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Rajasthan HC pulls up ZP for degrading Sanskrit

The Rajasthan high court has pulled up the Jhunjhunoo zilla parishad for treating Sanskrit inferior to Hindi.

The zilla parishad, while selecting primary school teachers, disqualified a candidate who had offered Sanskrit instead of Hindi in a secondary examination two years back.

''Sanskrit cannot be treated as inferior in comparison to Hindi. If we turn the pages of history, we find that Sanskrit is the mother of Hindi,'' Jaipur bench judge Justice Shiv Kumar Sharma said while delivering the judgment last week.

Allowing with cost of the petition moved by Vinay Kumar Swami, the judge directed the respondents to appoint him as primary school teacher (grade three) in view of his merit, against reserved vacancies of other backward classes with all consequential benefits.

''The petitioner has better qualifications in Hindi than required,'' Justice Sharma noted.

The petitioner had challenged the Jhunjhnoo parishad's decision rejecting his application for not possessing the requisite qualification.

The court observed: ''It is unfortunate that the petitioner who opted for Sanskrit as a subject in the secondary school examination was not declared eligible on the ground that instead of Hindi he opted for Sanskrit.''

The zilla parishad had stipulated as minimum requirement passing of secondary school examination, of 10+2 and old scheme higher secondary or equivalent examination from the board of secondary education with five subjects including Hindi, English and Maths.

The court pointed out that the branches of knowledge and training had their peaks of growth and they also saw the period of decay as recorded in ancient Indian Sanskrit literature.

''We Indians owe our national identity to our rich spiritual and cultural heritage that is rooted in the Vedas. Unfortunately, because of an alien system of education, we have become foreigners to our own heritage,'' the judge noted.

Justice Sharma further observed, ''We have almost forgotten our national identity and it is harsh reality that in respect of culture, we are rootless today.''

''We have been living with borrowed ideas and because of this Sanskrit scholars do not command proper respect,'' the judge lamented.

UNI

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