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Introduction: According to David Crystal, Language Management/Planning "is a term used in Socio-linguistics to refer to a systematic attempt to solve the communication problems of a community by studying the various languages or dialects it uses and developing a realistic policy concerning the selection and use of different languages" (pp. 174).
Language management thus refers to the use of different languages in different domains. It also refers to the selection of a language for the entire region for the communication purposes where many languages are spoken. It also refers to what language to be used in education, administration and mass communication when different languages are spoken in a region.
S.S.Bhattacharya in his paper, "Languages in India – their status and Functions" (pp 54) says, "In a geographically vast multilingual country like India with more than one billion speakers (1,027,015,247 census 2001 provisional populations) distributed in 28 states including 3 more created recently and in 7 Union Territories, language identification is not a simple matter, particularly in the absence of a definitive inventory of languages possessing linguistically autonomous systems recognized by the linguists. Though there is no official inventory of languages spoken in India, the only source of official data on languages is the Indian census. The last and the only published inventory (i.e.) 1991 census Report on language/mother tongue, gives the name, locations and number of speakers of 114 languages and 216 mother tongues each of which returned by 10,000 or more speakers at all India level. The distribution of these languages is at once diverse, complex and unequal. Obviously, some states, regardless of their size have more languages than others. It is self evident that all the states of India have linguistic minorities and all languages are minority languages in some states, of course, of different types and according to the degrees of their importance".
From the above quotation one can understand the complexity of the language management in India. With these 114 languages and 216 mother tongues, it becomes imperative for the language planners to plan them and manage them keeping their different functions in the mind. The problem of script also goes along with the language particularly for the unwritten languages. India being a multi ethnic and multi religious country with multiplicity of languages, language management is not a simple affair. Every state has peculiar problems on this aspect. Some problems are linguistic, some are social and emotional, and some issues like identity, recognition, use of technology etc pose different types of problems for the management of languages. Hence, language planners have to be careful while making any planning or managing on these languages seeing the different problems involved in it.
India is distributed in 28 states including 3 more created recently and 7 union territories consisting of more than one billion speakers according to the provisional census population of 2001. Peoples of India are divided with different ethnic groups with different religions and castes. Society is very complex. This linguistic and social complexity creates so many problems for the language management and planning.
India is divided into different linguistic states on the basis of the dominant language spoken in that region. In Karnataka, Kannada is the dominant language, similarly Tamil in Tamilnadu, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Malayalam in Kerala etc. Language planners have to understand the ground realities of the problems before the planning. Language planning has to be done in the area of education, administration and mass communication. While planning, one has to see the ethnic composition of the population and their mother tongue.
With reference to the problems of language planning, one has to see the composition of the population and their mother tongues. The problem of selecting a language if there are many languages, problem of selecting a variety of a language if only one language is spoken, issues concerning with minority languages and minor languages have to be taken into consideration before any policy decision is taken.
A good policy on language is that one which helps the majority people. This does not mean that minority and minor languages should be overlooked. A special policy on these languages is necessary depending upon the problems of languages in the concerned state.
According to the 1991 census, speakers’ strength of Sanskrit is 49,736. It means 0.01 percent to the total population. Out of this, number of persons knowing two or more languages are 25,660 constituting 51.59 percent to the total speakers. Whereas all other languages recognized in the VIII schedule of the constitution (other than Sindhi and Sanskrit) have a numerical strength of 10 million and above.
India has given classical language status to Sanskrit. It is a stateless language like Urdu and Sindhi and is spoken throughout the country.
In India, "At present there are 34 languages in which newspapers are published. Sahitya Academy recognizes 22 languages for literary purposes. Altogether, 67 languages are used in education at some level. All India Radio used 104 languages for transmitting programmes (including the occasional programme). The languages can be divided into two groups: those which have regular daily programme, and those, which have irregular programmes spread over a week to a month". (Bhattacharya, S.S.).
In modern India, Sanskrit language is one of the scheduled languages recognized under the VIIIth schedule of the constitution. It is a classical language and cultural language of the country.
Sanskrit is introduced as one of the optional subjects at the High school level starting from 8th standard. Sanskrit is taught as a subject in college and Universities at the Graduate and Post-Graduate levels. There are few Sanskrit Universities in India where research and teaching of Sanskrit is undertaken. There is a national Institute of Sanskrit called ‘Ras̄trīya Sanskrit Samsthān’ under the control of the Government of India. In addition to the above, there are traditional schools of Sanskrit where Vedas, Grammar, Logic, Philosophy etc are taught on the traditional lines. There are Vedic Research Centres at different parts of the country to undertake research in the Vedas. Hence, Sanskrit is used in education throughout the country and its study is encouraged by the Government and voluntary organizations.
