Integrity Score 240
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Sanskrit as Link Language and Devanagiri as Common Script continues...
He said, if on the attainment of freedom, India wanted to have anything like an official language which was also to be the national language, it could undoubtedly be only Sanskrit which was a “world language in the sense that its importance, its wealth, its position, its grandeur have made it transcend the frontiers of India and travel far beyond India, and it is because of the Sanskrit language and all the rich heritage of Indian culture that is enshrined in it that outside India we are held in deep esteem by all countries.”
Maitra made a forceful plea in favour of Sanskrit as he felt that Sanskrit had “the oldest and the most respectable pedigree of all the
languages in the world.
The adoption of Sanskrit, Maitra argued, would also avoid the acrimonious feelings and jealousies and accusations that would arise when a provincial language was sought to be raised to the status of a national language. He referred to the adoption of Hebrew as the official language by Israel to “show respect to their ancient language, culture and civilization and their heritage.” By adoption of Sanskrit, India also could revive its ancient glories and give her message to the West – the message of the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita Varahamihira, Charaka and Susruta. It is through the message of spiritual life alone that India could regain its position of glory. Adoption of Sanskrit would give India a great chance to shape our future generations and to let the world know that we also know how to respect the rich heritage of our spiritual culture.
However, what came out of all that discussion in the Constituent Assembly was that Sanskrit was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as one of the Indian languages (the number of these languages has now gone up to 18). Also, it was provided that Hindi, which was to be the official language, would be developed by drawing wherever necessary for its vocabulary primarily from Sanskrit. This was hardly a fair deal to Sanskrit.
to be continued.....