From: mchundat@kittyhawk.ecn.uoknor.edu (Mathai Chundattu)
Subject: Re: Sanskrit and the Unity of India
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 23:03:46 GMT
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Keywords: the improbality of the task

In article <1992Sep12.031730.10591@reed.edu> bsoman@sloth.Reed.Edu (Bakul Arun Soman) writes:
>
>
>IIn article <1992Sep8.191502.8477@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu>  
>mchundat@kittyhawk.ecn.uoknor.edu (Mathai Chundattu) writes:

>I fully agree with you when you say that the India of the past had  
>sanskrit as the national language  but today , this simply cannot be done 
>
>I am surprised that you do not recognise the improbality of this gigantic  
>task .Just how are you going to make the entire population of learn this  
>language which unfortunately but  essentially  is dead?True, sanskrit has  
>one of the richest stores of literature in the world  but that doesn't  
>make a language living.I would argue that it died out in the post vedic  
>ages when it became an eclectic language.

I truly believe that Sanskritization of India would be a formidable
task. But, if we sit back and say it is never going to be done then it
is never going to be done. Schools should be our first priority.
Sanskrit must be made compulsory in all the schools; right from the
first standard to atleast the first Bachelor's degree of a student.
After that there should be available options for higher studies in the
same. At present, there are many schools in North and South India which
teach Sanskrit. That should be the models for all the others to see.

Is Sanskrit difficult to learn? What about the Civil Service freaks
mugging up a foreign language like french in three months. The grammar
of Sanskrit is similar to that of french in many respects. If some
people learn french in three months I am sure majority of Indians will
be able to learn Sanskrit in ten years at least. And that is not a long
time also. 

>
>At independence, making hindi the national language was the most practical  
>thing to do, considering that the majority of the population spoke that  
>language.India had enough problems as it is without taking up an  
>additional one of teaching a whole nation a classical language.making  
>sanskrit a national lang. would have necessitated that day to day  
>activities  take place in that lang.Imagine having to fill out forms in  
>sanskrit.Another reason  why the entire exp. would fail is that sanskrit  
>simply doesn't have the vocabulary to suit our demands.ex:What sanskrit  
>words would you use for:keyboard,  
>paranoia,AIDS,euthanasia,proletariat,automobile...so on and so forth.So  
>ultimately we have to realise the unfortunate reality that sanskrit is not  
>and can never be the national language of modern india.

This problem is common to all languages. Many of the present day
languages are also victims to this phenomenon. Many of them don't have
the exact counterparts for certain English words. At least, that is the
case with malayalam which is my mother tongue.
I think we can borrow many words from other languages. Finally 
what originates will be a single language replete with words borrowed
from all other Indian languages and English and followed by all the
indians. Wouldn't that be wonderful!

>
>also,I did not understand your point about the alphabet of sanskrit and  
>the south indian lang. being the same the difference being only in the  
>script.AS far as I can understand,such a condition cannot exist.

Several Indian languages have the same alphabet. What I mean is that
they contain the same letters (sounds) even though the letters are drawn
on the paper in different ways. Many of the alphabets go like

ka, kha, ga, gha etc..


I still believe that a knowledge and appreciation of their past will
unite all the indians in a better fashion. Sanskrit will definitely help
in achieving that unity if given consideration.

>bsoman@reed.edu       

Mathai
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Mathai Chundatt            mchundat@kittyhawk@ecn.uoknor.edu
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian