Need of Sanskrit Clusters in Higher education to attain IKS goals of NEP 2020

Abstract

The latest link in the series of education policies in India, the National Education Policy 2020 is
distinguished by several features. One of the most prominent projects in it is the promotion and
promotion of Indian Knowledge Systems. Its biggest users and beneficiaries are going to be those
dealing with Sanskrit in higher education in India. But under the current university structure there
are many obstacles to accomplishing this. R&D activities in Indian Knowledge Systems require
equitable resource allocation, structured and pre-defined guidelines and mechanisms. The
teachers and students studying in the colleges under the universities of the states who are not
ready to cooperate with this project due to social and political reasons will have to face severe
neglect and injustice because of this. As an alternative to this, the method of forming Sanskrit
clusters and assigning research in the branches of knowledge to each cluster taking into account
the local characteristics can be tried. This way it will be possible to transform such clusters into
powerful centres of Indian science. This article examines the need for these Sanskrit clusters, their
formation and functioning

Keywords

NEP 2020, IKS, Indian Knowledge Systems, Sanskrit Higher Education, Sanskrit University, Sanskrit
Departments, IKS Projects, NEP implementation, Sanskrit Cluster

Introduction

India has the oldest and most extensive chapters in the history of education in the world.
Successive foreign invasions shook the foundations of India's education system. In India,
which introduced the world to a comprehensive education program that touches all levels
of life, the change in the field of education after the said attacks has caused many
problems. The English system of education introduced by the British to achieve political
and religious goals has greatly corrupted India's unique education system. Even if there
has been a big leap in science and technology in India after independence, it cannot be said
that it is due to the changes in the education system. The said boom has also happened in
other countries of the world where there was no British rule through the global exchange
of intellectual and cultural wisdom. But the price India had to pay for the
post-independence educational reform was huge. Blindly believing the British version that
all Indian branches of knowledge were uncivilised and unscientific, so-called creative
educationists largely excluded them from public education without any checks. Therefore
Bharath had to exercise many commissions during half a century to make up for the
shortages that occurred and heights of development to be attained.

Former commissions and policies1

1
History of Education policy in India, Epgpathsala
The first Commission to be appointed in independent India was the University Education
Commission of 1948, under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, to report on the
status of Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions that
would be desirable to suit the present and future requirements of the country. The
Secondary Education Commission was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. A.
Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar in 1952. The Commission submitted its report to the
Government in 1953. The report gave a broader view about the educational problems of
Indians and proposed to increase e ciency of production. In 1968 the Government of
India had formulated the National Policy on Education, in response to the
recommendations of the Kothari Commission. The National Policy on Education sought
‘total reformation’ and aimed at extending the prospects of education to all sections of
the society to accomplish the goal of harmony and integration. The Draft National Policy
on Education – 1979 proposed the development of an educational system that helped
people not only to enhance their knowledge but also academic skills. It also called for
building awareness of morals and ethics among students so that they can develop a good
personality and become worthy citizens. Then Government of India initiated the National
Policy on Education in 1986. Its major objective was to provide education to all sections of
society, with a particular focus on scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward
classes and women, who were deprived of educational opportunities for centuries. Again
the government had set up a commission under the chairmanship of Acharaya Ramamurti
in 1990 to reassess the impact of the provisions National Policy on Education and also to
give recommendations. Later, under the leadership of N. Janadhana Reddy the Central
Advisory Board of Education was set up. This stressed on promotion of development and
strengthening national integration. NEP 2020 comes as the latest in this series.
K.Kasturirangan is the chairman of NEP 2020.

IKS Initiatives in NEP 2020

IKS stands for Indian Knowledge Systems. NEP 2020 emphasises the propagation of
Indigenous systems of knowledge into academic as well as social and industrial sectors.
Centuries of slavery have caused the lack of awareness on local streams of knowledge in
various branches. True independence is enjoyed only then, while we stand straight in our
own economy designed and built with indigenous streams of wisdom. Therefore Bharath
has to rediscover its vibrant tradition of knowledge which was once the hope and light of
the whole world. The very peculiarity of IKS is its practicality in all streams. Bharath has
never sprouted out a branch of knowledge which can never turn into practical. Therefore
each system has a skill factor in it. Skill is the key-mantra of successful implementation of
each system. Creativity, wisdom and skill set should simultaneously go on.
Indian knowledge systems are multi and interdisciplinary in nature and structure.
Therefore learning a single subject of IKS only will not be beneficial. IKS subjects are to be
collaborated to any subject and discipline which are eligible to research and develop
shoulder to shoulder. Indian astronomy is a vibrant IKS division to be learned with modern
physics, astronomy, space science and mathematics. Vastusastra is another one which can
be collaborated with civil engineering and architecture. Indian theatre is very much
beneficial to literary and visual science subjects. Ayurveda, Yoga and Siddha demand no
explanation for the relevance nowadays. Hence IKS has plenty of research sectors to
establish in the academic scenario of our nation. NEP 2020 furnishes a number of
opportunities to embrace IKS subjects in various disciplines.

