SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR AND ORS.versusTHE SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND ANR.

             SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR AND ORS.                                        A
                          v.
     THE SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCES
                DEVELOPMENT AND ANR.

                            OCTOBER 4, 1994
                                                                                B
             [KULDIP SINGH AND B.L. HANSARIA, JJ.]

      Constitution of India, 1950:

       Miele 351-Eighth Schedule-Language~nclusion of Sanskrit as               C
elective subject in syllabus of Central Board of Secondary Education--Court's
direction regarding-Importance of Sanskrit in national ethos discussed.

      Secularism-Teaching of Sanskrit alone as elective subject is not
against secularism.
                                                                                D
      Education--lmportance of Education discussed.

       In these petitions the qnestion for consideration is whether Sanskrit,
which is one of the langnages specified in Eighth Schedule of the Constitu-
tion, is required to he included in the syllabus of the Central Board of
Secondary Education as an elective subject so far as teaching in secondary      E
schools is concerned. On behalf of the Central Board of Secondary Educa-
tion it was contended that if Sanskrit were to he included as an elective
subject, Arabic and Persian shall also have to he so done.

      Allowing the writ petitions, this Court
                                                                                F
      HELD : 1. Teaching of Sanskrit alone as an elective subject can in
no way he regarded as against secularism. Because secularism is not
anti-thesis of religious devoutness and sanskrit is the binding force for the
different people of the country and is also embodiment of Indian cnltnre
and civilisation. Indeed, our Constitntion reqnires giving of fillip to
Sanskrit because of what has been stated in Article 351, in which while         G
dealing with the duty of the Union to promote the spread of IDndl, It has
been provided that it would draw, whenever necessary or desirable, for Its
vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit. Encouragement to Sanskrit l_s also
necessary because of It being one of the languages inclnded in the Eighth
Schedule. (147-C, 146-E, 147-DI .                                               H
                                     139
    140                  SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1994] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.

A        2. Learning or Sanskrit is undoubtedly necessary for protection or
  our heritage. The stream of our culture would get dried if we were to
  discourage the study of Sanskrit. Without the learning of Sanskrit It is not
  possible to decipher the Indian philosophy on which our culture and
  heritage are based. In view of Importance of Sanskrit for nurturing our
B cultural heritage, because of which even the official education policy has
  highlighted the need of study of Sanskrit, making of Sanskrit alone as an
  elective subject, while not conceding this status to Arabic and/or Persian,
  would not In any way militate against the basic tenet of secularism.
  Accordingly, the Central Board of Secondary Education is directed to
  include Sanskrit as an elective subject in the syllabus by making necessary
C amendment in the Syllabus. [142-B, F, 147-E, Fl
          S.R. Bommai v. Union of India, [1994] 3 S.C.C. 1, referred to.

          Justice H.R. Khanna, 'The Spirit of Secularism in 'Secularism and
    India: DiJlemmas and Challenges' Edited by Shri MM Sankhdhar; referred
D   to.

          The Report of the San;;krit Commission 1957, referred to.

          3. It has been well recognised that It Is the education which lays the
    foundation for a full and Intense life and so the education must carefully
E   keep alive the spark of curiosity and fan It into a beautiful, bright Dame
    whenever It comes. It Is the education received in early stages which widens
    the contracts of child or youth with the surroundings or the world; and
    with every new and fruitful contacts with the world of things, the world of
    men and the world or Ideas, life of the young becomes richer and broader.
F   It is early education which seeks to broaden the mind by exposing the
    learner to the world of thought and reOectlon, which can inspire him with
    lofty idealism by giving him the glimpses of a good life which a worthy
    education is capable of bringing. [143-D to Fl

          Unnikrishnan v. State of A.P., [1993] 1 SCC 645, referred to.
G
          1968 Education Policy, referred to.

          1986 Education Policy, referred to.

          CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (C) No. 299 of
H 1989.
     SANTOSH KR. v. HUMAN RESOURCES DEV. [HANSARIA, J.]                141

                                  With                                        A
     WRIT PETITION (C) NOS. 1303, 1184, 601,571 & 1041}89.

     (Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.)

     K.K. Venugopal and C.S. Vaidyanathan, K.V. Viswanathan, Mukul            B
Mudgal and Gopal K. Jain for the Petitioners in W.P. Nos. 299, 1184, 601,
571 and 1041/89.

      K.K. Gupta for the Petitionei in W.P. 1303/89.