In modern India, Sanskrit is not used in administration. The languages of the concerned states are used in administration along with English. Hindi is the official language of the country and English is the associate official language.
Instead of Hindi, if Sanskrit was used as the language of administration, it would have brought more unity among different states of the country. Dr.H.S.Ananthanarayana in his paper on 'Sanskrit and Indian Heritage' (pp. 248) says that "What is necessary for modern India is a common medium of inter provincial education transcending the mother tongue state, a common medium through which principles of government could be laid down, i.e. Government acts could be enacted, for all the provinces, a common medium that could secure a uniform and identical judicial procedure and administration of law possible all over the country". Such a common medium can only be Sanskrit. One of our own leaders, in modern times, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, expresses eloquently the unique heritage preserved in this language. He said, "f I was asked what the greatest treasure which India possesses is and what is her finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly it is the Sanskrit language and literature, and all that it contains. This is a magnificent inheritance, and so long as it endures and influences the life of our people, so long the basic genius of India will continue".
Sanskrit is also used in mass media. Again to quote Dr.H.S.Ananthanarayana, "There are a number of journals and magazines in Sanskrit. They include dailies, weeklies, fortnightlies and monthlies. There are also quarterly journals, half-yearly journals and journals issued once a year. As in other languages, news in Sanskrit is relayed on the Radio and Television. It is tried out, as a language of day-to-day communication in a village called Mattur in Shimoga district of Karnataka and it has turned out 100% successful. Here, Sanskrit is spoken not only by the upper caste, but even everyone including persons like postman".
In addition to the above every department of Sanskrit in different colleges and Universities publish magazines of the department in Sanskrit.
David Crystal says that "Language planning is a term used in Socio-linguistics to refer to a systematic attempt to solve the communication problems of a community by studying the various languages or dialects it uses and developing a realistic policy concerning the selection and use of different languages".
R.R.K. Hartmann and stork define language planning as "Collective term for a complex of efforts to improve inter-dialect and international communication either by studying the relationships between pairs of languages (dialects) or by creating a new language system. Whereas attempts to devise artificial auxiliary languages have not had any marked success. The comparison of languages has proved very helpful in many ways (e.g.) in → translation by research into and standardization of specialized terminologies, by the design of → union languages and → writing systems".
Haugen.E (1972) while discussing on language policy and language planning says "Planning is a human activity that arises from the need to find a solution to a problem. It can be completely informal and accidental but it can also be organized and deliberate. It can be undertaken by private individuals or it may be official". Haugen further explains that "By language planning, I understand the activity of preparing a normative orthography, grammar, and dictionary for the guidance of writers and speakers in a non-homogenous speech communit". To this he adds "Planning implies an attempt to guide the development of a language in a direction derived by the planners". It means not only predicting the future on the basis of available knowledge concerning the past but a deliberate effort to influence it (Haugen, 1972 A.P. 134).
My purpose of quoting the above definitions of language planning is to understand the concept of language planning and to study its application to Sanskrit whether any language planning was involved for the Sanskrit language. If so how it started. What was the status of Sanskrit in the ancient India and the status in the present India? We have to go for the history of planning for Sanskrit.
In fact, during the Vedic period, Sanskrit was the mother tongue of elite people. These elite people were called "śiṣṭa:h". Patañjali(150 A.D) says in the Mahabhāsya "Ke punaḥ śiṣṭa:ḥ? ----- evem tarhi niva:sata a:ca:rataśca. Sa ca:ca:ra a:rya:varta eva. Kaḥ punar a:rya: vartaḥ? Pra:g a:darśa:t pratyak ka:lakavana:d dakṣiṇena himavantam uttarneṇa pa:riya:tram etasminn ā:rya niva:se ye bra:hmaṇa:ḥ kumbhi: dha:nya: alolupa: agṛhyama:na – ka:raṇa:ḥ kiṇcid antareṇa kasya:ścid vidya:ya:ḥ pa:raga:s tatrabhavantaḥ śiṣṭa:h" Who are the śiṣṭas 'Leaders of the society, Lit, educated'? Then (they have to be identified) by the place and the behaviour. Such a behaviour (is found) only in the A:rya:varta. (It is the area situated) to the east of the A:darśa, west of the ka:lakavana, south of the Himalayas and north of the pa:riya:tra. In this A:rya:varta the śisṭas are those honourable Bra:hmaṇas who store (only) a potful of grain, are not greedy and master any one of the branches of learning without expecting any reward”.
