About Sanskrit

After the Constitution, the next and perhaps most important document to examine would be the Report of the Sanskrit Commission set up by the Government of India in 1956 under the Chairmanship of Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee. An examination of the Report of this Commission shows that the status of Sanskrit in contemporary India has a lot to do with both the politics and policies of the State. It was this Commission’s report, along with Report of the Official Language Commission of the Government of India that led to Sanskrit being one of the languages taught in Indian schools all over the country. According to the three-language formula, which still works at least up to the 10th Standard in Indian secondary schools, each student has to learn three languages, the mother tongue, Hindi or another Indian language, and English. To this day, in many school, Sanskrit is the third language, taken in addition to English and Hindi. The Report of the Commission is probably the most extensive and impressive argument in favour of Sanskrit education in independent India. The Commission actually recommended that Sanskrit be made “an additional official language” of India:

       While for all administrative and ordinary day-to-day purposes, some pan-Indian form of Hindi may be used, it appears inevitable that, in course of time, the prospective All-India Language — Bharati Bhasa — at least in its written norm, which would be acceptable to all regions of India, especially in the higher reaches of education and literary activity, will be a form of simple and modernised Sanskrit.