Sanskrit as national language

[Frederick M Asher-1]

No, only Dravidian speakers of a particular religious persuasion use
Sanskrit for religous purposes.  Muslims, for example, don't.  Rick Asher


On Tue, 5 Apr 1994, Greg Eichler wrote:

> 
> 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!
> > 
> >  
> > 
> 
> 
>