BANGALORE: Political campaigning has become highly vituperative these days, said former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah recently.
He was speaking at the launch of new Sanskrit textbooks published by the Karnataka Sanskrit University here. He said, “The rules of civil dialogue and debate among politicians should be included in academic curricula. There has to be some cross fertilisation between the fields of politics and academics.”
Pointing at the deteriorating standards in academics, Venkatachaliah said a sense of pride needs to be developed among the faculty teaching Sanskrit.
“In Western countries, there is a lot of pride among people who are actively involved in teaching and research in Sanskrit. This needs to develop in our country too,” he said, adding that the language needs to spread not just as a scholarly pursuit but as a cultural interaction.
Governor H R Bhardwaj said there are just a handful of people in the country who can understand and teach Sanskrit. He also felt that education standards are falling in the state. “We should think of setting up institutes similar to ancient universities like the Nalanda University and ensure that all languages grow and progress,” he said.
The new textbooks released are re-framed from the old ones, beginning with the primary standards up to the higher Sahitya standard, the preparatory level for the study of shastras.