Sanskrit and National Solidarity

The Report of the Sanskrit Commission states:

(d) Sanskrit and National Solidarity

37. We have indicated previously the position of Sanskrit as the expression as well as the embodiment of Indian culture and civilisation. The sense of the Indian people, which is instinctively realised though not intellectually appraised, looks upon Sanskrit as the binding force for the different peoples of this great country of India in its various areas, each with its own language and with its own local way of life. This was the greatest discovery of India that the Commission made as it travelled from Kerala to Kashmir and from Kamarupa to Saurastra: that while the way of life and the social habits and customs which we found among the peoples differed in a number of ways, they all felt as one people and were proud to regard themselves as participants in a common heritage and a common nationality. That heritage emphatically is the heritage of Sanskrit. In the olden days, Sanskrit was the most natural common language for the educated people of the whole of India. It is a matter of common knowledge that even at the present day, Sanskrit scholars from different parts of India discourse ‘and argue among themselves in Sanskrit. Just like English or Hindi, Sanskrit still has its own important place in present-day India as one of the common languages of the country. This aspect of the Sanskrit language, namely, that it is. possible for an Indian or a foreigner knowing no other language than Sanskrit to be able to find throughout the whole of India some persons everywhere who can communicate with him in Sanskrit, has given strong support to the contention of a distinguished group of India’s thought-leaders that Sanskrit can very well be rehabilitated as a pan- Indian speech, to strengthen the solidarity of Modern India. Indeed, to emphasise this point, a witness, appearing before the Commission, suggested that if the Sanskrit Commission had come before the States, Reorganisation Commission, many of the recent bickerings in our national life could have been avoided. Dr. Katju told this Commission of a distinguished French Indologist who had said that he was sur- prised at the controversy which had been going on in India about the National Language, for, according to him, Indians already had a National Language in Sanskrit. There is no doubt that Sanskrit is in our blood, that we have grown in Sanskrit and cannot get out of it. And, while this Commission does not want to insist. at this stage, on Sanskrit being made the National Language of India (though some eminent witnesses like Dr. C. V. Raman suggested that Sanskrit should be declared as the National Language, and some other equally eminent witnesses said that the Constitution might even be amended on this that the idea of Sanskrit resuming its place as a common literary medium for India is a hopelessly lost cause, since the alternatives are either that there should be no such medium (other than English, which, it should be remembered, is, in regard to many necessary Indian notions, itself without resource), or the dominance, despite unavoidable reluctances, of some particular vernacular".

38. There is, however, another great aspect of Sanskrit, and this aspect should be specially considered. We can never insist too strongly on this signal fact that Sanskrit has been the Great Unifying Force of India, and that India with its nearly 400 millions of people is One Country, and not half a dozen or more countries, only because of Sanskrit. It is because some leaders among the Muslims of India, not attuned to the spirit of Sanskrit, or deliberately ignoring it, tried (partly through the inspiration of the British imperialism) to channel the masses of Indian citizens professing Islam along a different line, seeking to throw off the inheritance of Sanskrit, that India had to suffer the pangs of a living amputation, bringing untold misery on millions of people; and herein comes the paramount importance of Sanskrit at the present day.

39. Reference may be made to parallel situations in three foreign countries. The place of Sanskrit in maintaining both the cultural and political unity of India is like that of the Chinese system of writing in preserving the cultural and political unity of China. In China, virtually there is not one language but a number of languages, all coming from a single ancient Chinese speech, but they are generally described as "dialects". The fact of their really being languages and not mere dialects (in Han or Chinese-speaking China) is obscured by the great factor of the Chinese system of writing. The modern Chinese languages may differ from one another profoundly in pronunciation as well as recent grammatical developments, but the fact that the written language consisting of characters (giving pictorial representations of objects and symbolical representation of ideas, as well as, combined characters standing for sounds-cum-ideas;pictograms, ideograms and phonograms), is studied and understood everywhere, is a great link which binds up most remote corners of China into a single cultural unit. Any attempt to replace the Chinese system of writing by a strictly phonetic system, whether of Chinese or of foreign origin, is likely to lead to a cultural and political disintegration of China. Therefore, in China they have accepted the position that a few years of hard labour must be put forth by Chinese boys and girls in acquiring some thousands of characters of their language which constitute the most obvious, most potent and virtually indispensable expression or symbol of Chinese unity. In Israel, the Jews have accepted as their National Language Hebrew, which was the language of their ancestors and is the source of their religion and culture, with a view to strengthening the religious, cultural and political bases of their very existence as a nation. The attempt at reviving the Irish language in Eire is another remarkable instance of seeking the help of the speech that has been linked up with the past independent history of the people to strengthen the national culture and national solidarity at the present day. There is no reason why similarly Sanskrit should not come into its own in India, especially when it is conceded that the position of Sanskrit is still far stronger in India as a language with a living tradition and culture.

40. In India today, we are feeling the growth of fissiparous tendencies, and the need for strengthening Indian Unity is now greater than ever. This great inheritance of Sanskrit is the golden link joining up all the various provincial languages and literatures and cultures, and it should not be allowed to be neglected and to go waste, if we did not want to imperil the concept of a United Indian Nation. Herein Sanskrit has its own place in. Indian education.