RSS affiliate not happy with Modi govt’s efforts to promote Sanskrit, charts own course

File photo of a Samskrita Bharati event | Facebook: @samskritabharati

New Delhi: Not satisfied with the work done by the Narendra Modi government to promote Sanskrit, an RSS affiliate is planning its own campaign to widen the reach of the ancient language. 

Samskrita Bharati, established in 1980 to promote the language, will hold a three-day ‘chintan baithak’ or brainstorming session in Delhi from 9-11 November to promote Sanskrit globally.

The session will be titled ‘Vishvae Sanskritam’. 

“We have invited more than 4,000 delegates from 17 countries for this chintan baithak to get a sense of how we can promote Sanskrit globally,” Samskrita Bharati organising secretary Kaushal Kishore Tiwari told ThePrint. 

“Only those delegates are invited who can speak Sanskrit fluently and are working in their countries to promote Sanskrit in their own ways,” he said. 

The conference comes amid dissatisfaction in the Samskrita Bharati over what is seen as a ‘half-hearted push’ by the government to popularise Sanskrit.

Last week, a delegation from the group met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him of their concerns and also invited him to inaugurate the conference.

Global Sanskrit push 

Samskrita Bharati’s prime objection lies with how Sanskrit is taught in schools and colleges. 

The organisation’s ‘akhil Bharatiya mantri’ Srish Dev Pujari said Sanskrit couldn’t be taught through lessons in the rules of grammar.

“Sanskrit can’t be taught on the lines of English, our teaching method is faulty,” he added. “We push grammar first. In our homes, we don’t teach children Hindi grammar first, they learn from parents’ communication.” 

“So, in our educational institutions, Sanskrit can be taught by ‘sambhashan’ (through conversation) not by grammar,” he said. “We have written to the human resource development (HRD) minister to change the Sanskrit learning system.”

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is expected to be one of the participants at the chintan baithak.

‘Sanskrit schools shutting down’

The Samskrita Bharati says the promotion of Sanskrit has suffered under the Modi government.

According to Pujari, a third of around 800 Sanskrit schools in Uttar Pradesh have shut down in the absence of funds and teachers. An equal number of them will close soon in the absence of state support, he said.

Pujari cited the example of Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, a university specialising in the language in Varanasi, to claim the number of students taking exams in Sanskrit was continuously in decline. 

In 2010, he said, 1.61 lakh students took Sanskrit, but the number came down to 54,715 in 2019.

“How will Sanskrit be preserved and promoted if the state doesn’t encourage Sanskrit in daily life?” Pujari asked. 

When Smriti Irani was the HRD minister, Pujari said, she had constituted a committee under former chief election commissioner N. Gopalaswami to suggest a plan for the promotion of Sanskrit in schools and colleges.

“Three years have passed since, and the government has not implemented 10 per cent of his recommendations,” he added.

‘Ancient solutions for modern problems’

The session planned by Samskrita Bharati will include a talk by RSS sahsarkaryavah Suresh Soni on the theme ‘Adhunik Samasya, Prachin Samadhan (ancient solution for modern problems)’ where he will dwell on lessons laid out in the Vedas and the Upanishads. 

There will also be a segment involving Swami Vadresh Dass, a seer of the Swami Narayan sect who has travelled the world to promote Sanskrit.

Another will focus on ‘janupyogi Sanskrit’ or Sanskrit that can be used by the public, where three scholars will discuss how they promoted the language in the AYUSH ministry.

An exhibition will feature old manuscripts from different parts of the world, with discussions on science and economics in Sanskrit also on the agenda. Pocket books for “fast Sanskrit lessons” will be available as well.

Apart from Nishank, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and more than ten MPs are likely to attend the event. Several seers and religious figures, including yoga guru Ramdev, are expected too.

Samskrita Bharati’s recent efforts to encourage Sanskrit have included a suggestion that it be taught in schools as part of the three-language formula, and English made optional.

It has also suggested that the HRD Ministry outline a better way to teach Sanskrit in schools and colleges in the new education policy, which is yet to be notified. 

Earlier this year, it felicitated 47 MPs of the 17th Lok Sabha who took their oath of office in Sanskrit, and a workshop in the language is in the works for parliamentarians this winter session.