Schooling Thirumavalavan About Ambedkar’s Position On Sanskrit

VCK MP Thirumavalavan said that Justice GR Swaminathan’s claim that Ambedkar wanted Sanskrit to be made the national language of India is immoral.

Justice GR Swaminathan addressing law students at a function commemorating BR Ambedkar’s 133rd birth anniversary at Raj Bhavan said that Dr. Ambedkar wanted Sanskrit to be India’s national language. Madurai bench of Madras High Court Judge G R Swaminathan said, “Ambedkar wanted Sanskrit as the national language. If we develop negative thoughts in our minds against Sanskrit or Hindi, it is not good for our life and career.”

Justice GR Swaminathan further said, “It is not good for our life and career to develop an anti-Sanskrit, and anti-Hindi attitude as linguistic obsession will lead us nowhere.”

Responding to Justice GR Swaminathan’s comments, VCK MP Thirumavalavan denied GR Swaminathan’s claim that Ambedkar wanted Sanskrit to be made the national language.

Thirumavalavan further said that Ambedkar never praised Sanskrit anywhere and that he questioned the literary richness in Sanskrit. He added that it is immoral to distort Ambedkar’s opinion on Sanskrit.

However, the history tells us otherwise. Babasaheb Ambedkar always spoke in support of making Sanskrit as our national language.

It is the Left, Liberals, and Dravidian Stockists who spread the false belief that Sanskrit is a language of Aryans and Brahmins that is destroying Tamil. Thirumavalavan has been trying hard to push this narrative amongst Dalits in Tamil Nadu.

For centuries, the British have implanted these thoughts in the minds of Dalits, and now anti-national Dravidian, Communist, Christian, and Islamic forces are constantly implanting these thoughts in the minds of Dalits.

But it’s not just the Brahmin community who are acquainted with Sanskrit knowledge. Consider the Valluvar community (one among Dalits), who are great and famous in astronomy, astrology, and other related fields. They have served as kaniyans (astrologers) for several kings. Astrology and astronomy cannot be pursued as a profession unless the Sanskrit language is mastered. This demonstrates that Dalits were also masters of Sanskrit.

It is a historical mystery how Sanskrit, which was the language of all people, eventually came to be construed as language of one particular community. Contemporary Dalits have studied Sanskrit as well. For example, K. Iyothee Thass Pandithar, his father were well-versed in Sanskrit. At the same time, there have been many accounts of people such as Dr. Ambedkar and Dr. MR Jayakar being chased away by the dominant caste who refused to teach them Sanskrit implying that Dalits have been interested in learning Sanskrit.

Dr. Ambedkar did not despise Sanskrit because of horrible past. After Dr. Ambedkar learnt a little bit of Sanskrit, partly by himself and also with the help of a few pandits, Ambedkar had high regards for the language. He said, “Sanskrit is the  golden treasure of epics, the cradle of grammar , political philosophy and home of logic, dramas, and criticism”. This has been quoted in Dhananjay Keer’s biography of Ambedkar titled ‘Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission ‘.

Dr. Ambedkar that Sanskrit be designated as India’s national language. Ambedkar, who took part in the Constituent Assembly debate, stated unequivocally that Sanskrit should be declared India’s national language.

All 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 issue dated September 11, 1949).

In this regard, when a PTI correspondent asked Ambedkar if he supported Sanskrit, he shot back saying, “What is wrong with Sanskrit?”

The news was widely published in the newspapers at the time. In an interview with The Sunday Hindustan Standard on September 11, 1949, Baba Saheb Ambedkar stated, “As Law Minister, I insisted in Parliament that Sanskrit be officially recognised as India’s official language.”

The book written by Prof. Satyabodh Hudlikar in Ambedkar Special Publication published by Navayugam on April 13, 1947, contains details of the instances when Babasaheb Ambedkar spoke in support of making Sanskrit the national language of India. It was also published in The Sunday Hindustan Standard on September 11, 1949 and The Hindu on 11th September, 1949.

During the All India Scheduled Classes Federation meeting, Dr. Ambedkar emphasised the same point. However, some members including BP Maurya objected to Ambedkar’s remarks on Sanskrit. This caused Dr. Ambedkar a great deal of grief. BP Maurya wrote a letter to NCERT a few years later. In the letter, he stated that he acted in this manner due to his ignorance and hatred of the Sanskrit language.

Dalits who follow Babasaheb Ambedkar continue to ignore the treasure of Sanskrit, either due to ignorance or the false propaganda spread by the Leftists and Dravidian Stockists.

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