We may have to have a Chinese name if Sanskrit is no more in India.

From birth to death, from naming a child to having a family identity, from marriage to pilgrimage, from wearing an introduction as an Indian to gaining an entry into heaven, we need Sanskrit.

The oldest language the world can claim and the most scientific, a grammarian’s dream, which gave us the greatest treasures in science, technology, cosmology, chemistry, mathematics, physics and geometry, theatre, music and performing arts, Sanskrit informed the world about the existence of several suns, a thousand years before and mapped the circumference of the earth, gave zero, and the decimal system and analysed the mysteries of life and death. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has a Nataraj statue at its headquarters in Geneva.

Sanskrit inspired Fritjof Capra to author his celebrated book The Tao of Physics with Shiva on its cover.

Sanskrit is us.

Sanskrit is India.

Sanskrit is Bhagavad Gita, Vedas, and Ramayana. The greatest unifying force of India, from north to south and west to east.

Sanskrit is the master of our universe, the daily Panchang, the tithis (Indian dates, calendar that determines festivals).

It is the vehicle of Kumbh, the biggest human congregation on this planet, the colour of all our celebrations, Holi, Diwali, Durga Puja, Dusshera, Raksha Bandhan.

Guru Gobind Singh sent his best Sikh scholars to Kashi to learn Sanskrit and they were called Namdharis, the great warrior-scholars and revolutionaries.

And under UPA it is systematically being eliminated from our schools and colleges and daily life. It’s the most atrocious order by CBSE.

I raised this issue in Parliament last week and hope the government will reply soon.

This is what CBSE is doing.

National Policy on Education 1986, enunciated as the resolution of the Parliament, says that “the State Government should adopt and vigorously implement the Three Language Formula at the Secondary State” and two languages at Higher Secondary level.

The Curriculum Framework for School Education by NCERT also says that the study of all the three languages has to continue up to the end of the Secondary stage, and two languages at XI and XII.

All the State Boards of Secondary Education, except Tamil Nadu and some States, have three languages at the Secondary stage and two languages at Higher Secondary stage.

But the three National Boards i.e., CBSC, CISCE and NIOS do not implement the Three Language Formula at the Secondary stage. They have two languages at the secondary stage (IX, X) and one language at Higher Secondary stage XI, XII. Three languages are taught in VI, VII, VIII only.

When there are only 5 papers in X and XII in CBSE, ICSE and NIOS, states feel that their students are at a disadvantage due to 6 papers. Many state boards, like Haryana, have started following the CBSE pattern on this matter.

Very soon there will be neither Rajabhasha Hindi nor Sanskrit at secondary level and higher secondary level since only the regional language and English will find place in two language formula and one language formula.

No one is concerned about its long-term implications. Notwithstanding some lip service to register that ‘yes, we are working on the issue’, nothing concrete is being done and the matter ends there.

Look at Delhi’s Congress-led government’s advertisement for the so-called World Sanskrit conference published today – it simply projects Sanskrit as the language of soothsayers, horoscope readers and astrology.

Sanskrit is science and logic. Sanskrit makes you believe in your own Purusharth, your inner power. A language that has been the mother of most of the Indian languages, that has the distinction of being the medium of a full-length feature film that was awarded the Golden Lotus, top rank award at the Indian Film festival by the government of India and President of India gave the prize to its great director VVS Aiyer (the famous bare-foot filmmaker), is now being axed by the Central Board of Secondary Education, the last hope to have Sanskrit alive in the schools.

I believe that unless Sanskrit is taken to the doors and the hearts of the so-called scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes, no one will be able to fight for it determinedly and successfully. It has to transgress the caste barriers and religious dogmas to become more powerful and omnipresent. To be a vehicle to get top jobs and a social status that it enjoyed once.

These so-called modern-day scholars and the Brown Sahebs of today do not understand that if India can’t be visualised without the Ganga, our culture and civilisation is incomprehensible without Sanskrit.

In 1949 Dr BR Ambedkar had moved a constitutional amendment to make Sanskrit India’s official language replacing Hindi. Not only the leaders from Tamil Nadu supported the move but Mr Naziruddin Ahmed, a Muslim League member from West Bengal also signed it. It’s another story how Hindi finally got the status but the episode amplifies how leaders of a nascent, independent India thought about Sanskrit.

Pt Nehru, in a debate on India’s language policy said: “If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly, it is the Sanskrit language and literature and all that it contains.”

Almost all our great institutions have derived their national mottos from Sanskrit- The govt of India’s Satyamev Jayate, Supreme Court’s Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah, Indian Navy’s Shanno Varunah, Loksabha’s Dharmachakrapravartnaya, All India Radio’s Bahujan Hitaya, Bhajuna Sukhaya and LIC’s Yogakshemamam Vahamyaham are pure Sanskrit.

Nepal’s national motto is in Sanskrit: Janani Janmabhumischa Swargadapi Gariyasi (my motherland is greater than even the Swarga – heaven).

Still under the present UPA’s regime Sanskrit is an ‘unwanted’ language.

There are three central universities in the country, created with an Act of Parliament. They are dedicated to Urdu, Hindi and English. It’s hard to believe that there is not a single Central Sanskrit University created with a powerful Act of the Parliament. All the existing ones are either deemed universities or state universities.

The only ray of hope for Sanskrit is the people. The people of India and the people of the rest of the world.

Gradually at the non-governmental levels, Sanskrit is gaining popularity not only in the urban cosmopolitan centres in India but also in various institutions in Europe and the US.

The highly successful courses introduced in St. James School in London are one such pointer that must inspire us to do a bit more to have Sanskrit popularised in our home and in the neighborhood.

Why Sanskrit in St James? The school explains its policy in these words: “In St James School in London Sanskrit has been the basis of language teaching because it appears to be the mother of all Indo-European languages, is full of profound concepts, and alone among all tongues has not changed over the millennia.”

The website of the school declares- ‘Sanskrit’ literally means ‘well formed’ or ‘refined.’ It is a classical language predating Latin and Greek and has the ability to act as a model, teaching children the fundamental principles of language. Its grammar is thought to prevail as the underlying grammatical system of most Indo-European languages.

“This thorough knowledge of grammar ultimately gives the pupils a greater clarity and accuracy in thinking, reading and speaking, thereby preparing them well for whatever they will undertake in life.”

The last World Sanskrit Book Fair was held in Bangalore in January 2011, with the wonderful support and visualization by Sanskrit Bharati, a revolutionary organization established in 1981 in Bangalore had attracted more than one lakh visitors and books worth Rs 5 crore were sold out in less than one weak. It’s untiring engine, Chamu Krishna Shastri, and hundreds of other workers who speak only Sanskrit, has made the organization achieve amazing success at the ground level.

Publishing houses too hardly find Sanskrit books worth publishing, as there is not much lucre in this business. One of the most distinguished and established publishers in Indology, Motilal Banarasi Das, has published a couple of books entitled Sanskrit which are amazingly easy and eye friendly for the beginners as well as those who have interest but can’t find enough time to learn. Story of Rama and other books make a set of seven that delights and encourages knowing more about the real Bharat.

Many such efforts are being made. The Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan under Dr Radha Vallabh Tripathi is another institute contributing enormously to the cause of Sanskrit .

But where are the leaders and the real propellers who make a difference. In times when the rupee is sliding, national and international issues affecting the Rashtra-kaya (the nation’s physique) are becoming as burning issues as if we are fighting for survival, who will find time for Sanskrit, the soul of the nation?