<b>Summer Camps Revive India's Ancient Sanskrit</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"At first I thought it was impossible. The teachers and attendants spoke to us only in Sanskrit, and I did not understand anything," said Hemant, one of the 150 students gathered inside a Hindu temple on the outskirts of New Delhi. "I knew big, heavy bookish words before, but not the simple ones. But now Sanskrit feels like an everyday language."
<b>Such camps, run by volunteers from Hindu nationalist groups</b>, are designed to promote a language long dismissed as dead, and to instill in Hindus religious and cultural pride. Many Sanskrit speakers, though, believe that the camps are a steppingstone to a higher goal: turning back the clock and making Sanskrit modern India's spoken language.
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The Sanskrit project was initiated by the previous government. They had their own priorities. The project was so-so. How many people really speak Sanskrit in India?" said Ramjanam Sharma, head of languages at the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a government body that designs school curriculums. <b>Defending the decision to cut the funding, he said it was not appropriate for schools to teach children how to converse in Sanskrit</b>. "We cannot replicate the teaching methods of traditional religious schools in our mainstream schools."
...
"Some people oppose anything that promotes Sanskrit because of its association with Hinduism. We were just trying to make the language a fun experience for students," said Kamla Kant Mishra, a Sanksrit professor and a member of the government project.
"To talk about Sanskrit is very political in India today," Mishra added. "That is the plight of the language."
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"When I learn any language, I learn about its history and its literature," said Jaya Priyam. "But when I study Sanskrit, I learn who I am. It is my identity."
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Effort Is Part of Bitter Debate Over the Role of Hindu Language in a Diverse Society
Sanskrit teacher Vijay Singh uses everyday props such as light bulbs, combs and toothpaste to teach the 4,000-year-old language at a camp in New Delhi.
Sanskrit teacher Vijay Singh uses everyday props such as light bulbs, combs and toothpaste to teach the 4,000-year-old language at a camp in New Delhi. (By Rama Lakshmi -- The Washington Post)
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 15, 2008; Page A12
NEW DELHI -- Hemant Singh Yadav, a lean and sprightly 15-year-old, was sent by his parents to a summer camp to learn to speak Sanskrit, or what he calls the language of the gods.
He had studied the 4,000-year-old classical Indian language at school for six years. He knew its grammar and could chant the ancient hymns. But he could not converse in it. During a two-week course at the camp, Sanskrit Samvad Shala, he had no choice: He was forbidden to speak any other language.
"At first I thought it was impossible. The teachers and attendants spoke to us only in Sanskrit, and I did not understand anything," said Hemant, one of the 150 students gathered inside a Hindu temple on the outskirts of New Delhi. "I knew big, heavy bookish words before, but not the simple ones. But now Sanskrit feels like an everyday language."
Such camps, run by volunteers from Hindu nationalist groups, are designed to promote a language long dismissed as dead, and to instill in Hindus religious and cultural pride. Many Sanskrit speakers, though, believe that the camps are a steppingstone to a higher goal: turning back the clock and making Sanskrit modern India's spoken language.
Their endeavors are viewed with suspicion by many scholars here as part of an increasingly acrimonious debate over the role of Sanskrit in schools and society. The scholars warn against exploiting Indians' reverence for Sanskrit to promote the supremacy of Hindu thought in a country that, while predominantly Hindu, is also home to a large Muslim population and other religious minorities.
"It is critical to understand Sanskrit in order to study ancient Indian civilization and knowledge. But the language should not be used to push Hindu political ideology into school textbooks," said Arjun Dev, a historian and textbook author. "They want to say that all that is great about India happened in the Hindu Sanskrit texts."
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One of the oldest members of what is known as the Indo-European family of languages, Sanskrit is a beleaguered language in India today, caught in a web of widespread apathy and questions about its utility.
