Poke Me: A language – Sanskrit or German – can’t be rammed down people’s throats

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Warum Such Kalaham?

By Devi Kar

With the acceleration of globalisation, schools in India are choosing to ‘go international’ and the learning of foreign languages is fast being perceived as a necessary ingredient of a useful education. In this context, the recent brouhaha about the replacement of German with Sanskrit as a third language in the Kendriya Vidalaya Sangathan ( KVS) schools is perhaps understandable. In any case, history has taught us that language issues are prone to b be combustible.
In brief, it appears that in 2009, German was introduced in the KVS curriculum as an additional subject. Two years later in 2011. the KVS commissioner and the regional director of Goethe Institute, South Asia, signed a memorandum on behalf of their respective institutions in the presence of the human resource development and federal foreign office ministers of state of India and Germany respectively, and German as an alternative to Sanskrit was introduced.

This step was generously facilitated by Goethe-Institut. Sanskrit teachers across the hundreds of KVS schools deeply resented this move. They maintained that it would do “irreparable damage to Sanskrit language and Indian culture". This reaction was to be expected -- their livelihood and their belief system were both being threatened. And now they were being asked to train themselves as teachers of foreign languages -- a rather unrealistic proposition.

The Sanskrit Shikshak Sangh went ahead and filed a public interest litigation (PIL) earlier this year claiming that the permission to study a foreign language instead of Sanskrit violated the National Education Policy that prescribed the ‘three-language formula’ of Hindi, English and a modern Indian language or Sanskrit. Now it was the turn of parents of students who had opted for German as their third language to be upset at the turn of events.

The government order to replace German with Sanskrit had come out of the blue in the middle of the session. How could the transition be made in the few months left for the year-end examinations? Moreover, many feel that it is a regressive step. According to them, Sanskrit is a classical language with little utilitarian value, while learning German would help their children to further their careers.

In this whole affair, the German perspective must be understood. The German foreign ministry, in collaboration with the Goethe Institut and other organisations has, invested heavily in a global programme titled Schulen: Partner der Zukunft (Schools: Partners for the Future). The aim of this initiative was “to arouse and sustain young people’s interest in and enthusiasm for modern-day Germany and the German language”, especially in the priority areas of Asia, West Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.

As part of this ambitious programme, groups of school principals were invited to visit German educational and research institutions. They were told that the great universities of Germany would soon languish in the absence of students and scholars as Germany’s ageing population would not be able to provide the young blood that was required to bring these institutions to life.

Germany’s long-term aim was to save these great institutions by bringing in bright young minds from other countries. And it was made very clear that there was no intention of keeping the students back after their period of study. Whatever the purpose of the scheme, it cannot be denied that our Indian students and teachers have benefited enormously: the methodology of teaching and learning a language is one of them.

Meanwhile, the great debate continues with regard to the efficacy of learning Sanskrit in present times. Some feel that it is Sanskrit which should be the ‘hobby subject’, while extremists label it as a ‘dead language’. For many the association of Sanskrit with Brahmanism just cannot be shaken off.

Yet Sanskrit is pursued in many higher institutions in the West, including the universities of Oxford, Heidelberg and Brown. At least one school in Ireland is upbeat about its Sanskrit programme. Many Sanskrit enthusiasts at home and abroad look to the language for its precision and vitality rather than its cultural or religious aspects.

The timing of the government order in the middle of a school session certainly seems inconsiderate and heavy-handed and has precipitated this wide-spread, fiery dispute. The current polarised political environment is, of course, there to fan the flames and even to generate them. Rumour has it that another PIL, this time for German, is in the offing. Nevertheless, it is a universal truth that a language or a culture cannot be rammed down people’s throats. It is fervently hoped that we are not headed for the Gleichschaltung – bringing into line -- of Indian society.

Thankfully, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already promised Chancellor Angela Merkel that the matter would be reviewed ‘within an Indian framework’. Meanwhile, the German ambassador to India has asked to meet the Sanskrit teachers’ body which includes Dinanath Batra. Good luck to Herr Steiner.

(The writer is Director, Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata)