Language, sacred and secular (G. Omvedt)

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

Two essays by Dr. Gail Omvedt, Visiting Professor, Univerity of Pune
appeared in the newspaper, The Hindu recently.

a) Language, sacred and secular
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/09/19/stories/1319067p.htm

b) Nation and civilisation
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/07/07/stories/05072523.htm

Language, sacred and secular
Gail Omvedt
 [...]
 A recent version of this, put forward in a book by
 N. S. Rajaram, a retired computer scientist in Bangalore and
 Natwar Jha, a traditional Vedic scholar of West Bengal,
 argues that Vedic Sanskrit was the language of the
 Indus valley civilisation. Its authors base themselves
 on the now-familiar Hindutva theme that the Aryans
 actually originated in India. In the process they claim
 that the ``myth of an Aryan invasion is a creation of
 European scholars with their own vested interest''.
 [...]
 It is this revised form of the Aryan myth that
 forms the basis for much of Hindutva thinking today and
 motivates pseudo- scholarly books like that of Rajaram
 and Jha. It represents an ideology which tries to
 reconcile the assertion of Indian ``national unity''
 with the claim to priority of Sanskrit and the Aryans.

 Myths, though, have to confront scientific evidence,
 and contrary to post-modernist tendencies to treat all
 myths alike, there is fairly clear evidence on this
 issue.
 [...]
 And such passages as ``Strike down, O Maghavan, the host of the
 sorceresses in the ruined city of Vailasthanaka in the
 ruined city of Mahavailastha'' are cited by
 archaelogists like the Allchins to indicate the
 confrontation of the Aryans with the inhabitants of the
 land they were entering.
 [...]
 The failure of progressives throughout India to really
 challenge the priority asserted for Sanskrit and to
 confront the genuine claims for the priority of
 Dravidian languages has made it almost impossible to
 achieve an alternative understanding of Indian history
 and culture that could really confront Hindutva.
 Language, in so many ways the core of identity, the
 shaper of emotion and the tool of communication,
 remains subordinated to the distorted politics of India
 today.


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