Mainstream Indian schools teach the 49-letter language unimaginatively through tedious grammar lessons, and children learn by rote. Many parents see little use in encouraging their children to pursue a language that is not in any official use.
"Some people are constantly saying that Sanskrit is a dead language. It cripples our psyche to hear that, because we are nothing without Sanskrit," said Vijay Singh, 33, a teacher at Sanskrit Samvad Shala. "In the name of so-called secularism, it has become fashionable to attack any attempt to promote Sanskrit."
In January, government funding for a major Sanskrit program in schools was abruptly cut, prompting the program's managers to allege that officials were biased against the language.
The program, which encouraged immersive methods and developed computer-aided teaching tools and games, had been set up in 2003 by a Hindu nationalist government. One of the recommendations of the project included translations of English nursery rhymes such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" into Sanskrit.
When a new government was sworn in two years later, it ordered a massive review of the program, as well as other initiatives that were seen as being infused with Hindu supremacist rhetoric.
"The Sanskrit project was initiated by the previous government. They had their own priorities. The project was so-so. How many people really speak Sanskrit in India?" said Ramjanam Sharma, head of languages at the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a government body that designs school curriculums. Defending the decision to cut the funding, he said it was not appropriate for schools to teach children how to converse in Sanskrit. "We cannot replicate the teaching methods of traditional religious schools in our mainstream schools."
Although Sanskrit is one of the 22 official Indian languages, census figures show that only about 14,100 people speak it fluently, in a nation of more than a billion people. Still, it is prevalent in the hymns and chants at Hindu temple rituals, as well as at birth, marriage and death ceremonies. Not unlike Latin in the West, Sanskrit was long the language of intellectual activity in ancient India.
"Some people oppose anything that promotes Sanskrit because of its association with Hinduism. We were just trying to make the language a fun experience for students," said Kamla Kant Mishra, a Sanksrit professor and a member of the government project.
"To talk about Sanskrit is very political in India today," Mishra added. "That is the plight of the language."
The Indian government funds many colleges and universities that teach Sanskrit literature and scriptures, but it is not uncommon for even PhD students in the language to be unable to speak it. State-run schools offer a choice between a regional Indian language and Sanskrit. Many private schools offer Sanskrit, French, German and Spanish.
"I tell my students to opt for French, because it is useful if they choose to work in the hotel industry, or fashion or legal field. But there is no tangible use for Sanskrit except that they will learn an important part of our culture," said Vishakha Sharma, 40, a French teacher who teaches fifth- through eighth-graders in a private school. She said her school begins each morning with a Sanskrit chant. "It feels good to the ear, but students don't understand the meaning."
Meanwhile, some scholars are developing computer programs for Sanskrit and translating its rich repository of children's stories online. Last month, an alliance of international scholars from the United States, France and Germany was formed for Sanskrit computing.
"Sanskrit is very suitable for computing, because its grammar is complete with 4,000 rules and has a regular structure," said Girish Nath Jha, assistant professor of computational linguistics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
At Sanskrit camp, a 19-year old undergraduate said that Sanskrit is in her blood.
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"When I learn any language, I learn about its history and its literature," said Jaya Priyam. "But when I study Sanskrit, I learn who I am. It is my identity." </span>
Learning Sanskrit in India â Washington Post Poorly Explores the Debates, Politics and Controversy of Teaching Sanskrit
An article titled âSummer Camps Revive India's Ancient Sanskritâ in the Washington Post by Rama Lakshmi tries to explore the controversies, debates and politics behind learning Sanskrit in India. The author in the beginning of the article tries to prove that the learning and teaching of Sanskrit is an attempt made by Hindu nationalists to instill in Hindus religious and cultural pride. Then the author narrates the sad plight of Sanskrit in India. As usual the article ends with glorifying Sanskrit by suggesting that it is very suitable for computing.