IKS and Sanskrit

IKS initiatives are inevitably dependent on Sanskrit language. Apart from some regional
practices and tribal knowledge systems included in IKS, most divisions are coded in
Sanskrit. In fact, most of the tribal and regional practices have deep roots in source
subjects, of which authentic texts are composed in Sanskrit. The system and structure of
Sanskrit language make it a repository of countless ideas and conveyor of great treasure
of knowledge. Relying on standard translations of Sanskrit texts not only results in
incomplete understanding of the concepts but also often leads to misunderstandings.
When we translate technical,philosophical and scientific texts written in Sanskrit based on
dictionaries built by the western scholars on the framework of the English language,
many conceptual conflicts occur. Although the process of word-sense awareness in
Sanskrit is extremely complex, it is easy, accurate and error-free for a person who has
learned the language in its own system. The study of Sanskrit language is absolutely
necessary for the study and research of texts and sciences written in any regional
language as other Indian languages have grown and developed around this one structure
of Sanskrit language.The study of Sanskrit language is absolutely necessary for the study
and research of texts and sciences written in any regional language as other Indian
languages have grown and developed around this one structure of Sanskrit language.
Therefore IKS has an important role to propagate and develop Sanskrit learning and
learning centres in India.

Core challenges of Sanskrit in Higher Education sector of India

Bharath has eighteen Sanskrit Universities, a number of Sanskrit Colleges and Sanskrit
departments in a liated arts and science colleges for the propagation of Sanskrit.
Several Deemed to be universities have turned into central universities in the recent past.
Most of them have passed through traditional subjects taught almost in the traditional
way of Sanskrit teaching. Since the basics of each discipline in Sanskrit demands such a
pedagogy, an interdisciplinary approach was adopted only in fewer sections like Natural
Language Processing in Sanskrit etc. Most of the specialised subjects in Sanskrit like
Nyaya, Vedanta, Jyothisha, Sahithya etc. have to set the time aside for acquiring thorough
knowledge in them. When skill as well as OBE oriented education took place, this pedagogy
was forced to change its framework and it had to break the rules of conventional Sanskrit
teaching. Those who have not yet coped with this change are in academic numbness. But
it is not right to blame such institutions, since most of them don't have a free and
autonomous academic structure. Those who enjoy such a freedom have started their
experiments in the field of Sanskrit and Indology in many aspects. They are getting more
funds and financial support from government and other sources to pursue their
developments in academics. Self-financing institutions might have commenced their trials
to withstand this situation. Many of them have started new UG or PG programmes in the
modern stream to attract students.2

Openings in various employment sectors are the main attraction for every academic
programme. Unfortunately Sanskrit is dependent mainly on the occupations in the
teaching community of the education sector. This happens because Sanskrit is only seen
as a mere language. Though Sanskrit gets importance in the three-language formula in
NEP 2020, this cannot fulfil the placement requirements of all students passing out from
all institutions of India. All the new programmes designed by various institutions are not
recognised by other universities and government agencies, hence students enrolled and
completed su er later for higher studies and placements. Research in designing new
curriculum and pedagogy of new interdisciplinary programmes have not yet attained its
fueling to rise from the launchpad. Central Sanskrit Universities are playing the main role
as nodal agencies for the propagation of Sanskrit with various schemes for the past
several years. In fact, some vague ideas are spreading across the academic community as
IKS projects. Many faculty members in institutions approach these research projects like
regular projects done in the past. Highly politicised communities are the forces that pull
back. Mere programmes like seminars, workshops, symposiums etc. in general topics of
sanskrit literature will hardly help to answer the questions raised in new conditions and
developments. In this age where technology has almost completely taken over, it is
unethical to rely solely on traditional subjects. Therefore, in this technology-dependent
society, research needs to be launched with precise plans to find out the areas where it
cannot penetrate and the areas damaged by its excessive e ect and to identify the areas
where the Indian scientific tradition can work to achieve its positive e ect. Therefore a
clear and precise plan and design for the research and development of IKS should be taken
place as soon as possible.

Sanskrit Clusters for IKS initiatives

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Ministry of Education, Govt. of India has released a competitive research proposal
programme3 for 2023 which includes seven main themes of research. They are
Mathematics and Astronomy, Sustainable agriculture and food preservation, New
universal sociological models based on emic perspective, IKS approaches for management
of water resources, weather and rainfall predictions, IKS approaches to psychology,
cognition, and consciousness, Evidence based music and dance interventions and their
relevance in contemporary world and Pashuayurveda based approaches. Individual
research projects either as single or joined are preferred in this project. As a part of
promotion of interdisciplinary approach researchers from any discipline are eligible to
apply for the same. Since the habit of cliche projects of old times unwittingly influences
researchers, the goal set gets unachieved. Therefore the situation demands clusters of
Sanskrit to work institutions and faculty together for attaining a prescribed mission.

