Marxism infested secularity of the Indian State has imposed the principle of separation of State from the Church in the European and Soviet manner. Indian Secularism has taken the form of turning away from one's own heritage and disregarding the spiritual and ethical commitments that ancient and medieval vehicles of all religions and cultures symbolize.
As a result, Sanskrit is the biggest casualty under secularist milieu. Practically speaking, secularism now means wallowing in easy consumerism of the day and neglecting religious and cultural issues. Hence the disruptive and not additive protests by secularists.
Guilt for the 'Classical' Heritage
India alone excels in belittling its classical heritage as it has unfortunately codified it as its 'Hindu past.'
This classification began in the colonial period when non-European cultures were primarily seen in terms of religious denominations of the non-Christian colored races. They were further divided into two broad categories, primitive (African, Australian and American aborigines) and static (Asia and China).
The problem of giving Sanskrit its due place in Indian education is therefore, not just a matter of giving concession to a particular language. It is the task of using five thousand years of all the textual wealth produced in this subcontinent. And all who believe that these texts, the bulk being in Sanskrit, are not required for maintenance of cultural identity have little knowledge of civilizational rise and decline in history.
Arrogance of the Indian Anglophile
Indifference to Sanskrit and other classical languages is nurtured in no small measure by Indian Anglophiles who live under the illusion that availability of ancient texts in English translations is sufficient for understanding the ancient ways of thought and feeling. For them there is no greater waste of time than learning ancient languages. Polyglossists are no longer admired in Indian academia. Indian universities do not demand a first hand knowledge of Sanskrit or Prakriti from their doctoral researchers in history or philosophy.
It is symptomatic of the times that a leading university like the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) did not have a Sanskrit department till 2002 although it boasted having eminent historians on its faculty.
The Indian Anglo-phones admire Orientalists but forget that the Orientalist enterprise was not to inform the Indian readers but to interpret a colonized culture for proswlytization (proselytism) and governance. They also forget that no culture can do things for another culture; one has to seek meaning in one's own past by one's own effort. For those Anglophils that may doubt this even after Edward Said's work, one may remind them of T S Eliot's dictum that ancient texts have to be studied and translated not only by each culture but also by each generation of culture. So what great-grandfather Max Muller did for Europeans needs to be done by Indians for themselves today.
Source (Book): India: A Cultural Decline or Revival? - By Bharat Gupta Published in 2008.
This book critically analyses the state of affairs in India after the British left in 1947 and examines whether Independence has ushered an era of cultural and social freedom or a cultural decline has set in — a thought-provoking subject.
It is often taken for granted that Independence from the British rule also ushered an era of cultural and social freedom in India. The author wishes to examine if that is true or if a cultural decline set in soon after. Based on a verse in the Pancatantra, the book has been divided into six parts: Eka (person), Kula (family), Grama (habitat), Janapada (land), Prithvi (earth) and Atma. Issues of education; conflicts between the classes, regions, jatis, languages and religions; expansion of proselytizers; lack of governance; tensions between the legislators and judiciary; rise of unbridled consumerism; falling standards of democracy; dilemmas created by notions of dharma challenged by Westernized modernity; and the problems of attaining universal harmony, are all put into a perspective under these six categories. While examining the state of affairs the author also suggests a way for the pursuit of happiness through unselfish transcendence.
(Note: This book review is not done by me)
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