The author uses Sanskrit Samvad Shala and a two-week course conducted by it to prove her point. The article wrongly gives the feel that Sanskrit Samvad Shala is an all India phenomenon and that all Hindu students attend it. It also ignores and disrespects the large number of Sanskrit Scholars who are secular.
Some of the points detailed by the author
* Summer Sanskrit Camps in India attempts to promote Sanskrit, which is a dead language.
* The aim of the camps is to promote Hindu supremacy.
* Politicians and academics are divided over teaching Sanskrit in schools.
* Learning French is better than Sanskrit as French language provides job opportunities.
The teaching of Sanskrit in summer camps is a negligible phenomenon in India. If such camps are to be taken seriously, then questions should be raised against Madrasas that teach Arabic and Sunday schools that teach Bible.
The author conveniently forgets the numerous Sanskrit Universities in India which conduct regular courses in Sanskrit. Also the numerous researches that is being conducted on the use of Sanskrit in computing etc and the fact that Sanskrit is used by Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in their religious texts. Plus the numerous Muslim, Buddhist and Christian Sanskrit Scholars.
And unfortunately there is not a single expert quoted in the article. An expert who has knowledge about the social use of learning Sanskrit. The author also ignores that almost all regional languages in India developed from Sanskrit, the vast scientific literature in Sanskrit and also Ayurveda and Yoga.
Interestingly, such poorly researched and biased articles only appear with matters associated with Hinduism. What is more alarming is when newspapers like Washington Post publish it.
Posted by abhilash on 16.6.08
For more related posts: Hindu Issues, Sanskrit
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1 comments:
Anonymous said...
Thank you for the information. I didn't realize that there was a Sanskrit revival or that it was controversial. It reminds me a little of the attempt to revive Latin as a universal European language in the 19th century and the decline in the teaching of Gaelic in Scotland.
Does the Wikipedia article on the subject seem to be a good representation?
I found the mention of Sanskrit for computing interesting. One article I found mentions that its lack of reliance on word order and its strong grammar help in this regard. I've seen the same argument given for using Esperanto in computing.
I was visiting my lawyer friend. As soon as he let me into the chamber I remarked: "Have you decided to grow a beard?" It was an obvious question for a man in his condition.
"You know," he began, after he had offered me a seat and settled into one himself, "I am the member of a theatre group and my role requires a person with a beard. So my director suggested that I grow one, instead of wearing a made-up one."
I began to muse why I hadn't joined an elocution society, I am so dissatisfied at the way I make conversation, when I do, that is. My silent soliloquy ended as he resumed speaking.
"Have you heard of Yiddish?" he suddenly asked.
"A German dialect used by the Jews", I ventured and then bit my tongue. Why didn't I say sociolect? See, I do need those lessons after all.
"Only it was spoken all over â in Germany, Poland, Ukraine â kind of Jewish Lingua Franca", he ever so gently corrected me. "It started along the Rhine around eleventh century. Has a vast literature."
"Have you ever heard of Salinger?"
My thoughts went to a news item about an affair of a famous author with a younger girl â apparently dug out to show Clinton was not reinventing the wheel with Monicaâ¦he used my silence to fill the gap himself.
"He won a Nobel Prize"
I must have looked mildly surprised, for he added: "The only one awarded in Yiddish."
If Yiddish was so well entrenched as a language among the Jews â why Hebrew then?
He read my mind.
"Hebrew of course was there as the language of ritual, but everything else was done in Yiddish. In 1908 a resolution was passed that Yiddish should be the language of Israel."
Was Yiddish like Hindi? His talk flowed on regardless of my self-interrogation.
"Of course, for Theodore Herzl the language could only be German. But history marches to its own drumbeat. It was Hebrew which ended up being Israel's language. It's a miracle."
I had long thought so - reviving a dead language. I finally said: "the first time I learnt of this was as a teenager. An Indian leader returned from a visit to Israel and said: if the Jews can revive Hebrew, why can't we revive Sanskrit?" Then I let out a soft laugh.