There are various reasons that force us to think seriously about Sanskrit clusters. Central
Sanskrit university is the nodal agency of important projects on Sanskrit. They have their
own campuses and learning centres in various parts of the nation. Accordingly they get
more financial support for the proposals. But, institutions a liated to other universities
get limited funds for the projects and they complete them somehow in the midst of other
duties that help the R&D in Sanskrit in no way. The value and importance of such
institutions cannot be neglected, forgotten or omitted in the work for the propagation
and survival of Sanskrit in higher education. Still students and faculty in such institutions
su er too much distinction in the opportunities to excel in Sanskrit in their academic life.
The ability of the Central Universities to conduct various academic and allied programs in
Sanskrit makes them the conduits for the students to avail themselves of various
opportunities. They have autonomy to decide,design and deliver new things for the
students. Most commonly a shortage of funds will not be a hazard for them. As a result
students in other a liated institutions are side-lined.

A cluster system can resolve this issue by embracing the departments in other
institutions either under the jurisdiction of the Central University or on a zonal
classification basis. This will ensure the participation of all guest institutions in the
academic activities of CSUs. Clusters will accelerate the active research and development
of IKS in institutions. Scholars and faculty with genuine research aptitude and interest are
not located in any single institution. They are scattered and hardly collaborated. There are
many more administrative and academic headaches enough to eliminate the research
desires in each faculty member in the department. Therefore a cluster can manage
themselves by faculty and student exchanges for filling up the gaps formed in maintaining
a balanced academic scenario in institutions. Use of IT including LMS will help to reduce

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the heaviness of academic responsibilities and that will help them to share su cient time
with R&D in IKS divisions.

As discussed above, such a modest and ideal research rarely takes place in IKS because of
the lack of perfect proposals. Perfect proposals rarely happen because of the lack of
identification of real and relevant research gaps.Such lack of recognition of productive
research gaps is due to lack of broad understanding of various disciplines and fixation on
single topic isolations as well as alienation of the tools of social science research methods.
Since IKS system is a borderless confluence of various disciplines, it is possible to solve the
above-mentioned deficiencies to a large extent.

But just like a seed will germinate, grow and spread into a tree only under favourable
conditions, if the right research projects take place and develop e ectively in the research
areas formed by the IKS project, the conditions for that should also be created in the
institutions. Creating research areas, inviting projects and disbursing funds alone will be a
fruitless exercise like sowing apt seeds without knowing the soil. Keeping some static core
areas of research at all times is also an exercise which cannot be recommended. There are
di erent needs and opportunities for every discipline in geographically specific sectors
across the nation. IKS research topics will have di erent needs and opportunities from
time to time in each place marked by geographical and social characteristics across the
country. It is also part of research ethics to recognize them and encourage research only
on topics that should be encouraged in their respective places and times. On the contrary,
if the same topics are reserved for everyone without taking into account the di erences
in time and place, the quality and value of the research will be negatively a ected. It is
also a matter of fact that IKS subjects, with their omnivorous characteristics, find
qualitative or empirical connections with modern disciplines beyond the prescribed and
given areas. A survey within the cluster to identify the true research gap is inevitable to
state the relevance of the work. All these things will get applied only while establishing
IKS research through clusters of Sanskrit. Conventional system of employing a P.I and
some Co.P.Is should be replaced with a research team of equal responsibility including
members irrespective of subject di erentiations. Each team should be trained to identify
the research gap that will ensure the success of the research they are assigned to. IKS
system should decide the disciplines which are mandatorily to be employed in an
approved proposal. All such research projects should be primarily benefiting the
geographical border of the cluster and secondarily to the broader community. Then only
the team can test, finalise and ensure the fruitfulness of the goal they achieved.

Conclusion
A cluster of Sanskrit will help both academic and public community to establish a healthy
relationship with IKS disciplines which is directly perceivable. A preoccupation with purely
conceptual and theoretical research often overlooks an essential reconciliation between
academics who enjoy public resources for research and the common people who deserve
the direct benefit of every drop of their sweat. This awareness can only be achieved if
research is raised to be a public responsibility rather than just an individual or an
individual organisational responsibility. Clusters of Sanskrit can extend countless services
to the IKS research and academic community by sharing the resources and opportunities
with other institutions irrespective of level, discipline and sector, identifying the needs
and gap for R&D in each fields of corresponding cluster by collaborated surveys, usage of
research methodology interdisciplinarily to achieve multifaceted fruitfulness of the work
etc. Moreover the most highlighted feature of NEP 2020, the borderless common
education community will have its e ective prototype in these clusters.

Works Cited

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2. “IKS 2023: Delving into the Living Traditions of Sanskrit | IITGN News.” IITGN News,

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3. Patel, Prof.Sujata, et al. “HISTORY OF EDUCATION POLICY IN INDIA.” e-PG Pathshala,

Inflibnet,

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/M013097/ET/145258955205ET.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2023.

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https://www.ugc.gov.in/pdfnews/3226446_Draft-Guidelines-for-Incorporating-Indi

an-Knowledge-System-in-Higher-Education-Curricula.pdf. Accessed 24 July 2023.

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