150-year-old Sanskrit college in neglect

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 14

Though the Central Government’s efforts to revive the sacred language, Sanskrit, are being applauded in many quarters, 150-year-old Government Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, here in Patiala, has been lying in a state of neglect.

Situated in the interiors of the royal city since 1860, the institute’s building has been declared ‘unsafe’ by the Public Works Department (PWD). The shortage of staff and declining number of students opting for Sanskrit language in educational institutions seem to be the reason of apathy towards the college.

The college had witnessed zero admission for the past two academic sessions, said Harminder Kaur, Principal of Bikaram College of Commerce, who holds the charge of the said institute as a drawing and disbursing officer. In fact, only nine students took admission in 2013-14 in Sanskrit courses, four in 2014-15, and only one in the 2015-16 academic sessions. But no admission took place in 2016 and 2017.

Harminder Kaur said, “This year too, no one had come for the admission so far.” There was a lack of interest among students for Sanskrit language and it was one of the main reasons that students were not turning up to get admission in the institute, she added.

Experts said the growth of cultural languages such as Sanskrit was a distant dream because people still believed that Sanskrit was just a language of rituals. It is worth mentioning that Punjabi, being the language of official work and conversation, is growing exponentially, with several educational institutions offering courses.

Earlier, the college had a staff strength of at least 25, including teachers and non-teaching staff. But, at present, only a clerk is handling all affairs of the institute.

However, the institute had also introduced courses in Punjabi and Hindi, Ratan, Bhushan and Prabhakar and Vidwan, Budhiman, and Gyani, and response was poor in some, but these courses have been discontinued.

Sohan Lal, district president of the Shri Brahmin Sabha, said, “While the BJP government at the Centre was pushing hard to revive Sanskrit language, there are continuous efforts from the state government to eradicate the language. The state government is not putting efforts to revive the Sanskrit language.”