Holy waters could remove poverty and hunger when it is alleged that “all the money was spent on Mahakumbh , nothing left for farmers”, when it was alleged that thousands of people have been killed in this Kumbh , when it is alleged that dead bodies of Kumbh devotees were thrown in Ganga (in front of lakhs of devotees and nobody took a picture thereof in this era of mobile phones ) and waters thereof having thus become polluted , when the very fact of the Mahakumbh having dawned after 144 years is questioned , when the number of devotees having already crossed 47 crores is disputed, when a massive economic boom of thousands of crores of Rupees because of the this unparalleled massive spiritual gathering on earth having taken place and a multiplier effect generating huge employment and pushing spending and generating incomes is disputed and underplayed.
In other words, anything which should give us an occasion to project this country and its legacy and traditions, culture and diversity and our progress and achievements in proper perspective, quite the opposite is attempted to be done . Is massive cultural renaissance and steadily growing Sanatan unity rattling and un-nerving some political leaders who otherwise used to thrive on their divisions and disunity under a peculiar brand of secularism?
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