You Want Me to Talk to You in ENGLISH?

In his speech "Building a Strong India" at Island Grounds, Madras on 23rd February 1949, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who is regarded as "Iron Man" of India says - "You want me to talk to you in English. I shall obey your command; but take it from me that it will not be long before you yourselves will have to speak in our NATIONAL LANGUAGE. If you do not do that, you will drag the country backward. We have to exert our maximum effort to go forward. Unless you do that, I am afraid, you will suffer. These sentences have to be contemplated by the Govt., if they want India to have its uniqueness in the world community. 

Its almost 70 years we achieved Independence from British rule yet we are haunted by poverty, economic inequity, corruption and many such evils. The 18th and 19th Century generation who suffered physical and mental trauma for the sake of Indian Independence are the real Nationalists. By Nationalists, I mean people who are patriotic and sacrificed their lives to bring back past glory of Indianism or Sanatana Dharma. British showed resistance to leave India by show-casing India as a victim of Communal Problems. In such situations, Britishers claimed that they deserve to rule India for the sake of making India more stable. Is this perception true? 

Is the world blind to acknowledge the fact that India never occupied any other country? When India was living peacefully, who in the name of traders occupied the coastal regions of India and expanded their territories and deceived India for its soft attitude? Or is it true that Indians before British rule were not happy with the rulers and hence took chance to invade India and planned to put things in Order? Yes, this question is partially true. Because, during Moghul dynasty, lacs of Hindus were killed and many temples were destroyed. Is it written in the Holy Quran that no other God has to be accepted other than Muhammad? and subsequently, those who practice any other religion should either be forcefully converted to Islam or if they resist they should be beheaded. If a religion does not accept a harmonious relation with other religion, then what is the universal credibility of this religion? 

We can go on arguing about the damage Moghuls and Britishers have done to the India. Whatever has happened..., happened. The fact is that when the home rule is weak, then it is quite natural that foreigners will capture the territory and exploit the conditions for their benefit. It is somehow not correct to be in the present and complain about the past. 70 years passed by and still India is a Developing Country. I do not agree to this statement. I say India is a Developing Country BY CHOICE. Where-ever we want development, we have developed. For example - India is the largest exporter of software products and services. India is among the elite countries in the space explorations. Some of the Indians are leading the best Companies in the world such as Google, Microsoft etc., The West is turning towards East to learn and master the "Art of Living" through Yoga and Meditation. The world would have developed materialistically but Indians since ages have mastered the inner world. Unfortunately, we lost our memory of who we are from an unprecedented incidents during Moghul and Britishers treachery. 

Now, the problem is not by outsiders. There is actually no threat from China or Pakistan. The threat is only within India and manifested in different forms such as - Economic Injustice, Animal and Human Violence, Corruption and much bigger threat is LACK OF PATRIOTISM among Indians. Yes, I strongly believe that all the problems mentioned above are just off-shoots of lack of patriotism towards ones own country. Are Indians not patriotic? Patriotism among Indians is ego-based. Just because, Indians hate Pakistan and China, they love India. Real patriotism depends on the kind of knowledge an individual has about ones own country. We are taught about our Glorious Past by Europeans and French. We felicitate them by Padma awards and keep the MATTER at rest. Why should people from other lands sacrifice their comforts and do active research and fight for protecting the left-over memories of Sanatana Dharma? We are still clinging to the Britishers policy of Education and never trying to question its relevance to our conditions. 