     N.N. Goswamy, T.C. Sharma, B.K. Prasad and Ms. A. Subhashini for         C
the Respondent No.l

     K.T.S. Tutsi, Additioinal Solicitor General, T.C. Sharma, Rajeev
Sharma and Ms. Neelam Sharma for the Respondent No. 2.

     V.C. Mahajan, Y.P. Mahajan, K. Dua and S.N. Terdal for the               D
Respondent.

      V.J. Francis, V. Subramaniam, A.K. Goel, Mrs. Sheela Goe~ and
Rajiv Dutta for the intervenor.

      The Judgment of the Court was delivered by                              E
       HANSARIA, J. A professor of Cambridge University is deeply
engrossed in his studies in his clam chamber. An agitated English soldier
enters the study room and accuses the professor in not sharing the trauma
of war which he and many others like him are facing while fighting
Germans. The professor calmly asks the young soldier for whom he is           F
fighting for. Quick comes the reply that it is to defend the country. The
wise man wants to know what is that country to defend which he is
prepared to shed his blood. The soldier replies it is the territory and its
people. On further questioning the soldier says it is not only this but the
culture of the country which he wants to defend. The professor quietly        G
states that he is contributing to that culture. The soldier clams down and
bows in respect to the professors and vows to defend with more vigour the
cultural heritage of his country.

    2. This is what is said to have happened during the Second World
War when England was fighting almost a last ditch battle of survival and      H
    142                  SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1994] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.

A all Englishmen contributed in their own way to the ultimate victory of
    England.

          3. The above shows the concern for culture evinced even by the
    westerners. So far as 'We, the people of India" are concerned, they have
    always held in high esteem the cultural heritage of this ancient land. And
B   to foretell our views, learning of Sanskrit is undoubtedly necessary for
    protection of this heritage. The stream of our culture would get dried if we
    were to discourage the study of Sanskrit, and that too on the most un-
    tenable ground that if the Central Board of Secondary Education (for short
    'the Board') were to do so, it would have to make facilities available for
C   learning of Arabic and Persian-these being also classical languages, which
    is the ground advanced by Addi. Solicitor General, Shri Tulsi, appearing
    for the Board, in it not being in a position to accept the prima facie view
    expressed by us on 19.7.94, when these cases had come up for hearing, that
    Sanskrit should be included by the Board as one of the elective subjects in
    the syllabus alongwith Assamese, Bengali etc., which are the languages
D   specified in the Eight Schedule of our Constitution, mentioning about
    Sanskrit being also an Eighth Schedule language. The desire to keep
    Sanskrit out does not stop here, as the submission also is that if Sanskrit
    comes, the Board shall have to bring in language like French and German.
    This is not all, as it is contended by the Addi. Solicitor General that the
E   Board feels that arrangement may have then to be made for imparting
    education even in Lepcha, a language whose name many of the.I_pdians
    might not have even heard.

           4. We fail to appreciate at all the stand taken by a responsible body
    like the Board, who has been entrusted with the onerous duty of educating
F   the youths of this country "in whose bands quiver the destinies of the
    future", as the same is wholly untenable. Without the learning of Sanskrit
    it is not possible to decipher the Indian philosophy on which our culture
    and heritage are based.

G        5. The question raised being important requires us, to answer it
    appropriately, to first know what our policy makers have said about the
    importance of Sanskrit. We shall then apprise ourselves about the place of
    Sanskrit in our educational ethos and shall finally see whether teaching of
    Sanskrit is against secularism?

H         Our education policy qua Sanskrit.
     SANTOSH KR. v. HUMAN RESOURCES DEV. [HANSARIA, J.]                    143

       6. Being called upon to decide whether Sanskrit is required to be          A
included in the syllabus of the Board as an elective subject so far as
teaching in secondary school is concerned, may WI'- say at the threshold a
few words on the importance of education as such. This point is not
required to be laboured by us in view of the Constitution Bench decision
of this Court in Unniioishnan's case, [1993] 1 SCC 645 in which the majority      B
Judges well brought home the importance of education. It would be enough
to mention what Mohan, J. (as a majority Judge) stated in that judgment.
According to the learned Judge, education is a preparation of living and
for life here and hereafter and education is at once a social and political
necessity. It was also observed that victories are gained, peace is preserved,
progress is achieved, civilisation is built up and history is made, not in the    C
battle-fields but in educational institutions which are seed-beds of culture.
Education was, therefore, ·regarded as enlightenment and one that lends
dignity to a man.

