Monday, January 21, 2013

Language and the Ultranationalist Jingoistic Hindu Fundamentalist Indian

K.M. Munshi was many things in his career, including a drafter of the Indian Constitution, and along with Sardar Patel, rebuilt the temple at Somnath that had been destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni.   Munshi was present at the founding of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is considered nowadays to be a vehicle of Hindu fundamentalism.   Here, we just want to mention K.M. Munshi's stance on language.

Munshi's mother tongue was Gujarati; he wrote extensively in it, and is called the father of modern Gujarati drama.  (Munshi, incidentally, was a great fan of Shakespeare.)  In the Constituent Assembly, Munshi promoted Hindi as India's national language.  As chancellor of Gujarat University, he made English required, declaring English to be necessary in order for India to be linked to the world.  Munshi promoted Sanskrit, the classical language of India, founding a Sanskrit college.  Munshi also promoted other regional languages of India.

This is the nature of the "Hindu fundamentalist".  It is only secularists that say, don't teach Sanskrit,  or this language or that and who by nature are mono-lingual.  

It is only morons who require a Macaulay.