Sanskrit as an Official Language
The following is an excerpt from the Report of the Sanskrit Commission 1956-1957.
6. Sanskrit as an Official Language
21. From what has already been said, it would be clear that Sanskrit has the best claim to be the Official Language of India.The Sanskrit Commission is not considering this question merely out of enthusiasm. nor are we the first to pose this matter. Distinguished Indians among whom are Intellectuals and Scientists like Dr. C. V. Raman and Congressmen and Administrators like Shri Sri Prakasa and Dr. K. N. Katju, have expressed the opinion more than once that they would prefer Sanskrit as the Lingua Indica. Many witnesses, including some leading thinkers, writers and publicists, wanted this question to be viewed in the light of the undesirable differences that have been created
1*Professor J. Filliozat of College de France, Paris, informs the Commission that the possibility of the use of a kind of simplified or basic Latin was recently examined in France (Congress of Avignon, July 1956) with a view to establishing a common means of scientific expression.
2*This work can go hand in hand with the Sanskrit Lexicon which has been undertaken by the Deccan ‘College Research Institute of Poona under the sponsorship of the Government of India.
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owing to the two major decisions of the Government the Linguistic Reorganisation of States; and the Imposition of Hindi on a country not yet ready for it and, in a considerable portion of it, unwilling to take it. These witnesses proposed that the Constitution might even be amended on this question. It is not as if we are in total agreement with them, but we feel obliged to refer to the concern and the strong feeling which a large body of persons such as we interviewed-scholars and writers, university-men and intellectuals- have on this question.
22. As already indicated, the Constituent Assembly did not give a smooth-sailing to the Bill on Hindi as the Official Language. The majority which decided such a vital issue was one of the narrowest. During the few stormy days of the Constituent Assembly’s discussion of this question. the impasse was sought to be solved by some members by proposing Sanskrit as the Rastrabhasa; and the late Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who as the Law Member, was piloting the bill, was also re- ported to have favoured that-proposal. In the course of the discussion on this question in the Assembly, several members, including some ardent protagonists of, Hindi,. paid due homage to Sanskrit. Apart from all this, the only other Indian language for the adoption of which as the Rastrabhasa a regular amendment was moved, and discussion on which took a good part of the time of the Assembly, was Sanskrit.
23. As Shri Naziruddin Ahmad, advocating Sanskrit put it on the floor of the House, a language that is adopted for the whole country, where so many languages are spoken, should be impartial, a language which is not the mother-tongue of any area, which is common to all regions, and the adoption of which will not prove an advantage to one part of the country and a handicap to all other parts. The late Lakshmi Kanta Maitra, who moved the amendment seeking to replace Hindi by Sanskrit as the Official Language, observed in the Assembly, that, if Sanskrit was accepted, "all the jealousies, all this bitterness will vanish with all the psychological complex that has been created………. there will not be the least feeling of domination or suppression of this or that"’. Thus, neutrality (or not being the spoken language of any section) has been urged as the first criterion of a National Language. That is why efforts were being made to create in Europe quite a new language like Esperanto,, to be used as the International Language. When We already have in Sanskrit not a tour de force, like Esperanto, but a rich language perfected for this very purpose of all-India use through all these centuries, why throw it away? The neutrality of Sanskrit is not a mere negative quality; it is also the positive virtue of having grown by incorporating into itself elements from all other languages of
1*A P.T.I. message, dated 10th September 1949, said that among the supporters of the amendment sponsoring Sanskrit as the Official Language were, in addition to Dr. Ambedkar, Dr. B. V. Keskar, India’s Deputy Minister for External Affairs, Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari, Member of the Drafting Committee, Dr. P. Subbarayan (Madras), Mrs. Durgabai (Madras), Mr. V. S. Muniswami Pillai (Madras) , and six other members from Madras, besides several from West Bengal.
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the country. In this respect again, Sanskrit, which, as his been pointed out elsewhere, is a synthesis of the best in all the cultural constituents of India, can truly, claim to have been developed and enriched by every part. of India.