       7. As we are concerned in these cases with the teaching in the             D
secondary schools, we may say something about the importance of educa-
tion in its early stages. It has been well recognised that it is this education
which lays the foundation for a full and intense life and so this education
must carefully keep alivo the spark of curiosity and fan it into a beautiful,
bright flame'whenever it comes. It has been stated that it is the education
r.eceived in early stages which widens the contracts of child or youth with       E
the surroundings of the world; and with every new and fruitful contacts
with the world of things, the world of men and the world of ideas, life of
the young becomes richer and broader. It is early education which seeks
to broaden the mind by exposing the learner to the world of thought and
reflection, which can inspire him with lofty idealism by giving him the           F
glimpses of a good life which a worthy education is capable of bringing.

      8. ·We may now advert to the broad framework of our education
policy as accepted by the Central Government. For our purpose it would
be enough if we refer to the policies as formulated in 1968 and 1986. Here
again, we would confine our attention to what was stated in these policies        G
regarding Sanskrit. In the 1968 policy the following found place qua this
language:

         "Considering the special importance of Sanskrit to the growth and
         development of Indian languages arn:f its unique contribution to         H
    144                    SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1994) SUPP. 4S.C.R.

A            the cultural unity of the country, facilities for its teaching at the
             school and university stages should be offered on more liberal
             basis. Development of new methods of teaching the language
             should be encouraged, and the possibility explored of including
             the study of Sanskrit in those courses (such as modern Indian
             philosophy) at the first and second degree stages, where such
B            knowledge is useful."

          9. The 1986 policy has to say as below in this regard in para 533:

             "Research in Indology, the humanities and Social Sciences will
             receive adequate support. To fulfill the need for the synthesis of
c            knowledge, inter-disciplinary research will be encouraged. Efforts
             will be made to delve into India's ancient fund of knowledge and
             to relate it to contemporary reality. This effort will imply the
             development of facilities for the intensive study of Sanskrit."

D                                                            (Emphasis supplied)

           10. It would be of some interest to note that whe;:i Sir William Jones,
    one of the most brilliant men of 18th century, came to India in 1783 as a
    Judge of the then Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort Williams in Bengal,
    he got interested to learn Sanskrit and it grew so strong that within six years
E   he not only became the master of the language but translated Kalidas's
    Shakuntla. After about two hundred years it has fallen to the Judges of the
    present Supreme Court to highlight the importance of Sanskrit and to see
    that it finds its due place in the niche of our national life.

    Place of Sanskrit in our educational ethos.
F
           11. It is well known that Sanskrit is a mother of all lndo-Aryan
    languages and it is this language in which our Vedas, Puranas and
    Upanishadas have been written and in which Kalidas, Bhavbuti, Banbhatta
    and Dandi wrote their classics. Teachings of Shankracharya, Ramanuj, ·
G   Madhwacharya, Nimbark and Vallabhacharya would not have been woven
    into the fabric of Indian culture if Sanskrit would not have been available
    to them as a medium of expressing their thoughts.

         12. The report of the Sanskrit Commission (set up by the &o>ern-
    ment of India) which was submitted in 1957 speaks eloquently about the
H   importance of Sanskrit. We do not purpose to burden this judgment will
     SANTOSH KR. v. HUMAN RESOURCES DEV. [HANSARIA, J.]                    145

all that was said by the Commission in this regard. It would be enough for A
our purpose if we take note of some passages finding place in the report
which highlight the quality, substance, content and strength of Sanskrit. At
page 71 of the report it has been mentioned that Sanskrit is one of the
greatest languages of the world and it is the classical language par excel-
lence not only of India but of a good part of Asia as well. At page 73 the B
report states that the Indian people and the Indian civilisation were born,
so to say, in the lap of Sanskrit and it went "hand in hand with the
historical development of the Indian people, and gave the noblest expres-
sion to their mind and culture which has com_e down to onr day as an
inheritance of priceless order for India, nay, for the entire world". The
report further speaks at page 74 about the "great mental and spritual link" C
of Sanskrit and of it being the elder sister of Greek and Latin, and cousin
of English, French and Russian.

       13. There is no need to dilate on the importance of Sanskrit further
in our national ethos in view of what was stated by no less a person than         D
the first Prime Minister of the country, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, in which
regard, which is as below :

        'If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses
        and what is her finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly - it
        is the Sanskrit language and literature, and all that it contains. This   E
        is a magnificent inheritance, and so long as this endures and
        influences the life of our people, so long the basic genius of India
        will continue.-

Is teaching of Sanskrit against secularism?
                                                                                  F
      14. Of the three objections mentioned by the Addi. Solicitor General
regarding the inability of the Board in acting in accordance with the prima
facie views expressed by us in our order dated 19.7.1994, the only objection
which merits our close look is. that if Sanskrit were to be included as an
elective subject, Arabic and Persian shall also have to be so done. The two       G
other objections, namely inclusion of French and German also in the
syllabus and of language like Lepcha do not deserve any consideration for
obvious reasons.