"They also laughed when attempts were made to revive the Hebrew language. Then came the first family in which Hebrew was the mother tongue. Now when I hear people make baby-talk in Hebrew â it's just unbelievable"
Ya â but in India people still laugh at the idea of Sanskrit.
Comment:
ushma williams Says:
June 14, 2008 at 3:04 pm
as a recent student of Hinduism I have just started to learn Sanskrit. what I have over the years having gone through a english colonial education in India have just now realised, how much of the intellectual culture of India was unaccessible to me, and how regrettable that was.
All I know that India does not even realise her big loss by losing Sanskrit. the language and its people are so completely interlinked and the Indic worldview cannot be put accross in its entirety in English.
As i teach my own children and others Hinduism for their board exams we have to learn the religion through its Sankrit words, and it is wonderful to see British born childrens amazement at the language of their ancestors ,how proud it makes me to be of this heritage with its long intellectual and spiritual tradition and how easy Sanskrit makes it for me to understand this.Each word opens up the Indic philosophy so ably and precisely is amazing.
|| Satyameva Jayate ||
Do Not Copy
The ridiculous extremes of pseudo-secularism
Posted on June 17, 2008 by B Shantanu
Fellow blogger Varnam recently wrote two posts on how learning Sanskrit is now considered to be a âcommunalâ activity and something that might put you at odds with the âsecularâ brigade.
In the first one, he pointed out:
Usually you see the word saffronization associated with the Hindutva folks, not Sanskritizationâ¦the revival (of this word) is with mischievous intent. Now the name of a language has become a synonym for communal politics.
In fact this attempt to brand Sanskrit as a non-secular entity happened once before, believe it or not - by the Central Board of Secondary Education. It was an attempt to pull the rug off Indiaâs cultural heritage and history by branding an entire language as not-secular.
â¦The Supreme Court in a landmark verdict rejected the accusation that teaching Sanskrit was against secularism.
â¦the Court wrote that Sanskrit was the language in which Indian minds expressed the noblest ideas. It was also the language in which our culture, which includes the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, the teachings of Sankaracharya to Vallabhacharya and classics of Kalidasa to Banabhatta were expressed. Without understanding Sanskrit, the Court wrote, you cannot understand Indian philosophy on which our culture is based.
In a follow-up, he wrote:
This January, the Indian Govt. cut funding for a Sanskrit program because it is now a sin to learn an ancient language and the reason: India has a large Muslim population. :-(
When the Supreme Court of India writes judgements admiring the language in which Indian minds expressed noblest ideas, it takes the UPA Govt. to accuse that it is communal.
JK suggests (and I fully endorse): Instead of whining about the Govt. the best course of action would be to organize a Samskrita Bharati camp in your area.
Fellow blogger Sandeep has also commented on this issue:
â¦Sanskritisation, a noun used as a verb form is a strange creature that really defies definition. Interestingly, Seema uses this without defining it, an act similar to her boss Sonia Gandhi who wields power without responsibility but alludes to M.N. Srinivas who coined it.
â¦Sanskritisation, however, you want to define it, has no factual basis in Indian history or tradition or societyâunless you equate Sanskritisation with Brahminisation (ugh and sic!).
<!--QuoteBegin-Pandyan+Jun 27 2008, 08:44 AM-->QUOTE(Pandyan @ Jun 27 2008, 08:44 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Is it also used as an appellation for the Asvins?
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->... the twin Asvins, or horsemen, are called Vritrahana, destroyers of Vritra. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ashok Kumar & HH thanks for the answers, just one last question, does Vritrahana ever appear in the Vedas or later literature or is this another mistake by gora translators.
When I google I see some hits for Vritrahana but more for Vritraghna, I had guessed before that it could also be Vritaghna seeing as how Shatrughna means "slayer of enemies" (or at least thats what I think) but was wondering if Vritrahana has any validity or its only Vritrahanta, VritrahA and Vritrahan that appear in Sanskrit literature.
