The Impending Destruction of Sanskrit: What P.V. Kane Predicted in 1946

— Chapter 1 — 

ON 19 OCTOBER 1946, MAHAMAHOPADHYAYA PANDURANG VAMAN KANE delivered his Presidential address at the 13^th Session of the All India Oriental Conference (AIOC) held at Nagpur. The AIOC was a hoary tradition of scholarship birthed by the founders of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in 1918. It conducted its first conference in 1919. 

Even a cursory perusal of the names and calibre of the stalwart-scholars who graced these conferences with their learning makes us automatically bow our head in reverence. They are our inestimable national treasures measured on the scale of their original, pioneering, prolific and qualitative contributions. Their commitment to sārasvata seva was spotless, their dedication to the Sanatana civilisation and culture, selfless. Above all, they had embraced this endevaour as the sacred vow of their lives. A majority of these savants were pioneers and path-breakers in their chosen area of scholarship — Indian philosophy, history, society, culture, art, aesthetics, literature… They were both the products and makers of their era known  as the New Indian Renaissance about which I’ve written on several occasions in The Dharma Dispatch. 

One of the singular qualities of these luminaries was their brimful optimism. They envisioned a truly free India — an India that would’ve finally unshackled its psyche from the corrosive influences of two alien colonialisms, which had caused such colossal damage but had given precious little in return.

As we look back now, we painfully realise that somewhere, something had gone horribly wrong. 

A decade after independence, the optimism of these civilisational reinvigorators had been cruelly hijacked by a band of ethics-free ideological bandits who openly declared a long-term war to vandalise, undo, and liquidate the scholarly treasure that these luminaries had accumulated so that posterity could continuously enrich it. Under the garb of ushering in equality, utopia, and a bizarre entity which these bandits called social justice, they imposed darkness.

This is what P.V. Kane had foreseen in his Presidential address, though not in such stark terms. It remains a severely understudied speech both for its clairvoyance and gravity. Its time-frame makes this gravity graver. 

October 1946. 

When the whole of India was abuzz with the news of British departure. It could happen anytime. India would be finally free. 

However, not everyone shared the same euphoria about the ensuing Independence. Several level-headed Indians advised caution against suddenness and haste. The British takeover of India was not a military conquest accomplished by a single, epoch-altering war. It had taken them at least two centuries to pocket the whole of India and to bring it under the direct control of the British Crown. After this, they had almost an entire century during which time they introduced an alien administrative and legal structure, which completely severed Indians from their past. Thus, a sudden declaration of Independence without deliberately preparing for it would prove disastrous in the long run. 

This is one of the undercurrents we notice in P.V. Kane’s speech although his  primary intent was to offer his meditations on what was known as Oriental Studies. Apart from its invaluable insights, his address is also a great model of how genuine scholars should conduct themselves. 

Kane opens his speech with unpretentious humility: 

After this, Kane paints a vivid and lush landscape of the scholarly realm of his era. In a few pithy paragraphs, he summarises the varied and profound contributions of his contemporaries who include A.B. Keith, Dr. Shama Sastry, H.S. Hodivala, K.N. Dikshit, J.P. Vogel, K.P. Jayaswal and K.A.N Sastri, among others. There is a warmly heartfelt quality in every kind word he utters about these stalwarts.  

And then, he arrives at the meat of his speech. It is his deep concern and unease about the political climate of India. 

Using this as a context, Kane delivers a masterclass in “certain practical problems that concern all persons interested in Oriental research and Indian culture and that require immediate attention from the Conference as a body and also from individual scholars.” 

After this, he sketches a fantastic blueprint for how these “practical problems” could be overcome. It’s truly breathtaking in scope, scale and magnitude. Read it in his own words: 

This is what has been destroyed after “independence” with casual ruthlessness.  By a combination of forces. The Marxist ruffians of course, stand in the top slot. But gross apathy and misplaced priorities on the Hindu side should share the blame in equal measure. In recent years, Sanskrit, of all things, is being largely used for pedestrian purposes and patriotic sloganeering. There’s no more effective method to actually transform it into a dead language. What exact purpose is achieved by translating the crude dialogues of Sholay into Sanskrit? Or translating “Little Johnny” poems into Deva-Bhasha?   

Indeed, Kane had predicted this sort of outcome in the same speech as we shall see. 

To be continued