24. The second criterion relates to sentiment, historic importance, cultural significance, inherent richness and potentiality, and, above all, universal acceptance as the symbol of the country. Sanskrit possesses all these characteristics, and it is needless to labour this point. No apology is needed for asking the country seriously to adopt Sanskrit.
25. The third criterion is the developed character and the provenance of a language. Here Sanskrit is certainly not worse off than Hindi. In fact, its position is superior, for Hindi, which is still not much developed, hopes to become so only on the basis of Sanskrit. It is to Sanskrit that not only Hindi but all the languages of India look up for replenishment and growth. The linguistic and literary resources of Sanskrit have already been referred to. The proposal for Hindi itself carried with it the recognition of Sanskrit. If Hindi required a particular length of time to be able to take over from English, as the Official Language, Sanskrit would require a shorter time to do so. Regarding the question of provenance, English, which has now come to be widely advocated, is confined to about 1 % of the population and that only in the higher classes, the intellectual elite who give lead to the people. A numerical majority is claimed for Hindi; but without underrating this, we would like to point out that both scholars and enthusiasts cannot afford to ignore the fact that at the back of ‘Hindi’ are so many dialects and even distinct languages with distinct names (all of which together are called ‘Hindi’). Sanskrit is prevalent in all parts of India, and is the real G. C. M. of Indian languages. Its teaching is already provided for all over India. and in most of the modern Universities. With English, it enjoys an International prestige and recognition. To assign to Sanskrit’ this pan-Indian role is only to reinstate it in the position which it had been occupying down the centuries*1.
26. Above all, this Commission would urge upon all statesmen and thinkers of the country to reflect calmly on the growing fissiparous tendencies and linguistic parochialism which are jeopardising the political unity of the country and are rocking the very foundations of our freedom. If all such resources as can make the whole country rally round in unity are to be explored and exploited, Sanskrit. the Supreme Unifier, should be, first of all, exploited by making it the basis of a country-wide loyalty.
1*Even in the twelfth century, when the modern vernaculars had come on the scene, communications between people of different parts of India were carried on in Sanskrit. Cf. Naisadhi va-carita, X 34
"Among the Kings who had come from different parts of the country, and who, out of fear that their mother-tongues ‘would not be mutually understood, were-carrying on conversation in Sanskrit…."
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27. Sanskrit has been recognised as one of the fourteen languages of the Union, and the Constitution (which has been put also in Sanskrit) gives the right to an Indian citizen to address the Government on any matter, in Sanskrit. Since Sanskritised Hindi in the Devanagari script is already declared as the Official Language of the Union, and since, for its general development, Hindi will have to depend mostly on Sanskrit (as the recent trends clearly indicate), nothing new is really asked for by pressing for the recognition’ of Sanskrit as an Additional Official Language. While for all administrative and ordinary day-to-day purposes, some pan-Indian form of Hindi may be used, it appears inevitable that, in course of time, the prospective All-India Language-Bharati Bhasa-at least in its written norm, which would be acceptable to all regions of India, especially in the higher reaches of education and literary activity, will be a form of simple and modernised Sanskrit.
28. As we have already mentioned, the, recognition of Sanskrit as the primary source of Hindi places on the State a great responsibility towards Sanskrit; and this responsibility can, in the opinion of the Commission, be adequately fulfilled only if two things are done: first, if Sanskrit is declared as an additional Rastra- bhasa, particularly in respect of ceremonial, educational and cultural purposes; and, secondly, if, under the Special Directives in the Section of the Constitution on Official Language, a special addendum is included that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the study of Sanskrit throughout its territory, as Sanskrit is the source of Modern Indian Languages, including Hindi; is the ancient repository of the cultural heritage of the country; and is of primary significance in the present context as a potent means of promoting national solidarity and as a bond of friendship with the entire Far East and South-East Asia which had long been, through Sanskrit, culturally related to India.
29. There is nothing out of the way in having more than one Official Language: many Western countries have two, three and even four official languages. In, all International bodies and conferences-cultural, scientific or political-two or three languages figure. The delays or costs of translations and duplications are nothing compared to the ill-feeling and permanent harm caused by insistence on unilinguism; multilinguism is, in fact, the. principle of Panca-sila applied to the language question’.
Sanskrit 