"To
cry 'saffronisation' at any mention of Sanskrit takes a special
loathing our own past, language, culture, roots. A special brainwash" !!
And this is why though I do not belong to the Right, nor do I belong to the Left !
And this is why though I do not belong to the Right, nor do I belong to the Left !
Adharshila Learning Centre I think its also about choice over imposition, which in any case doesn't work in the long run.
Gangadharan Kumar @Adharshila:
Curious - Where is the question of imposition here? There are a set of
optional languages kids choose from and Sanskrit is being made available
instead of German. How does that become imposition?
Aparna Krishnan And
choices, I am afraid, are manufactured choices. The mindlessness, and
unthinking sheeplike choices, I see in the present day youth, who are
'far freer' than I was a generation ago, make me wonder. The corporates
and consumerism seem to dictate choices very deeply, though subtly.
Aparna Krishnan And
anyway, English is 'imposed' in most schools as the medium of
instruction. I think its fine if an Indian, knowing the richness of
Sanskrit, 'imposes' it as the second language. There are always
vernacular schools parents may choose to go to, if they are anti-English
for their wards. Similarly there will ne non-Sanskrit-teaching schools
also, if they wish to avoid Sanskrit..
Naveen Manikandan Periasamy There
are more universities in countries like US and Germany that have
Sanskrit studies than Indian Universities. Linguists and scientists in
the Artificial Intelligence domain see Sanskrit as the most suited
language for interactive computing in the future,
because the language is phonetically consistent and it's grammatical
formulations are impeccably perfect. None of this is an exaggeration or
extrapolation. With this being the scenario,the so called "freedom
loving leftists and communists" with poor intellectual fiber are hell
bent on resisting any attempt to bring in Sanskrit in the curriculum.
They don't mind the soft power push or tactful imposition that Angela
Merkel tried on the India delegation at the G20 summit on Indian
government's decision to remove German from the KV curriculum. Dravidian
politics is the worst of all as they welcome imposition of English, but
are vehemently against "north indian" Sanskrit - while the truth is
every Indian language has it's roots in Sanskrit. Agitation against
imposition of bollywood Hindi is totally understandable though.
Adharshila Learning Centre Nothing
against Sanskrit or any other language being offered. Could have been
in addition to German rather than instead. More the merrier. Though cant
figure out why was German there in the first place ?? it is not just
this. when this is heard in conjuction
of adding Ramayan, Mahabharat, Geeta to the syllabus - all great works
in their own right - but definitely not history, With rightist
organisations bending double to change books, eulogiseing Hitler and Godse.... and so on, it definitely raises suspicions on the intent. Another thing is this whole hulloabaloo about
the great 'Indian' tradition. having lived most of my life amongst
tribals and roamed around India extensively, i am pretty sure that there
is no one indian culture. It is a fact that most of us upper caste,
class indians are reaping the benefits of wealth accumulated by our
forefathers through direct or indirect exploitation of other indians. I
can narrate umpteen stories of how people became poor directly due to
the greed of the great Indians.If we are really concerned about real pan
indian exposure to our kids and not just converting congress agenda to
hindu agenda then there will be lots of other cultures, languages,
strengths of small communities whom we will have to learn to respect.
All is not well within India.
Aparna Krishnan My own understanding and faith is in a deep
strength and rootedness of the Indian
culture and tradition. I suppose I would have to call my commitment as
Gandhian, were I to give it a name. In case your location is more Left,
that would again be a perspective difference. The Left in my
understanding on one hand discards religion, and on another does not
fundamentally question modernity to the extent of looking at gram
swarajya as the option.
Having said that,
1. All is certainly not well in India
2. BJP has appropriated and distorted the concepts of Hinduism, and thereby the need to own it up more intensely as my heritage, and own up the responsibility of correcting and affirming. And because they say "Ramayana' it does not becomes an unmouthable word !
Not just because of 'heritage', but because the lives of my village people is rooted in this religion.
In my years in the village, I have seen that religiousness (in a simple and holy sense - including gangamma, and vinayaka) is a cornerstone of existence. And the Mahabharatam, with its million and one tales, anchors life and ethics and goodness. As mine is an ordinary, and just-off-the-road village, and just 50km from the town on Tirupathi, I would generalize this reality.
3. Of course there is vast diversity, and all has to be incorporated, We will have to fight for that also. But I think the best lessons from Ramayana and Mahabharatha are part of the deep inheritance of many ordinary illiterate village people.
Sashikala Ananth I
think we are waiting for the time when our european masters can come
and teach us about our vedic traditions! Its already happening, our
sports teams have european yoga teachers, so that no minority sentiments
can be hurt. What a tragic and distorted level of self hate and hindu
hatred! Particularly when the subjects such a yoga ayurveda and vaastu
were never the basic building blocks of a monolith religion.
