Ambedkar on Sanskrit: Chief Justice Misleads People
When the Chief Justice of India is set to address an audience on the occasion that marks the birth anniversary of Dr. BR Ambedkar, the chief architect of the constitution of this most diverse country in the world, people are sure to have certain expectations from the CJI.
The expectations could be that the Chief Justice would speak about the need to establish equality, eradication of casteism, emancipation of Dalits, and such other issues that were close to Ambedkar’s heart. When the Chief Justice who is the gate keeper of the Constitution talks about Ambedkar, one would expect a review of the extent to which the dreams of Ambedkar have been realized.
Not only that, he should recall the contributions of Ambedkar in shaping the Constitution and provide guidance on how the challenges before the Constitution today can be addressed. Ironically, keeping all these issues aside, the Chief Justice of India in his address on Ambedkar Jayanthi earlier this week took up for discussion how Ambedkar wanted to make Sanskrit a national language, an issue that has no relevance and is not helpful for the country in the present day. When conspiracies are being hatched to make Hindi the country’s national language, Chief Justice Bobde went a step ahead and indirectly demanded that Sanskrit be made the national language.
It is not a small crime for the Chief Justice to misuse the name of Ambedkar to mislead people and impose RSS agenda in an indirect way. It is therefore today’s necessity to convince the people of the country about the veracity of Bobde’s statement.
What has Ambedkar got to do with Sanskrit? How much has Sanskrit helped in molding Ambedkar’s personality and organizing Dalits, the downtrodden, and the exploited, and get them justice? What is the contribution of Sanskrit to the rise of Ambedkar? Would Ambedkar have remained immortal today in our midst in the absence of English education? The answers we find for these questions prove how irrelevant Bobde’s demand is. Sanskrit has not contributed anything for the uplift of the country’s exploited communities.
Instead, it treated these communities as untouchables. Manu announced in Sanskrit that Shudhras and Dalits are not qualified to be educated. Because it has stayed irrelevant to a majority of the people in the country, Sanskrit is being called a dead language. The language is neither being used by the people as a medium of communication in their daily lives nor is it being used by upper classes. Chief Justice Bobde is attempting to make a language that is on the verge of extinction as the national language which is similar to terming as a national animal an animal that is extinct.
If a language has to be conferred the status of a national language, the people of the entire country should be able to communicate with each other through that language. There are no possibilities before us to make a language that is restricted to hymns chanted by priests as a national language viable to be used in banks, government offices, or in the daily lives of people. South Indians are not willing to accept Hindi that has taken over the entire North India. What is the need for the imposition of Hindi, ask South Indians? A non-Hindi state such as Kerala is ahead in the areas of health, development, and literacy in the country. No North Indian state has achieved as much as Karnataka and Andhra in IT sector. Tamil Nadu is renowned in the world for the creativity of its people.
All these were achieved by adopting both regional languages and English. Hindi speaking states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana are backward in development and education sectors. All these states should consider South India as a model and the Centre must make it compulsory for them to learn one South Indian language. When Hindi finds itself in such a state, what are the reasons for imposing Sanskrit on the country? What will India accomplish by learning Sanskrit?
“Ambedkar had demanded that Sanskrit should be made a national language. He wanted to submit an appeal about this. Leaders of all communities had supported this and had signed it,” Bobde said in his speech. He was not sure however, whether the demand was actually submitted or not. When a Chief Justice raises a serious issue in the name of Ambedkar, it is important that he is aware of all the details.
When a Chief Justice makes a public speech based on a lie floated by pandits trained in the RSS University, to what extent can we expect justice to be provided in matters that relate to the country’s wellbeing? It was Lakshmikanth Maitra who had submitted a correction before the committee framing the Constitution about making Sanskrit the official, national language. But nobody officially supported this.
On the contrary, several leaders offered their opinions. In the ensuing discussion in the meeting, Durgabai suggested that Hindustani mixed with Persian and Roman numerals should be made a part of the country’s language instead of Hindi. Jan Sangh founder Shamaprasad Mukherjee had expressed his opinion that no language should be made an official national language. Another Hindutva leader Purushotham Das Tandon argued that “it is not possible to make Sanskrit an official language of the country. It will fail when it is implemented practically.”
At the end of the discussion, Lakshmikanth Maitra withdrew his suggestion. It is true that Ambedkar was in favour of making Hindi a national language. Similarly, Ambedkar had studied Sanskrit in depth. But he was aware of the damage that Sanskrit had caused to the people. On Ambedkar Jayanthi, the increasing atrocities against Dalits must be discussed. The judges must speak about the challenges before the Constitution but they are not interested in such discussions. For this reason, Bobde made a futile attempt to reignite an old debate that has been consigned to the dust bin and to highlight it in public in the name of Ambedkar.
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Odisha: Normalcy returns to violence-hit Malkangiri; internet services fully restored
Malkangiri (PTI): Normalcy returned to Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Monday, nearly a week after around 200 villages were damaged in violent clashes in a village, with the district administration fully restoring internet services, a senior official said.
Additional District Magistrate Bedabar Pradhan said internet services, suspended across the district on December 8 to curb the spread of rumours and misinformation following the clashes, were restored after the situation improved.
The suspension had been extended in phases till 12 noon on Monday.
The administration also withdrew prohibitory orders imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita within a 10-km radius of MV-26 village, where arson incidents were reported on December 7 and December 8.
Though the violence was confined to two villages, tension had gripped the entire district, as the incident took the form of a clash between local tribals and Bengali settlers following the recovery of a headless body of a woman on December 4, officials said.
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The violence broke out after residents of Rakhelguda village allegedly set ablaze several houses belonging to Bengali residents, forcing hundreds to flee. The headless body of Lake Podiami (51), a woman from the Koya tribe, was recovered from the banks of the Poteru river on December 4, while her head was found six days later at a location about 15 km away.
Officials said the district administration held several rounds of discussions with representatives of the tribal and Bengali communities, following which both sides agreed to maintain peace.
Relief and rehabilitation work has since been launched at MV-26 village, with preliminary assessment pegging property damage at around Rs 3.8 crore.
A two-member ministerial team headed by Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo visited the affected village, interacted with officials and locals, and submitted a report to the chief minister.
So far, 18 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, the officials said, adding that despite the withdrawal of prohibitory orders and restoration of internet services, security forces, including BSF and CRPF personnel, continue to be deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
On Sunday, Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi visited MV-26 and neighbouring Rakhelguda villages, and held discussions with members of both communities as part of efforts to rebuild confidence and restore peace.
More than two lakh Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis were rehabilitated by the Centre in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts in 1968, and they currently reside in 124 villages of Malkangiri.
