PPFA bats for Sanskrit as national language
Guwahati: Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) welcomes a recent
petition filed in the Supreme Court of India demanding to declare
Sanskrit as the national language. The forum of nationalists in
northeast India argues that the initiative would also help promoting
the national integration in a far better way.
The petitioner, KC Vanzara, a former bureaucrat turned advocate, urged
the apex court to direct the Union government in New Delhi to notify
Sanskrit as the national language of India keeping Hindi as its
official language. Lately many European nations have shown interests
in nurturing the ancient language of India and some are even offering
courses on Sanskrit literature in educational institutions.
Days back, India-based senior French journalist and scholar Francois
Gautier, while participating at a video-conference with city scribes,
argued that Indian people should revive Sanskrit as the Israelis did
with their Hebrew language, because it could revitalize the whole
Indian culture and unify the country like never before. Israel in 1948
made its ancient language Hebrew, then considered as a dead language
for the last 2000 years, the official language.
Gautier also appealed to the government to invite a group of dedicated
linguists to sit down with Sanskrit scholars to devise a way of
simplifying and modernizing the mother of all Indian languages. He
pointed out that Israeli people after getting a part of their holy
land started welcoming Jews from various parts of the world. As they
came back to live in Israel a major problem was aroused because they
spoke different languages. Then the Israeli authorities asked their
scholars to revive the Hebrew language so that everybody could use it
comfortably.
“Sanskrit as a national language in India is a very much logical
expectation. Only a few people may know that the Devabhasa was the
official language in the region since the days of majestic Kamrup
kingdom till the Ahom era,” said a PPFA statement adding that various
written documents from the days of great Ahom king Rudra Singha and
others undoubtedly proves the royal recognition to the sacred language
of Hinduism.
