NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 2, 2016 (Press Trust of India): Sanskrit would have survived had it become the language of commoners, Union minister Najma Heptulla noted here today while asking people to shun their “colonized” mindset to conserve the country’s oldest language. “Sanskrit would have survived had it been the language of commoners and not only elites. Colonization here (in India) also contributed (to the present condition of Sanskrit). We became colonized in our minds.”
“We need to throw colonization out of our mind,” she said. The Minority Affairs Minister made the remarks during launch of author Rajiv Malhotra’s book “The Battle for Sanskrit,” at Delhi University. Heptulla rued that Sanskrit, despite being the oldest Indian language, was not taken care of in the country, while other nations “distorted” it. She said presently only around 40,000 persons speak Sanskrit in the country.