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A Timely Reminder from Bhagwat Ji
On August 1, 2025, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat Ji, speaking at Kavi Kulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, reminded the nation that Sanskrit is not just the root of Indian languages—it is a carrier of swatva, a deep expression of civilisational selfhood. Urging that Sanskrit must reach every home not merely as a script but as a spoken language, he added: “Sanskrit needs to become a medium of communication.” This sentiment does not stand in isolation. It resonates deeply with the intellectual architecture of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which envisions Sanskrit not as a decorative subject but as a living engine of India’s knowledge revival.
From Silence to Speech: The Return of a Voice
For decades, Sanskrit hovered at the margins of institutional education—compulsory on paper yet disengaged in practice. Its presence was often symbolic, rarely structural. But NEP 2020 repositions Sanskrit not as a vestigial tradition, but as an epistemic core. The policy explicitly integrates Sanskrit into foundational, preparatory, and secondary schooling, while also making it available across disciplines in higher education. The shift is not about cultural pride alone—it is about restoring access to a civilisational archive that has remained locked behind linguistic barriers.
NEP 2020’s Civilisational Turn
NEP’s treatment of Sanskrit is inseparable from its broader embrace of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). Through dedicated IKS cells, curricular guidelines, and policy documents, institutions are now linking Sanskrit to source-based learning across disciplines—from Ayurveda and Vedic mathematics to Nāṭyaśāstra and political economy. This is not a cosmetic exercise. Panini’s grammar is being studied alongside Chomsky’s. Kautilya’s Arthashastra sits next to Adam Smith. The language that once hosted the finest expressions of science, philosophy, and art is no longer confined to temple walls or exam syllabi. It is re-entering laboratories, libraries, and lecture halls.
A Grassroots Revival with National Support
Sanskrit’s resurgence is not driven by policy alone. In towns like Mattur in Karnataka and Jhiri in Madhya Pradesh, Sanskrit is already a spoken household language. Platforms like Samskrita Bharati have made conversational Sanskrit accessible to lakhs of learners across caste, class, and geography. Mobile apps, podcasts, and online courses are now bringing Sanskrit news, grammar lessons, and chanting tutorials to urban youth and international enthusiasts alike. As Bhagwat Ji rightly emphasised, the future of Sanskrit depends not just on government support, but on societal participation. The momentum on the ground suggests this participatory energy is building steadily.
Breaking the Language-Caste Stereotype
Critics often associate Sanskrit with caste hegemony, but that lens is increasingly being challenged. Across India today, Sanskrit is being studied by first-generation learners, tribal youth, and students from marginalised communities. In Kashi, Hyderabad, and Vadodara, young scholars from diverse backgrounds are entering Sanskrit PhD programmes—not because they seek status, but because they seek samvāda, the intellectual dialogue encoded in this ancient tongue. NEP 2020 makes it clear that Sanskrit is not to be offered as elite heritage—it is to be opened as inclusive inheritance.
The Cognitive and Cultural Advantage
Modern neuroscience is also recognising what tradition long intuited: Sanskrit’s grammar and phonetics enhance memory, focus, and cognitive symmetry. Structured chanting has been linked to emotional regulation and neuroplasticity. In classrooms that incorporate Sanskrit recitation or story-based grammar, students demonstrate greater linguistic agility and pattern recognition. These are not incidental benefits—they reflect the systemic precision with which Sanskrit was designed. The resurgence, therefore, is not merely about language revival—it is about cognitive renaissance.
Sanskrit and the Language of Inquiry
Far from being limited to devotional or poetic expression, Sanskrit was once India’s primary vehicle of scientific reasoning and logical clarity. The language of Nyāya, Mīmāṁsā, Vaiśeṣika, and Sāṅkhya systems—each representing complex traditions of inference, metaphysics, and epistemology—was Sanskrit. Today, comparative philosophers and AI researchers alike are revisiting Sanskritic logic, ontology, and recursion as frameworks that complement and often exceed their Western counterparts. In this context, NEP’s promotion of interdisciplinary learning through IKS is more than cultural—it is cutting-edge.
A Language for the Future, Not Just the Past
NEP 2020, five years on, has begun to successfully reposition Sanskrit not just as a language of heritage, but as a language of future learning. Its structure suits computational linguistics. Its lexicon serves civilisational clarity. Its pedagogy fosters meditative inquiry. And its spirit, as Bhagwat Ji reminded the nation, carries the emotional and philosophical charge of a people ready to think again in their own tongue. As the policy matures, and as educational institutions deepen their reforms, Sanskrit is poised not only to live again—but to lead again.
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