Udupi (The Hindu): Prakash Javadekar, Human Resource Development Minister, said on Sunday that developing educational curricula in Indian languages will facilitate their growth and development. He was speaking as the chief guest on the concluding day of the three-day All-India Convention of Samskrita Bharathi, here.

Mr. Javadekar said that in a small country such as Israel, all higher education including professional courses was offered in Hebrew. If this could be done in Israel, it could be done in India also.

Languages institute should take up the challenge on this matter. It was only when Indian languages develop that the country would develop. “Our government wants to promote and develop all Indian languages,” he said. The Kothari Commission had emphasised on a three-language formula. But in the CBSE syllabi, he found that Mandarin, French and German was being offered.

“We are not opposed to any language. We respect all languages. But Indian languages as mentioned in the Constitution should be taught in educational institutions under CBSE under the three-language formula. A foreign language cannot replace an Indian language. The Constitution had given the status of link language to English,” he said.

In some states, instead of Sanskrit language, vocation training was being given in schools. Vocational training cannot replace a language. Only a language can replace another language.

Sanskrit is one of the major languages and was being taught in many universities across the world. He had visited the exhibition on Sanskrit by Samskrita Bharathi and was in doubt that it would attract many youngsters to Sanskrit.

“In a democracy, one cannot impose a language. Instead we have to popularise it. Our government will do everything it can to promote Sanskrit,” he said.

He said that there were 2,300 languages and dialects in the country. Efforts were on to want to create dictionaries of these languages in Hindi. The Samskrita Bharathi organisation should also create Sanskrit dictionaries with other languages as it would go a long way in popularising Sanskrit.

There were 10 Sanskrit institutions under the Union government and they should build their capacity and provide study materials to popularise Sanskrit.