Sanjeev Deshpande Curious:
In which part of india the masses spoke sanskrit and for how long?
Would be interesting to see the upholders of tradition practising their
language of choice at home or among themselves instead of blindly
adopting the language of our english masters.
Aparna Krishnan one
is not talking of speaking Sanskrit. there is culture - of the
mahabharatha, which forms the lifeline of much of rural india, and much
else - and knowledge (including Ayurveda which is a very valuable
inheritance). All this is anchored in Sanskrit.
Subha Bharadwaj You definitely belong to the CENTRE
Aparna Krishnan meaning ?
Subha Bharadwaj you said not right not left, so centre
Aparna Krishnan in this day and age, we are the nowhere people !!
Vidyasankar Sundaresan For
all those who have a problem understanding why Sanskrit is an
unalienable part of Indian identity, think of ancient Greek and Latin
instead. Nobody speaks Latin, only a few stuffy Vatican officials write
it, yet Latin informs intellectual life enormously
in today's world. Today's Greek is quite different as compared to
ancient Greek, yet if we need a new word for anything, whether in
science or in law, people go back to Latin and ancient Greek. That's the
same kind of role that Sanskrit continues to play in Indian
civilization, yet we Indians want to queue up to disparage any attempt
to keep some familiarity with Sanskrit going. We always want to be
dependent on someone else, never stand on our own feet. This is exactly
what a colonized mindset is. A pity that Indians want to perpetuate it,
almost a century after our colonizers physically left our land! And that
is why the rightwing derogatorily uses the word Macaulay-putra.
Aparna Krishnan maccauly
putra is a fact. I see it in myself ... and most vividly after I moved
to a village. Actually delhi to california is a smooth move, compared to
delhi to a village. Delhi is far closer culturally to California, than
to a village. (I was in US for a year
before I resigned and moved to a village. So I am speaking from experience.). Urban English medium educated Indians are all brown
sahibs. The education itself ensure that.
Vidyasankar Sundaresan Yes,
I think those of us whose life experiences are informed largely by
Indian city life have never been forced to hold a mirror to ourselves
and answer for who we are, really. It is only those who have had to find
a footing outside, whether abroad or in
an Indian village, who see the difference. And I agree, moving from
Mumbai to LA was not that big a deal. Anyway, I can quite resonate with
your not right, not left, but I prefer to think of myself also as not
center and not nowhere. I think we can comfotably situate ourselves
along a third dimension that is orthogonal to left, right and center!
But we are definitely somewhere. 
:)
:)
Aparna Krishnan Yes, in today's fairly reactionary and shallow thinking
milieu (though possibly english fluent and well degreed), one has to keep explaining and defending oneself. Gets
boring.
Aparna Krishnan Yes, orthogonal to left and right and centre sounds like a nice place to be in ! Thanks.
Gautam Benegal "What
is outrageous is the callousness of the Government which is following
the time-honoured socialist tradition of treating the nation's children
as sheep to be brain-washed; their future prospects be damned. When
cultural nationalism -- and of the narrowest Hindu-belt kind -- becomes compulsory educational curriculum, it moves straight into the realm of authoritarianism.
For all its talk of 21st century, the government is displaying a very old-fashioned and time-tested desire to turn education into a propaganda tool. A key characteristic of propaganda is, of course, the contempt it reserves for its audience -- who are sheep to be led, not citizens to be informed. No nation can aspire for progress on the foundations of bad information."
- Lakshmi Chaudhry, writer - FirstPost
For all its talk of 21st century, the government is displaying a very old-fashioned and time-tested desire to turn education into a propaganda tool. A key characteristic of propaganda is, of course, the contempt it reserves for its audience -- who are sheep to be led, not citizens to be informed. No nation can aspire for progress on the foundations of bad information."
- Lakshmi Chaudhry, writer - FirstPost
Aparna Krishnan I
hold no brief for this government - or for any government. A State is
top heavy and authoritarian, and were the gram swarajya model possible,
it would be a different debate. Having said that - I would like to stick
to just the issue. Our country has ended
up in a state where it despises itself (shown by the overt and covert
respect given to him who can speak English fluently, and stunbles over
Tamil, compared to him who stumbles over English, and is well versed in
Tamil.). That is a deep crisis that we need to face and address
urgently and in all ways. A country that does not value itself (and that
includes its heritage, its present mores, everything) is lost and
defeated.
Aparna Krishnan I
suspect when things swing to one insane extreme, as they have done
today - with western clothing, language, mores being preferred over all
things native - society will swing to the other extreme as a reaction.
maybe we need to watch that also. Meantime introspecting and correcting
in sane and deep ways, so as to control the takeover of the swing by the
rightwing forces.
Aparna Krishnan If we wish to simply react to everything, and reject, we can sit talking to the winds.
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