Former CJI SA Bobde bats for Sanskrit as official language; says it is secular language, can be link language across country

Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde on Friday batted for making Sanskrit the official language of the country, stating that Sanskrit can do exactly what the English language is capable of, that is be the link language across various States and cultures in India. .English became the official language because it was the sole official language during the British rule in India, he said."If it was not for the declaration of English as the official language and the only official language in India during British rule, we may not have had this concept because Sanskrit can do exactly what English can do, namely be the link language throughout the length and breadth of the country," former CJI Bobde said.Bobde was speaking at the Akhil Bhartiya Chhatra Sammellan organised by Sanskrit Bharti.He further said everybody is able to understand or speak English only because it was introduced simply as a language without linking it with any religion. "If it was possible to introduce English in a country where nobody understood it, not only introduced it but make it prosper as an official language to appoint that in 2023 a former Chief Justice is speaking to you in English, everybody talks in English...how is this possible? Because it was introduced as a simple language and not religion or part of a religion," he said..Some NASA scientist, wrote a paper which said that Sanskrit can be used to communicate messages in the fewest possible words, the former CJI statedHe further said that it would be easy to understand the language today due to AI tolls unlike during the British period."AI works at 1 billion characters per second that the entire body of vocabulary can be created by the use of words which can be understood everybody in India.".He also said that the chairperson of the drafting committee of the Constitution was the first advocate of having Sanskrit as the official language of the Government of India. "Dr Ambedkar on September 11, 1949 signed a resolution proposal for the constituent assembly, which proposed that Sanskrit should be the official language of the Government of India as a constitutional requirement and that resolution proposal was signed like people like Professor Naziruddin Ahmad from West Bengal, Balakrishna Vishwanath Keskar…Dakshayani Velayudhan…They introduced this on September 11, 1949, with full consciousness that our population would not be able to understand governance in English," he said.Currently, both Hindi and English are being used as official languages in governance and courts as per law but every Chief Justice (of High Court) receives representations from people to introduce respective regional languages in courts, he added..Bobde further suggested that the mandate under Article 351 of the Indian Constitution is to develop Hindi according to forms, signs and expressions used in Hindustani and other languages of the eight schedules."Hindi should be enhanced by introducing something in Hindi…then why not Sanskrit? There is still a chance that Sanskrit can be introduced with good reaso...But I want to make one thing clear… I am talking of Sanskrit as rajya bhasha, as a secular bhasha because in my limited knowledge of these languages there are 60 to 70 % words from Sanskrit in Kannada, Odia, Assamese, Urdu and many other languages."Sanskrit is a viable secular language, so secular that it can be used by a computer; there is no question of any religion, there is no question of any bias, he added..He, however, clarified that a language should not be imposed upon the population.