Chennai (VSK). Dalit and Dravidan party leaders claim they are the true followers of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. They conveniently ignore his strong views about Hinduism, Sanskrit, Hindi, etc. Dr. Ambedkar, in fact, moved an amendment, in the Constituent Assembly, to include “Sanskrit” as official language of the country. Several Congress and other prominent leaders in the Constituent Assembly supported the motion. It was defeated by the Congress party. All the leading dailies like National Herald, The Statesman, The Hindu and The Sunday Hindustan Standard, gave the details of the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly (in their September 11, 1949 issue).
To a press reporter’s question, Dr. Ambedkar shot back, “why not Sanskrit?”.
The Statesman in its 11/09/1949 issue, quoted Dr. Ambedkar as saying – “Sanskrit will not only unite Dalits, Brahmins and other castes, will also help us understand the culture of the country”. He further suggested implementing Sanskrit as official language, while English was business language for 15 years. Later English could be slowly be replaced by Sanskrit for all business. He never accepted the misconceived notion that Sanskrit served as the instrument of oppression. (Further, Congress divided the states on language basis through Reorganisation of States Act 1956, which is the root cause of many problems that the country is facing).
The fringe groups that mindlessly oppose Sanskrit never think about the society and people’s rights to learn languages of their choice, try to force their will on them. While the whole Tamil Nadu state is facing “unprecedented” flood, due to two back to back cyclones during November-December 2020, they never as usual, bother to help the society. But busy in opposing the telecast of Sanskrit news bulletin in the Tamil DD ‘Podhigai’ channel. Anyone who is not interested can always ignore it. Definitely, like Hindi, many would prefer to listen the news in Sanskrit.
Two of the many quotes of Dr. Ambedkar about Sanskrit –
“I learnt Sanskrit and read Vedas, Upanishads etc. There is no such word ‘untouchability’ in them. It was encrypted in the Hindu society 12/13 hundred years ago. It was a ‘blot’ on Hindu society and we will clean it.”
“Sanskrit is the golden treasure of epics, the cradle of grammar, political philosophy and home of logic, dramas, and criticism”.
