Sanskrit to be an elective subject in schools
The Skeptic
z900672a at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us
Mon Oct 10 21:12:58 UTC 1994
On Mon, 10 Oct 1994, David Magier wrote:
> and studied and spoken by many people. But I doubt there are many
> people anywhere in the world (even pandits) who spoke Sanskrit as
> their first language in the home for all their daily-life uses of
> language, census claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
That goes to prove another of my point that language is more a politics
than usage. I was raised in culture which worships Sanskrit but does not
speak it. The same was true for Hindi in Panjab where many people who
spoke Panjabi claimed Hindi as their mother tongue causing friction in
Panjab so that Panjabi has become equated with only a particular
religion. As David pointed out a few people claimed Sanskrit as their
mother tongue in census questions. It is in the same spirit that Hebrew
was revived as national language of Israel.
In retrospection and as political prudence it would have been better if
India had revived Sanskrit as national language in stead of Hindi.
Sanskrit would have been equally hard for north and south Indian and
their would have been no complaint in 1947.
Moreover, Sanskrit means Cultured or cultivated language which proves
that there must be a language of the masses whether it was Pali or Prakrit.
There are people who will claim Esperanto or Cobol as their mother tongues.
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