Thus, Sanskrit was used by the learned ‘Sisthas’ in their rituals and day to day functions. The social custom of that day was that all the members of the society were speaking Sanskrit. Later on, it was only the men who could speak in Sanskrit. Women used to speak in Prakrit. This tendency can be noticed in the dramas of Kalidasa.
During the Vedic period itself the Vedic language was in the process of change. Standard Sanskrit was used during formal occasions such as rituals, 'Yagas' and 'Homas' etc whereas in the informal situations there were deviations in the forms. Subramanyam (1999) says that "Even by the time of patañjali (150 A.D) Sanskrit was a living language and that there were still people for whom it was the mother tongue but not one acquired from grammar books and literature. Most probably such people belonged to the upper crust of the society and were also less in number since as evidenced by the Mahabhāṣya itself, a variety of the pra:krit language called Apabhramśa had already come into vogue and was spoken chiefly by the uneducated masses (bhu:ya:msópaśabda:ḥ, alpi:ya:ṁsaḥ śabda:ḥ. ekaikasya śabdasya bahavó pabhraṁśa:h gaur ity asya ga:vi: go:ṇi gota: gopotaliká). The Yarva:ṇa - Tarva:ṇa story told by patañjali makes the following points clear.
(i) The situation with Sanskrit being spoken by the upper class people and the Pra:kṛṭ dialects by the masses had come into existence long before the time of patañjali.
(ii) The upper class people knew, as they had to, the Pra:kṛt variety also in addition to their mother tongue Sanskrit which occasionally betrayed the tendencies of the common variety.
(iii) The upper class people made special efforts to avoid the Pra:kṛṭ forms at the time of conducting the sacrifice. The following is the story:
"evam hi śru:yate. Yarva:ṇaś tarva:ṇo na:ma+ ṛṣayo babhu:vuḥ pratyakṣadharma:ñah para:parajña: Viditaveditavya: adhigataya:tha:tathya:ḥ. te tatrabhavanto yad va: nas tad va: naḥ+ iti prayoktavye yarva:ṇas tarva:ṇa iti prayuṇjate. Ya:jñe punaḥ karmaṇi na:pabha:ṣante" (The following is heard. There were sages by name Yarva:ṇa and Tarva:ṇa, who knew what is right, what is to be known and what is true. Those honourable ones used ‘Yarvaṇah Tarva: nah’ instead of the correct 'Yadva:naḥ Tadva:naḥ' "What is ours is ours". They however did not use the corrupt forms at the time of performing a sacrifice. Word accent, which is a peculiarity of the Vedic language and which has been lost altogether in later times, was there certainly in the language at the time of Pāṇini and perhaps even at the time of patañjali although we cannot be certain when exactly it was lost".
From the quotations of patañjali it becomes clear that Sanskrit language was changing in course of time right from the Vedic period. These variations were found in the speech of the northerners (Udi:cam) and the easterners (pra:ca:m) have been noted in a number of sūtras. Pāṇini (5th century B.C) noticed such variations and thought of standardizing the language of that time.
Patañjali in his Mahabhāṣya tells that how Pāṇini did his job of standardizing the Sanskrit i.e. the process of standardization. Ananthanarayana (1976, pp.12) says "Patañjali has great praise for Pāṇini and does not want to believe that Pāṇini wastes even a syllable". He writes, "Prama:ṇabhu:ta a:ca:ryo darbhapaṇtrapa:ṇiḥ śuca:vavaka:śe pra:ṇmukha upaviśya mahata: prayatnena su:tra:ṇi praṇayantisma. tatra:śakyam vaṛṇena:pyanarthakena bhavitum kim punar iyata: su:treṇa"- "The Acharya, who is an authority, drew rules with great care, holding darbha grass and sitting in a clean place facing east. Not a syllable is, therefore, to be thought as wasted; how then to think of an entire rule".