      15. The first objection needs our consideration because in some .
quarter there may be a feeling that by conceding to Sanskrit alone as an H
    146                   SUPREMECOURTREPORTS [1994]SUPP.4S.C.R.

A elective subject, we would act against secularism, which has been accepted
    by a nine-judge Bench of this Court in S.R. Bommai v. Union of India,
    [1994] 3 SCC 1, as a basic structure of our constitution. It is apparent that
    we cannot give any direction about which it can be said that it is against
    the secularist requirement of our Constitution.

B          16. For the disposal of the cases at hand it is not necessary to
    elaborately discuss what ar.e the basic requirements of secularism inasmuch
    as in Bommai's case tlrls exercise has been well done by the learned Judges.
    It would be enough for our purpose to note what some of the learned
    Judges said in this regard. Sawant, J., with whom one of us (Kuldip Singh,
C   J.) agreed, quoted in para 147 of the report what Shri M.C. Setalvad had
    stated on secularism in his Patel Memorial Lectures, 1965. One of the
    observations made by Setalvad was that a secular State is not hostile to
    religion but holds itself neutral in matters of religion. The further observa-
    tion in para 148 is that the State's tolerance of religion does not made it
D   either a religious or a theocratic State. Remaswami, J. stated in para 179
    that secularism represents faiths born out of the exercise of rational facul-
    ties and it enables to see the imperative requirements for human progress
    in all aspects and cultural and social advancement and indeed for human
    survival itself.

E         17. It would be profitable to note that according to Justice H.R.
    Khanna secularism is neither anti-God nor pro-God; it treats alike the
    devout, the agonistic and the atheist. According to him, secularism is not
    antithesis of religious devoutness. He would like to dispel the impression
    that if a person is devout Hindu or devout Muslim he ceases to be secular.
F   This is illustrated by saying that Vivenkanand and Gandhiji were the
    greatest Hindus yet their entire life and teac!iliigs embodied the essence of
    secularism (See his article 'The SpiJ:it of Secularism' as printed in
    'Secularism and India: Dilemmas and Challenges' edited by Shri MM
    Sankhdhar).

G         18. We also propose to refer to what was said by the Sanskrit
    Commission on the subject of 'Sanskrit and National Solidarity" in Chapter
    IV of its report. The Commission has, in this context first stated that
    Sanskrit is the 'embodiment of fadian culture and civilisation'. It then
    observes that the Indian People look upon Sanskrit as the binding force
H   for the different peoples of this great country, which was described as the
     SANTOSH KR. v. HUMAN RESOURCES DEV. [HANSARIA, J.]                    147

greatest discovery which the Commission made as it travelled from Kerala          A
to Kashmir and from Kamarupa to Saurastra. The Commission, while so
travelling, found that though the people of this country differed in a
number of ways, they all were proud to regard themselves as participants
in a common heritage; and that heritage emphatically is the heritage of
Sanskrit. According to the Commission one of the witnesses which ap-              B
peared before it went to the length of suggesting that if the Sanskrit
Commission had come before the States Reorganisation Commission, many
of the recent bickerings in our national life could have been avoided:
(Pages 80 and 81).

      19. Form what has been stated above, we entertain no doubt in our C
mind that teaching of Sanskrit alone as an elective subject can in no way
we regarded as against secularism. Indeed, our constitution requires giving
of fillip to Sanskrit because of what has been stated in Article 351, in
which while dealing with the duty of the Union to promote the spread of ·
Hindi it has been provided that it would draw, whenever necessary or D
desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit. Encouragement to
Sanskrit is also necessary because of it being one of the languages included
in the Eighth Schedule.

       20. We, therefore, conclude by saying that in view of importance of
Sanskrit for nurturing our cultural heritage, because of which even the           E
official education policy has highlighted the need of study of Sanskrit,
making of Sanskrit alone as an elective subject, while not conceding this
status to Arabic and/or Persian, would not in any way militate against the
basic tenet of secularism. There is thus no merit in the first objection raised
by the Board.
                                                                                  F
      21. In the aforesaid premises, we direct the Board to include Sanskrit
as an elective subject in the syllabus under consideration. Necessary
amendment in the syllabus shall be made within a period of three months
from today.
                                                                                  G
      22. The writ petitions are. allowed accordingly. No order as to costs.

T.NA.                                                       Petitions allowed.