Adharshila Learning Centre I think its also about choice over imposition, which in any case doesn't work in the long run.
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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?
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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.
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Aparna Krishnan 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..
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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.
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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 conj...See more
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Aparna Krishnan My own understanding and faith is in a deep strength and rootedness of the Indian culture and tradition. The Left in my understanding on one hand discards religion, and therein loses a certian essential understanding of our roots. Having said that,
1. All is certainly not well in India
2. If someone appropriates and distorts the concepts of Hinduism, then the need to own it up more intensely as my heritage, and own up the responsibility of correcting and affirming.
Not just because of 'heritage', but because the lives of my village people is rooted in rthis eligion.
In my years in the village, I have seen that religiousness (in a simple and holy sense - including gangamma, and vinayaka, and even jesus) is a cornerstone of existence. And the Mahabharatam, with a million and one subtales, many of which I learnt there, 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 somewhere also generalize
3. Of course there is vast diversity, and all has to be incorporated, We will have to fight for that also.
Manage1. All is certainly not well in India
2. If someone appropriates and distorts the concepts of Hinduism, then the need to own it up more intensely as my heritage, and own up the responsibility of correcting and affirming.
Not just because of 'heritage', but because the lives of my village people is rooted in rthis eligion.
In my years in the village, I have seen that religiousness (in a simple and holy sense - including gangamma, and vinayaka, and even jesus) is a cornerstone of existence. And the Mahabharatam, with a million and one subtales, many of which I learnt there, 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 somewhere also generalize
3. Of course there is vast diversity, and all has to be incorporated, We will have to fight for that also.
Aparna Krishnan Bharatam - of the people, for the people
The Bharatam is a eighteen day drama event, based on the Mahabharata. . ... Annaswamy, now about 70 years, says he has seen around ten Bharatams in his life in places in the vicinity. He says that the Bharath...See more
ManageThe Bharatam is a eighteen day drama event, based on the Mahabharata. . ... Annaswamy, now about 70 years, says he has seen around ten Bharatams in his life in places in the vicinity. He says that the Bharath...See more
Aparna Krishnan http://paalaguttapalle.blogspot.in/.../religion-in-daily...
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Sashikala Ananth I think we are waiting for the time when our european mastets can cone and teach us about our vedic traditions! Its already happening, our sports teams have european yoga teachets, 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.
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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.
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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.
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Aparna Krishnan in this day and age, we are the nowhere people !!
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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.
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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 seeing both moves.). Urban English medium educates Indians are all brown sahibs. The education itself ensure that.
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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. 
:)
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Aparna Krishnan Yes, orthogonal to left and right and centre sounds like a nice place to be in ! Thanks.
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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.
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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.
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Aparna Krishnan A young village mother brings up her three children on 1000/- p.m. there are city youth in Chennai who blow up 20,000/- in a night club. Since I heard of this, I am all for heavy handedness and closeing of such clubs. I am all for such 'autocracy'. I am all for moral police. Do you see - when things swing to insane extremes such as this, a society (and I) react violently.
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Swarna Latha the liberal use of the phrase 'disposable income' is extremely disturbing...
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