Sanskrit as national language

[Greg Eichler]

What a wonderful idea! Choosing Sanskrit sidesteps the regional languages 
problem in favor of their common ancestor. Even the Dravidian speakers 
use Sanskrit for religious purposes, correct?

If a country loses its language, it loses most of its cultural identity 
(cf., Bretagne, Scotland, Guatemala).

Ciao!

Greg

On Tue, 5 Apr 1994, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

> The Bhasaikatva policy
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> What do other INDOLOGists think of the new policy recently announced
> whereby over the next seven years the Indian Government will phase in
> Sanskrit as the language of all administrative documentation and
> communication?  Apparently the idea is that by the year 2001, senior
> government officials will be sufficiently knowledgable in Sanskrit that
> English will at last be ousted from the constitution as a national
> language of India.  This will expunge once and for all the last
> lingering traces of British imperialism, and underline the great
> historical roots of India's own culture.  The accompanying massive
> program of translation that has been proposed, of European-language
> texts on science, technology and economics into Sanskrit, will be a
> most interesting new development for all of us.  It may even provide
> work for some of our needy grad students!
> 
> Dominik
> 
> 
> Unccl Ncevy 1fg!
> 
>  
>