Sanskrit language had the most importance in ancient India. Sanskrit is also called the language of the gods. But now the Sanskrit language is slowly disappearing. But at one time this language used to be the language of the intellectuals of India. In that era it was called the language of knowledge. Today we will tell you how Sanskrit missed becoming the national language in the Constitution.
Sanskrit is the official language of which state?
Sanskrit is the official language of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Under the Uttarakhand Official Language Act 2009, Sanskrit has been declared as the second official language of the state. Uttarakhand is the first state in India to recognize Sanskrit as its second official language. This decision was taken in Uttarakhand in 2010. The main objective behind this was to revive the Sanskrit language and promote its study and use.
Discussion on national language in constitution
During the process of constitution making, the subject of ‘language’ was discussed in the Constituent Assembly from 12 to 14 September 1949. During this long debate, there were two sides in the assembly. The first side clearly accepted Sanskrit as the official language and national language and the second side was not against it, but they definitely had some questions in their mind. The most important among these was how Sanskrit can be made a part of common people’s life.
During the discussion in the Constituent Assembly, most of the members were more focused on Hindi. However, some members still presented their views in an impressive manner in favour of Sanskrit. The special thing was that all the members who presented their facts in favour of Sanskrit were residents of non-Hindi speaking states.
Who proposed to make Sanskrit the national language
On the first day, a proposal was moved by Gopalaswami Ayyangar. In which no provision was made specifically in favor of Sanskrit. He had only included a directive for the development of Hindi. To increase the spread of Hindi language, to develop it so that it can be the medium of expression of all the elements of India’s social culture. For this, he had also presented a list of languages, which included Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Surprisingly, on the same day, a Muslim member of the Constituent Assembly, Nazaruddin Ahmed, praised Sanskrit profusely. He highlighted the importance of Sanskrit by citing the statements of scholars like W.C. Taylor, Max Muller, William John, William Hunter, Professor Bitten, Professor Bopp, Professor Wilson, Professor Thomson and Professor Shahidullah.
Apart from this, Lakshmikant Maitra (West Bengal) placed the first amendment to make Sanskrit the official language and national language of India and said, “After the independence of the country, if any language of this country can be the official language and national language, then it is undoubtedly Sanskrit.”
Know what Dr. Ambedkar said
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar did not give his opinion. But according to a news published in Hindustan Standard on 11 September 1949, he was in favour of accepting Sanskrit as the official language. On the same evening, Dr. Ambedkar had told a journalist of PTI, “What is the problem with Sanskrit?” However, Lakshmikant Maitra’s amendment to make Sanskrit the official language and national language of India was not accepted. The Constituent Assembly made Iyengar’s directive of 12 September a part of the Constitution.
Also read: Sanskrit is still spoken in these villages of India, there is an engineer from every house
