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The Madras High Court has held that "Sanskrit is not a dead
language" and observed that the reasoning of the Tamil Nadu
Government that Sanskrit had ceased to be a language in use "is
nothing but ignorance of reality."
Mr. Justice S. S. Subramani, allowing a writ petition, referred
to, a Supreme Court decision, according to which. Sanskrit was
the mother of all Indo-Aryan languages and it was this language
in which our Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads had been written and
in which Kalidas, Bhavbuti, Banabhatta and Dandi wrote their
classics.
The judge, in a recent order, also said that the teachings of
Sankaracharya, Ramanuja, Madhwacharya. Nimbark and
Vallabhacharya would not have been woven into the fabric of
Indian culture, if Sanskrit would not have been available to them
as a medium of expressing their thoughts.
The judge pointed out that the Sanskrit Commission, in its
report, had observed that "in Chennal itself, it (Commission)
found that both in unrecognised schools and private classes, non-
Brahmins and even a few Muslims and Christians, studied Sanskrit.
In one of the high schools of Chidambaram, a Muslim student was
reported to have stood first in Sanskrit and in another school,
there were Harijans among Sanskrit students."
The Commission, the judge said, also observed that there was an
awakening of the cultural consciousness and a keen awareness of
the importance of Sanskrit among people and in almost all cities
and important towns there were privately organised associations
for promotion of Sanskrit.
The judge noted that the, apex court which discussed the
Commission's report had explained as to how the Government of
India had taken a policy decision for promoting Sanskrit and how
for propagating secularism, Sanskrit had played and continued to
play an important part.
The State Education Secretary, the judge said, had not considered
any of the above facts and simply said that Sanskrit was a dead
language. It could not be true in view of the various
pronouncements of the Supreme Court, the judge said and held that
Sanskrit was not a dead language.
The judge quashed the order passed by the Education Secretary,
rejecting the application of Bala Seva Educational and Charitable
Trust, which sought minority status for the college run by it.
The judge directed the respondents to reconsider the entire
matter and pass final orders on the petitioner's application
within a month.
The petitioner-Trust applied to the Government on June 25 seeking
minority status to its engineering college, on the ground that
all the trustees were well versed in Sanskrit and committed to
the cause of establishing Sanskrit as an important means of
communication in view of its intrinsic capability of being
adopted to modern technology. By an order dated August 13, the
claim of the Trust was rejected on the ground that Sanskrit
language had ceased to be in use. It was this order that was
challenged by the Trust.
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