Thus, Pāṇini standardized the Sanskrit language during the period of 5th century B.C itself. Until then, there were many variations in Sanskrit. Pāṇinii codified through his su:tra. Even now Sanskrit remains the same without much change. The credit for this goes to the great grammarian Pāṇini. That is why it is called ‘Samskrta’ ‘Samyak Kratam’ means refined or standardized. In this way Pāṇinistandardized the language by his su:tras.
Domains: Sanskrit was used in ancient India primarily for the religious purposes. It was used in the following domains. (1) Religious ceremonies (2) Scholarly conversations of arguments (3) Delivering Lectures (4) Praying God (5) Praising the King and (6) Writing original works.
In the classical period, Sanskrit was spoken by men only. Women were prohibited from speaking it as can be seen from the dramas of Kālidāsa.
In the Vedic period, learned Brahmins used to speak Sanskrit in home domain also. Later on, when Prākrit forms developed, Sanskrit was not used at the domestic level. In formal speeches, it was used. It was also used for communication across the country. Thus, Sanskrit brought the cultural unity among the Indians of different regions. Sanskrit can be called as the cultural language of India.
Administration: Sanskrit was used as the language of the administration during the period of Kṣatrapa Kings, Gupta kings. Rudradāman, a king of śaka satrapas of the second century A.D was the first king who installed an inscription in Sanskrit and Sanskrit was the language of administration.
A.B.Keith (1947) says (pp.8) "The culture of the Brāhmins was becoming more and more the chief common possession of India, and the sacred language presented the only possibility of a speech which could claim comprehension readily throughout the vast area subject to Brahminical influence".
Legislation: In ancient India, it was the language of Legislation, Judiciary, and Education. In modern India, it has remained as a classical language and culture language of India.
Print Media: Sanskrit is used in the Print Media. Several papers, magazines are published. However, advertisements are issued in Sanskrit only. Newspapers are published in Sanskrit like 'Sudharma' which is published from Mysore.
Observation: Sanskrit continues to be the cultural language of India even today. Teaching of Sanskrit to every Indian is important. Without the knowledge of Sanskrit, it is difficult to understand rich knowledge inherited in it on grammar, science, philosophy etc. K.M.Munshi and R.R.Diwakar (1959) (P. 2) say on this inheritance of Sanskrit as follows:
"Sanskrit is the one common national inheritance of India. The South and the North, the West and the East have equally contributed to it. No part of India can claim it as its exclusive possession. When we talk of our national genius being unity in diversity, of the fundamental oneness of Indian mind etc, “What we really mean is the dominance of Sanskrit, which overrides the regional differences and linguistic peculiarities and achieves a true national character in our thought and emotions and even gives form and shape to the languages. So far as I know, there has never been an instance in world history when a language which was but the speech of an invading few was able to establish its unchallenged authority over a whole sub-continent and be its permanently unifying factor for over two thousand years."
Hence, there is a need to modernize and simplify this Sanskrit language so that every Indian interested in learning Sanskrit can learn it easily.
The need for modernizing Sanskrit is very important. It is also necessary to make it clear that Sanskrit language is not the property of only one community or caste. It is a universal language everybody should have access to it. For this purpose, there is a need to simplify the complex Sanskrit grammar to suit the modern learners. The methodology of teaching also should change, keeping in view of the modern theories of teaching. Sanskrit teaching is indeed a second language teaching and the principles of second language teaching should be applied to it.
In order to make the vocabulary of Sanskrit more dynamic, words from other Indian languages and English should be taken for writing the lessons.
Sanskrit should be taught on the basis of the need of the learner. Grammar teaching should not be the main aim. The aim should be to teach Sanskrit for speaking purpose.
Suitable text books should be prepared to suit different types of learners. Suitable dictionaries - Sanskrit and other languages can be used for reference.
With all these process, modernization of Sanskrit is possible.
Sanskrit is written in Devanagari script. It is necessary to teach this script on modern principles like shape, similarity and contrastive observation. The Allograph and graphemes of Sanskrit should be identified. Teaching of script should be based on the basis of the hand movement showing the direction of writing. For pronunciation of script, symbols, pictorial charts etc may be provided. Different combinations of Sanskrit consonants should be explained properly. Details are given in the chapter on script.
Sanskrit language was in continuous change right from the Vedic period. These changes in Sanskrit resulted in the development of Prakrit language. This is one type of language movement. Another type of movement is loss of word accent in Sanskrit. During Vedic period word accent was meaningful - Udātha, Anudātta and Svarita were used accurately. Even during the period of patañjali it was meaningful. Gradually, it was lost in the later period. However, Accent is maintained in the Vedic recitation of Hymns even today.