If we want to change the fate of India, it can only happen if we try once again with all our efforts to change the education system in India. Our education system comprises of Primary, Secondary, Higher Secondary and Higher Education. What is the goal of this education system? To convert a student into a job seeker and make him a professional slave in a Foreign Organization? If he is lucky he will survive 40 years working like a donkey or else he will be thrown out from the organization by blaming the automation syndrome. If a person loses job at the age of 40 years, will he easily be employable at the age of 40 years? If he does not secure equal pay and status, who has to be blamed? Higher education should lead to Higher Learning. Higher learning is about knowing by which all everything is learned. During Ancient days, students are not just taught subjects related to vocational interests, but, they are exposed to concepts such as Patience, Will Power, Dedication Perseverance, Morality, Self Control, Self Mastery etc. which they believed are important elements for reaching higher goals of life. Now-a-days, the present education system is just training the minds leaving the heart. Hence, we find apathy among Indians for the weak and downtrodden. The present education system teaches short-cuts to be successful but is silent on why we are failing. 

Hence, it is high time, the policy makers come together and re-engineer the current education system from the grass roots. It is waste to wet the leaves and ignore the roots. The plant will die. Hence, if a change has to take place, it is at the grass root level. The weapon to change is through education.

• The education that connects the students with the past competence of Indians and teaches the student the current responsibilities, 

•  the education that enables student to be more patriotic, 

• the education that allows people to achieve material pleasures but with spiritual approach, 

• the education that leads every citizen to connect his work to the country's identity, 

• the education that helps Indians teach the world the proper way of living and finally 

• that education that teaches us ART OF LIVING AND ART OF LEAVING. 

This is not something new and we need not get confused about how we can gain such knowledge. Its all there HERE AND NOW. Even though we have lost the rich ancient texts, still we access the wisdom from our Vedas and Upanishads. 

There is a general feeling among the present community that Vedas are related to Hindu Religion. This perception can be removed by educating the young minds only when they are exposed to the Science involved in the Vedas. Researchers from Greece, German and French have concluded that what is observed as rituals in Vedas is only 15% but what can be studied to reveal the secrets of Medicine, Astronomy, Management, Art, War is observed to be 85%. Basically, as Germans did, we Indians need to be exposed to the language of Sanskrit. By encouraging Sanskrit in Indian schools and colleges, India need not fear of taking blame of promoting religion. Learning a language that allows us to know the secrets of life and living is universal. In fact, Sanskrit is the best and easiest language for Computer Programming and this is proved by none other than a Developed and Cosmopolitan country called USA. NASA Scientist Rick Briggs says - "There is at least one language, Sanskrit, which for the duration of almost 1,000 years was a living spoken language with a considerable literature of its own. Besides works of literary value, there was a long philosophical and grammatical tradition that has continued to exist with undiminished vigor until the present century. Their grammar experts device a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in form with current work in Artificial Intelligence,."

Hence, time and again we should remember that instead of going after a language that is only used to communicate our opinions and understood by many, it is better to research and learn the language of Sanskrit that reveals many secrets and will pave way to solutions to current world problems. For example, if someone writes a wonderful thought provoking book in English and becomes successful. In how many languages it will be converted? Why is the language conversion? When someone likes the "truth in a book", they feel to read it..., or for that matter they even try to learn the language used to read it or translate into their language to read. In the same way, if India and Indians do learn about Sanskrit and translate their learning into innovations that enables peace in the world, every country has a reason to associate with India and learn from India. Because, there should be some uniqueness about India for the relation to sustain else, no relationship will sustain if the relationship is not meaningful. In that sense, is it not relevant for India, the birth place of many scientific inventions to turn its eyes inwards and search the light of wisdom without having to go anywhere else? I believe, the seeds have to be sown now or never we can aspire to claim about our country's superiority. It is India's responsibility to keep the world in order and it has the capacity to do so because, all other countries have grown materialistically but are blind inwards. We have seen the depths and highs of inner world and the capacity of our yogic energies to the development of the world at large. Hence, there is an urgency to declare Sanskrit as the National Language for Indians and initiate the journey for Higher Learning for Higher Living.

Dr. B. Ravikanth


Reference

The text about NASA Scientist on Sanskrit is extracted from https://daily.bhaskar.com/news/JM-WHA-sanskrit-scientific-language-5500175-PHO.html