Feb

22

Road to perdition

February 22, 2008 posted by indiatime |

Deepa Kurup writes in the The Hindu on how mother toungues thrive in our multi-cultural society. She points out that the director of India’s Central Lanuguage Research Institute in Mysore is not too pessimistic about Indian languages dwindling or dying down. His fear, however is that a lot of traditional knowledge hiden in books or scriptures or folks songs can disappear if the future generations don’t continue to speak those languages.

Last evening, the democratic party in the US hosted a debate between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, the two candidates trying to become the nominee for their party. Speaking in the state of Texas which has America’s largest Spanish-speaking electorate, each of them pointed to the importance of knowing a second language. It is estimated that by 2050, the US will have about 150 million with Spanish as their first language. And Americans of generations thereafter, will not be able to get away with being able to speak just their mothertongue.

Although most Indians speak at least 2 languages, and many speak more than 3 or 4 fairly fluently, India has still managed to lose its most precious language, the language that was the origin of most of the Indian languages, and the language that Hinduism’s famous scriptures were written in. The way in which India has discarded Sanskrit, the very medium of our heritage, is an indication that even the rest of India’s languages will one day take the same route.

Much of the blame with Sanskrit’s departure lies with India’s educationists who have managed to turn our education system and the school years into a series of rote memory tests that focus on totally useless examinations catering to a select group of vocations.

There was this kid in my highschool class who was really fluent in Sanskrit. His father was a Hindu priest and took his son along with him for various religious ceremonies where my friend accompanied his father in chanting Sanskrit chants and Vedic mantras. Unfortunately for this kid, Science and Mathematics were his weakest subjects and he barely managed the Social Studies class. But he was fluent in Sanskrit, way more fluent than any Sanskrit teacher we ever had. During our lunch breaks, we asked him to sing some rather racy love poems in Sanskrit and he obliged us with recitations from Kalidasa’s incredible treasure.

I recently found out that his son had chosen not to continue with the family tradition and had become a call center employee and was making real good money. So I gave him a call, congratulated his son and broached the good old memories of our schoolyard lunch breaks. “Does you son know that you are fluent in Sanskrit? You used to speak Sanskrit as if you came right out of Mahabharata or something”, I said. “Oh forget that”, he said, sounding excited, “you should hear my son speak English..he speaks in such a perfect American accent, you will not be able to tell him apart from an American…”!

So my friend’s family has lost an age-old tradition but has gained a walletful of dollars. And I have a sense that something similar has happened on a much larger scale as well. I don’t know how some of our good tradition treasures could be saved or salvaged, but I do believe that losing them somehow equates to losing a part of us and a part of our identity. And losing them for the lure and greed of financial treasure is a misstep that we as a nation may come to regret in the coming years. Because without an identity of our own, the road to perdition would not be far away.


Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

2 Comments so far

  1. Discarding the medium of our heritage at Blogbharti on February 23, 2008 8:19 pm

    [...] Indiatime expresses concern at how Sanskrit has been discarded in India. Although most Indians speak at least 2 languages, and many speak more than 3 or 4 fairly fluently, India has still managed to lose its most precious language, the language that was the origin of most of the Indian languages, and the language that Hinduism’s famous scriptures were written in. The way in which India has discarded Sanskrit, the very medium of our heritage, is an indication that even the rest of India’s languages will one day take the same route. Linked by BA. Join Blogbharti facebook group. [...]

  2. Deepa on February 24, 2008 7:06 pm

    This is my first visit to your blog. Loved reading this post.

Search

 




Most commented

Mumbai's communal overtones signal upcoming elections (475)
Why did Kolkata police murder Rizwanur Rahman? (329)
Ten reasons why India is doing better than Pakistan 60 years after independence (317)
Bun roller millionnaire saves Indicted Swami's buns by posting $10 bond (93)
Top 10 reasons India sucks at the Olympics (64)
Auntie, Corruption bureau and Crime branch (48)
Shah Rukh Khan detained at immigration checkpoint in US (44)
Ishmeet Singh (1989-2008) (39)
And my vote for a modern day wonder goes to.....India! (37)
Convicted Czech scientist flees India (36)


Most visited

Hollywood’s first Indian star
Meeting Raj Kapoor at the barbershop
Madhubala on a postal stamp
Why I’m happier than Mukesh Ambani
An inconvenient truth about India’s intellectual property
UFOs may be ‘idlis’ but time travels only in ‘medu-wadas’
Dr Singh is no Dr King
Lesser Known Indians
The Most ‘Nobel’ Teacher of Them All
The third Indian revered in China
A little Poland in India
The vanishing of Indian languages
The looting of Chandigarh’s treasures
Bharat, Pakistan and Hindustan, Indiana
Welcome to India, Steve!
Top 5 explanations for the president’s gesture
An IIT on every street, an IIM on every block
Pakistan, Jinnah, Wadias and the American anthem
An IAS officer’s nightmare of lustful, lascivious stares comes true