(Siddharth Varadarajan is a senior journalist and analyst.)
Since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister last May, he has criticized, or mocked, 'secularists' and secularism in India on two occasions. Strangely, each time while speaking to NRIs on foreign soil.
Last year in Tokyo he said that his gift of the Gita to the Japanese emperor was likely to trigger a controversy back home. "Our secular friends will create a 'toofan' (storm) that what does Modi think of himself?" he claimed. "He has taken a Gita with him that means he has made this one also communal."
I have written earlier on ndtv.com about Modi's Gita comment but before I get into the merits of his argument on Sanskrit, I want to raise a small point of information. Earlier this year, his government moved hell and high water to prevent a young woman, Priya Pillai, from going to London to criticise an Indian mining project before a foreign audience. So isn't it hypocritical for Modi to target secularism, a guiding principle of the constitution and polity of India, when he's abroad?
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As far as I'm concerned, I welcome a healthy debate wherever it may take place. If the PM or Priya Pillai want to argue about the Mahan mining project or the relationship between Sanskrit and secularism in London, Berlin or Delhi, so be it.
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In India, the official Sanskrit Commission set up by the 'secular' Nehru government in 1956 made a series of recommendations, including the promotion of Sanskrit in the private and public media. According to All India Radio old-timers, however, the public broadcaster's news bulletins in Sanskrit started only in 1974, when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister. This was around the same time, ironically, that the Congress leader was busy amending the constitution to introduce the word 'secular' in the preamble! While 'secularism' or 'pseudo-secularism' may or may not have prevented Sanskrit broadcasts in the past, we can say with some degree of certainty that it does not appear to have been an impediment from 1974 onwards.
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Classical languages are a treasured part of our national heritage and should be taught in school, not as a substitute for modern Indian and foreign languages but for their intrinsic value. Sanskrit may not be spoken any more, but the language spawned an enormous volume of philosophical, poetic, dramatic, political, religious and scientific literature, only a fraction of which has so far been translated. Future generations of Indian scholars can and must be trained to read and translate this literature, and the government must take every step to ensure this happens. But what Modi must not do is mix up this important national goal with the battles he wants to fight over Hindutva and secularism. Fight those battles by all means. But please don't make Sanskrit a pawn.
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