Another movement in Sanskrit language could be seen in the vocabulary. Sanskrit words with original meanings changes their meanings in the borrowed languages. For ex: Upanyāsa means, 'Lecture' but it gave the meaning of novel in Hindi. Like that there are many words in other Indian languages where original meanings are lost and other meanings are developed.
Influence of Sanskrit on all Indian languages particularly in vocabulary is very high. Whether it is Dravidian language or an Indo-Aryan language its vocabulary is enriched by Sanskrit. Among South Indian languages, Malayalam is one language where the Sanskrit influence is very high.
Whereas in Tamil another important south Indian language, influence of Sanskrit is less. This is primarily due to the language movement, viz: purification movement. Tamil people do not like to use the Sanskrit words and prefer to use native Dravidian words. The main reason for this is to maintain their own Dravidian culture and keep the Aryan culture and language away. This is another type of language movement.
Due to this, changes are taking place in the area of vocabulary. Hindi language like Tamil is another extreme situation in which Sanskrit words are extensively used. In fact Sanskritized Hindi is considered as standard Hindi by the Hindi speakers.
As a result of standardization of Sanskrit by Pāṇini’s Asṭadhya:yi:, Sanskrit language remained constant. If any deviation from Pāṇini’s rule was always considered as ungrammatical. Thus, Sanskrit language was codified and further education was done in this language and literature was produced in this standardized Sanskrit.
Coming to the modern India, Sanskrit is taught as an optional subject in the schools from 8th standard onwards. It is also taught at the college and the University level. Sanskrit is also used in the print media through local dailies, weekly, monthly and quarterly journals.
Translation work is also done from Sanskrit to other Indian languages and vice versa. Sanskrit is used in mass media. News in Sanskrit is broadcast from AIR as well as T.V.
However, Sanskrit is not used anywhere in India as the language of the administration. However, Government of India has recognized Hindi as the official language of India and English as associate official language. Hence, Sanskritized Hindi is very much used in the administration. Sanskritized Hindi is nothing but the modification of Sanskrit.
However, Sanskrit is not used in debate in the modern context but it is very much used among the Sanskrit scholars who meet at periodic intervals to attend conferences and seminars on Sanskrit language. From this point of view, Sanskrit is still alive as a second language.
There is a national Institute of Sanskrit called 'Rastriya Sanskrit Samsthan' which does research and teaching on Sanskrit. There are universities of Sanskrit in which Sanskrit is used as a language of Communication, discussion and debate and also for the teaching purpose.
There are many agencies which do the planning for Sanskrit. Planning for teaching of Sanskrit, preparation of materials in Sanskrit, playing dramas in Sanskrit etc is done.
In the centre, there is a National Institute of Sanskrit which does many works for the implementation of Sanskrit as a language for communication and for advance research. This National Institution is called 'Rāstriya Sanskrit Samsthān'.
Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore has initiated several programmes on Sanskrit such as Dialogues between traditional scholars and modern linguists, preparation of Intensive course in Sanskrit, pictorial vocabulary in Sanskrit etc.
All universities which come under different state governments also undertake research and teaching in Sanskrit. There are government Sanskrit colleges like Government Maharaja Sanskrit College, Mysore where philosophy, logic, Veda, Grammar etc are taught through the medium of Sanskrit.
There are many Private Institutions on Sanskrit for which Government gives aid. They are called aided institutions. For examples, Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote in Karnataka is one such institution where government gives grants for doing research in Sanskrit. Like that there are number of aided Institutions of Sanskrit.
There are many Non-Government organizations which do the teaching of Sanskrit through the traditional method. There are many Matts and religious institutions which do this type of job.
However, Sanskrit teaching at individual level is less in modern India. But in ancient India every Gurukul had one individual as teacher and teaching to several students on different subjects like philosophy, Grammar and recitation of Veda.
Sanskrit is the second language to all those who have studied it. Their mother tongue would be some regional language. So, there will be code switching from their mother tongue to Sanskrit and vice versa.
As said earlier, lots of Sanskrit words are borrowed in many Indian Languages. In Malayalam, the percentage of borrowing is very high.
In the North-Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya etc, the influence of Sanskrit is very high and most of the vocabulary items are borrowed from Sanskrit.
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