"vR^itrahana" with an "a" at the end is not grammatically sound. But vR^itrahan is fine. As HH mentioned, vR^itrahan is a base form. In actual usage you need to apply a case (kAraka) to it. With kartA vibhakti, i.e. when used in the nominative case, vR^itrahan becomes vR^itrahA.
In english language works, the sanskrit words are almost always given in their base forms. For example, in vernacular Indian languages one would almost always hear the usage "AtmA" for self, which is the kartA form of the base word "Atman". But in english works you almost universally find Atman.
In sanskrit works, the base form is only for grammatical purposes. In usage it must have the case (kAraka) dependent form. Often base forms can also be used in the sambodhana or vocative case. As HH mentioned, "vR^itrahan" is the base form, but in sambodhana (vocative case), it can be used as such, e.g. "he vR^itrahan". Similarly with the base word "rAjan", the kartA is "rAjA", but sambodhana usage is "he rAjan". But not always, e.g. sItA in sambodhana becomes "he sIte". etc.
Since the english works almost always give the base forms of the sanskrit words., in many cases it creates some difficulty for people who are not well versed in Sanskrit. They may be searching for a base form, which is nowhere to be found in the actual sanskrit text.
I think vR^itraghna, vR^itrahan and vR^itrahA, all these appear in the rgveda. You can search for these words in the online versions of rgveda from the "sanskrit document list" website.
You are right about the word "shatrughna". Another commonly used word is "kR^itaghna".
<!--QuoteBegin-Ashok Kumar+Jun 27 2008, 09:26 AM-->QUOTE(Ashok Kumar @ Jun 27 2008, 09:26 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->
I think vR^itraghna, vR^itrahan and vR^itrahA, all these appear in the rgveda. You can search for these words in the online versions of rgveda from the "sanskrit document list" website.
You are right about the word "shatrughna". Another commonly used word is "kR^itaghna".
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vRtra-há mfn. slaying enemies, victorious RV.
vRtra-hán mf(vrtrá-ghnii)n. killing enemies or VRitra, victorious RV. etc. (mostly applied to Indra, but also to Agni and even to Sarasvatî);
vrtrahán-tama mfn. most victorious, bestowing abundant victory RV. AV. ShâNkhShr.
Epic form: vrtrá-ghnii, f. N. of a river MârkP.;
Avesta has m. verethraghna > M.Persian Varahran (Sasanian) > Bahram
Compare:
shatru-hán mfn. = shatru-há RV. BhP.; m. N. of a son of Shva-phalka (cf. shatru-ghna) Hariv.; (ghnii) f. N. of work.
shátru-ghna mfn. foe-killing, destroying enemies PaJcar.; m. N. of one of Râma-candra's brothers R. Ragh. &c. ; of a son of Shva-phalka Hariv.; of a son of Deva-shravas ib.;
Welcome to the forum. And thanks for all the word searches.
many of the examples you have given, as you probably know, are merely different case forms of a single base word "vR^itrahan".
A single base word can take 24 forms based on 8 cases and 3 numbers. A verb root can take upto 90 different forms based on different tenses,persons and numbers.
This is part of the confusion non sanskritists face when doing simple text based searches. One needs to know a priori that 24 different forms occurring, could be related to one single base word.
Most of the available dictionaries only list the base words. All the 24 forms of the base word are not listed. These related forms are supposed to be derivable from shabda-rUpa tables.
This creates a difficulty for people who just want to do a simple search in the dictionary to find the meaning. Because no dictionary lists all the forms a base word can take.
It is now important to develope a new dictionary that lists all possible forms a word can take, including case-forms, forms with different suffixes, prefixes etc. Also all the 90 different forms a root verb can take.
In the elctronic age, that should not remain a problem. The dictionary can be too huge to be printed. But can be eminently usable in an electronic format.
