Batting for Sanskrit to be taught as a second language, Supreme Court judge Sharad Arvind Bobde on Saturday said a common language other than English could help, as not everyone could learn it.
Addressing the ninth convocation of the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University here, he said the suggestion of Sanksrit as a common language was not his but that of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. He had once drafted a resolution for the Constituent Assembly, stating that the official language of the Union of India should be Sanskrit.
“It is a language which is universal, it is the mother of all Indo-European group of languages,” Mr. Bobde said. Native languages facilitate learning and many students are left out because they don’t know English, he said. He pointed out to Tamil Nadu’s objection to the NEET exam not being in Tamil.
He also said that the University could perhaps look into teaching Nyaya Sastra to students of law, which is ancient Indian logic, that is supposed to be superior to even Aristotle’s logic.
Chief Justice of the Madras High Court V.K. Tahilramani, in her special address, said that it was a matter of pride that Tamil Nadu had witnessed the growth of a large number of educational institutions, especially in the past two decades . The growth corresponds to social and economic empowerment of the socially and economically backward sections of the society, by virtue of getting quality education, she said.
Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chancellor of the University, presented degrees to the students. Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam graced the occasion.
