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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Ramanagara (Karnataka), Apr 26: JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday alleged that cash and gift vouchers were distributed in Bengaluru Rural constituency, especially in Kanakapura Taluk, a charge rejected by Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
D K Suresh, brother of Shivakumar, is seeking re-election from the seat for the fourth time.
The NDA, of which JD(S) is a part, has fielded cardiologist Dr C N Manjunath -- brother-in-law of Kumaraswamy and son-in-law of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda -- who is contesting on BJP ticket.
As the elections were in progress in 14 constituencies in the state, Kumaraswamy alleged that some supporters of BJP and the JD(S), were attacked in Kanakapura Taluk and their shirts were torn off.
"Guarantee cards (gift vouchers) were distributed with which people can make purchases up to Rs 10,000. When our boys made a noise, they were attacked," he alleged.
Money was also distributed since Thursday night, he said, adding that in Kunigal Taluk, a man died by suicide after Congress workers "attacked, pestered and threatened him."
"Even after giving complaints to the Election Commission, no action was taken," Kumaraswamy said, and added sarcastically: "I want to tell the EC to allow people to openly allow distribution."
Dismissing the allegation, Shivakumar accused Kumaraswamy of specialising in blame shifting.
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote at his birthplace Dodda Aalahalli in Kanakapura Taluk in Ramanagara district, he said, "It is Kumaraswamy’s habit to shift blame to others after committing a crime. He distributes gift cards and money to voters but accuses the Congress of doing so."
Regarding the allegation that Congress is giving gift coupons worth Rs 10,000 in Lulu Mall, Shivakumar said, "Let him (Kumaraswamy) go and lodge a complaint with the Election Commission. It is easy to do hit-and-run without any proof."
