[INDOLOGY] Sanskrit in Pakistan

[Antonia Ruppel]

The Tribune article shows up for me without any issues, but perhaps that's
because I am in the EU? At any rate, I've pasted the text below:


The teaching of Sanskrit has quietly returned to classrooms in the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan for the first time since Partition, with the Lahore
University of Management Sciences (LUMS) introducing a course in the
classical language. What began as a three-month weekend workshop gradually
evolved into a full four-credit university course after the overwhelming
response it received.

Dr Ali Usman Qasmi, Director of the Gurmani Centre, told The Tribune that
Pakistan houses one of the richest but least-studied Sanskrit archives at
the Punjab University library. “A significant collection of Sanskrit
palm-leaf manuscripts were catalogued in the 1930s by scholar JCR Woolner,
but no Pakistani academic has engaged with this collection since 1947. Only
foreign researchers use it. Training scholars locally will change that,” he
says.

The LUMS also plans to offer courses on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad
Gita. “Hopefully, this sets a momentum,” says Dr Qasmi. “In 10-15 years, we
could see Pakistan-based scholars of the Gita and the Mahabharata.”

Dr Qasmi said initially, a weekend programme was offered that was open to
everyone--students, researchers, lawyers and academics. “After we saw the
response, we decided to introduce it as a proper university course. Even
though the number of students is still small, we hope it will grow over the
next few years. Ideally, by spring 2027, we should be able to teach the
language as a year-long course.”

At the heart of the initiative is Dr Shahid Rasheed, Associate Professor of
sociology at Forman Christian College, whose interest in Sanskrit began
long before the LUMS approached him. “Classical languages contain much
wisdom for mankind. I started with learning Arabic and Persian, and then
studied Sanskrit,” he told The Tribune. With no local teachers or
textbooks, he turned to online platforms, studying under Cambridge Sanskrit
scholar Antonia Ruppel and Australian Indologist McComas Taylor. “It took
almost a year to cover classical Sanskrit grammar. And I’m still studying
it.”

After Dr Qasmi reached out, Dr Rasheed took a sabbatical from FC College to
teach the course at the LUMS. “I mainly teach grammar. When I was teaching
‘subhashitas’, the wisdom verses or shlokas, many of my students were
fascinated to discover that so many Urdu words come from Sanskrit. Many
didn’t even know that Sanskrit was different from Hindi. In the first week,
they found it a challenging language. But once they grasped the logical
structure, they started enjoying it. The pleasure of solving something
difficult is immense,” he says.

“Modern languages derive from classical traditions. There is just a veil
that separates them--once you cross it, you realise they are all our own,”
adds Dr Rasheed.

Dr Qasmi explains that the initiative also aligns with the university’s
broader language ecosystem, which includes Sindhi, Pashto, Punjabi,
Baluchi, Arabic and Persian. “We understand the importance of connecting
with this incredible tradition, which is part of the Pakistani-Indian
global heritage. So much of our literature, poetry, art and philosophy go
back to the Vedic age. Many historians believe that the Vedas were written
in this region. It then becomes even more important to read the classical
texts in their original language.”

Despite the political sensitivities involved, both scholars believe the
intellectual climate is shifting. Dr Rasheed often encounters curiosity
about his own study of the language. “People ask me why I’m learning
Sanskrit. I tell them, why should we not learn it? It is the binding
language of the entire region. Sanskrit grammarian Panini’s village was in
this region. Much writing was done here during the Indus Valley
Civilisation. Sanskrit is like a mountain--a cultural monument. We need to
own it. It is ours too; it’s not tied to any one particular religion.”

“If we want people to come closer, then it’s essential to understand and
absorb our rich classical traditions. Imagine if more Hindus and Sikhs in
India started learning Arabic, and more Muslims in Pakistan took up
Sanskrit, it could be a fresh, hopeful start for South Asia, where
languages become bridges instead of barriers,” concludes Dr Rasheed.

On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 at 14:55, Shrinivas Tilak <shrinivast_k11612 at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Members of the Indology group often provide links to very interesting
> topics pertaining to Sanskrit etc to a newspaper in India. Unfortunately,
> there is a torrent of ads that you need to negotiate before you finally are
> able to reach to the story. I am often tempted to give up and not proceed.
> Is there some way to archive the story in an ads-free location?
>
> On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 12:20:39 a.m. EST, Ananya Vajpeyi via
> INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>
> Congratulations are in order then, Antonia!
> Warm best,
> AV.
>
> On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 2:02 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> Dear Madhav,
>
> Thank you for sharing this! Here's the original piece in the Tribune that
> The Wire is referring to:
>
>
> https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/sanskrit-returns-to-pak-varsity-first-time-since-partition/
>
> Shahid Rasheed, who is behind this initiative, is a true polymath and
> co-founder of a school trust (
> https://i-care-foundation.org/charity/zaawiya-trust-school/). I think he
> began learning Sanskrit with McComas and has been doing Latin and Greek
> (and some more Sanskrit) with me at Yogic Studies for a while now.
>
> Antonia
>
> On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 at 17:05, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> A Welcome Development:
> https://thewire.in/south-asia/in-a-first-since-independence-a-pakistan-university-is-teaching-sanskrit
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
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>
>
> --
> *Ananya Vajpeyi*
> https://www.csds.in/ananya_vajpeyi
>
>
>
>
>
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