Did you hear this?

[Swantham]

For whom tolls the bell?
Hello,
The Amarakosa says "Samskrtam krtrime" and so it has ever been a mother
tongue of any people. Sanskrit has been politicised in India. It is used by
the Hindu communalists as an instrument to rally people behind them.
Sanskrit is taught in ten days in the so-called 'Sibirams' and those who
attended such sibirams speak anything and everything as if it is Sanskrit.
Sanskrit is in this way, being corrupted everyday in India. But the Hindu
communalists still proceed with their venture. Those who are against them
ideologically are evaded. Recently, an international Bhagavad Gita seminar
was organised in my city, Trivandrum. As everyone knows, Gita is one of the
Prasthanatraya on which Vedanta is based. My centre, the Centre for Vedanta
Studies, of the University of Kerala, which is a unique centre, was not
even informed about the event, not to speak of being invited to
participate. At the same time, I was invited by the Bylorussian
Metropolitan-sponsored Theology Dept. of the European Humanities
University, Minsk to deliver lectures on Vedanta. My experience is that
Sanskrit as such is being protected by scholars outside India rather than
the Hindu communalists here. I don't think that all Sanskritists in India
are on the part of the communalists. Recently when there was a Sanskrit
students conference at Sampurnand University, Benares organised by the
'hidden communal forces', students revolted, which is a good sign. The
regime is extending their efforts to implement their 'hidden agenda' in the
field of Sanskrit studies also. Alert!
With regards,
Dr.K.Maheswaran Nair
Professor of Sanskrit &
Director,
Centre for Vedanta Studies,
University of Kerala,
Kariavattom P.O.
Trivandrum.
----------
> From: Aditya, the Cheerful Hindu Skeptic <a018967t at BC.SEFLIN.ORG>
> To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
> Subject: Did you hear this?
> Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 5:31 AM
>
>  Dead Language Talking by Manu Joseph
>
> 2:00 a.m. Jan. 29, 2001 PST
>
>  MUMBAI, India -- Some of the most forward-looking engineering students
in
> India will soon be learning the ancient language of Sanskrit.
>
> The decision by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi to
offer
> science courses based on Sanskrit teachings is raising eyebrows at a
school
> that is essentially India's answer to the Massachusetts Institute of
> Technology. After all, there are no treatises in Sanskrit on nuclear
physics
> or genetic engineering.
>
> Or as one undergraduate put it, "Yes, I know Sanskrit. It's an ancient
> Indian language, right? But we're all too preoccupied with learning here.
We
> don't want Sanskrit," he said.
>
>
> But the idea isn't to counter science as we know it today, its backers
say.
> It's to widen the spectrum of the student's database, and to give them a
> sense that Indians didn't begin learning about science the day the
English
> colonized them.
>
> Ancient Indians are credited with having made amazing discoveries in
> astronomy, architecture, medicine and other fields. They had a unique
method
> of calculation, which is now called Vedic Mathematics.
>
> Most of the information of that age was recorded in Sanskrit -- a
language
> that hasn't been widely used in a thousand years.
>
> "Our notion of science comes from (the) West, in the same way that our
> notion of education, politics, literature, et cetera, come from the
West,"
> said Wagish Shukla, a mathematics professor at IIT, Delhi, who is also a
> Sanskrit scholar. "We have become an intellectual colony of the West
under
> amnesia, regarding the knowledge society we were.
>
> "The problem today is that inputs from Sanskrit are disenfranchised from
our
> education. For instance, when a student wants to understand a particular
> issue, he or she is debarred from finding out what Vedanta or Nyaya or
> Mimamsa (ancient Indian knowledge bases) has to say about it."
>
> Two courses have been proposed: Knowledge Orders in Sanskrit Texts and
> Building Scientific Discourse the Indian Way.
>
> The courses will concentrate on how Indian thinkers approached and
developed
> academic discipline. For instance, what did they mean by "proof,"
> "observation," "rule" and other scientific definitions.
>
> "There are things of value in Sanskrit texts," Shukla said. "They will
have
> to be annotated and retold for the contemporary science worker.
Translations
> of Sanskrit texts make no attempt to integrate that knowledge into a
usable
> product for the present-day worker in science. In any case, most of the
> Sanskrit texts, have not even been published."
>
>
>  He also pointed out that some original Sanskrit texts will be discussed
--
> "perhaps through English" -- for a better understanding. That's no
> consolation for many students in IIT (Delhi). There are murmurs of
muffled
> protests, but since it is an elective the students can simply avoid it.
>
>  "Going back to the roots is all fine, but I don't think I will take up
> Sanskrit," said Subhajit Sanyal, a Ph.D. student in the computer science
> department in IIT, Delhi. "There are some students who are very curious
to
> explore what old Indian texts have to say about various things, but such
> guys are very few."
>
>  While the IIT administration has confirmed that it will be including
> Sanskrit courses soon, the exact time of inception is yet to be
finalized.
>
>  There are six Indian Institutes of Technology in different parts of the
> country, but at this point only the Delhi campus has decided to include
> Sanskrit in the curriculum for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate
> students.
>
>  Sanskrit is taught at other universities throughout the country, but not
in
> the context of using it to understand scientific and mathematic
principles.
>
>  Sanskrit is believed to be over 3,000 years old. It constantly evolved
> throughout its long history. By about 1000 AD, original Sanskrit had
almost
> vanished and given way to newer Indian languages that had evolved along
the
> way.
>
>  The 1951 Indian census report said that among a population of 362
million
> Indians, only 555 spoke Sanskrit. Today, those who understand or speak
> Sanskrit are predominantly academicians concerned with the subject.
>
>
>
>
>
> Have a peaceful and joyous day.
> Aditya Mishra
> Primary email: a018967t at bc.seflin.org
> Primary homepage: http://www.pompano.net/~aditya
> ICQ # 1131674 Phone #: (954)746-0442  Fax # (209)315-8571
> Random thought of the day:
>         Nothing soothes me more after a long and maddening course of
pianoforte recitals than to sit and have my teeth drilled.  ... George
Bernard Shaw