Letter to Indian Educ. Minister: ​Need For Setting UP A Sarva Bharatiya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalay

Mananiya Siksha Mantriji,

Subject: Need For Setting UP A Sarva Bharatiya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalay

We are before you today with the humble demand for setting up a “Sarva Bharatiya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalay at some suitable central location. As a matter of fact, the vast track of unoccupied land available within the campus of existing JNU in South Delhi could certainly be an option.

In any case, the first thing first. Madam, as you know, Sanskrit is acknowledged as the “Mother of all Languages” and many Universities in the West are in the process of deliberating on improving the style and methodology of teaching Sanskrit. As many among Indian scholars have been saying, without good knowledge of Sanskrit, it is difficult to appreciate and correctly interpret our age-old treasure encapsulated in Sanskrit verses. It is also widely known scholars from different countries have been coming to India to learn Sanskrit so as to be able to know about India and the rich heritage of Indian civilisation and culture. As a matter of fact, the ease with which this language could be mustered was amply illustrated by the majority of the Constitution makers. The proceedings of the Constituent Assembly debates, now digitised and available on the internet, clearly bring out how keenly the issue whether Sanskrit should be the national language of the country was debated.

We also wish to bring on record that there even today exists a village in some district of Madhya Pradesh where people converse among themselves in Sanskrit only. This is to underscore how this language of languages can be mastered without formal schooling facility even.

Mananiya Mantriji, the need for learning this great language was recently highlighted by the former illustrious and known as “people’s president” Dr, A P J Abdul Kalam at an event at Kurnool district in Tamilnadu. We here take the liberty of attaching a copy of a brief report on that. What Dr. Kalam told in respect to the people of Tamilnadu holds good for the entire nation and hence this demand on the people’s government, as we would like the present-day popular government at the Centre to be.

We hope to see necessary action on this at an early date. Mananiya Mantriji, please create the opportunity for the nation to know about its rich heritage and true and unalloyed history at indigenous institution of our own.

Vandemataram,

Yours sincerely,

D.C. Nath

(President, Patriots’ Forum)

(Former Spl. Director, IB)