Gujarat University sees manifold increase in enrollment to vernacular studies

The School of Languages at Gujarat University has reasons to rejoice. Three of its departments witnessed a commendable increase in the number of students, as against the previous years. Until recently, it was on the verge of shrinking due to decreasing number of students. University officials credit their aggressive student outreach measures for admissions for the same.

Its Hindi Department — which had 13 and 7 students in 2015 and 2016, respectively — had 30 students enrolling in 2017. For Sanskrit, the number has increased from 13 in 2016 to 35 in 2017. A similar trend has been noticed for Gujarati, which saw 52 admissions in 2017 against 41 in 2016. However, the situation of Persian, Urdu, and Prakrit remains a concern.

Speaking about the same, professor Ranjana Argade, Director, School of Languages, said: "Two of our professors reached out to village students during their visits. Professor Bhanu Chaudhrai of the Hindi Department not only encouraged students to join the department, but also got some of them stay at her house. Spreading awareness on job opportunities has made people more hopeful towards taking uo language courses; they were apprised of job opportunities as translators, with city being declared a heritage city. Even professor Atul Unagar and Hetal Pandya took extra care to convince students."

On the dismal condition of Urdu and Persian, professor Argade said: "FD Arts Girls College has a post graduate course in these; so, many prefer sending their daughters there instead of GU. For them, location matters."

"For parents living in my area, they are not comfortable sending their children to far off places. Hence, I assured them of a hostel facility, which I believe is a big reason for the increased enrollment," said professor Chaudhari, from Navsari in south Gujarat. The university also recruited professors in Sanskrit and English, recently.

A year ago, the university was considering shifting some faculty posts to other departments, owing to the decreasing number of students in the five departments. MN Patel, the former vice chancellor, had told DNA: "Some of the departments of GU are in ruins, it's disheartening. This is the main reason we are planning to propose a tally of the number of students in each department against the number of faculty. For example, there are three professors in Hindi for 12 students, so we can easily shift one position to other departments in need."

The fate of ancient Indian languages:

Commenting on the increase in numbers of students at the School of Languages at GU, Ganesh Devy, Chairman, People's Linguistic Survey of India, said: "It is encouraging to see an increase in numbers, but one has to also see whether it is because there are scholarships or stipends available for the same or is it because of the job scenario.

Sanskrit is a very important language in world history and I do not regret teaching it. It is an obsolete language. You may wonder, why revive a language which our ancestors decided to give up 1000 years ago? Is it being revived to spread certain value systems or is it being done for the sake of knowledge. I don't know. When I see RSS and VHP promoting Manusmriti, I find it scary. If it is being taught to promote Brahminism, it is dangerous as it is also spreading a certain political agenda, that comes along with it. It makes no sense to divide the society and spread a particular political agenda. Also, why does no one promote tribal languages? It could help the children of the poor get a job.

On Prakrit and Pali, Devy said that there is a strong need to revive them, as these are "languages of the people" and have the tenets of Buddhism and Jainism etched in it. In the 80's, there was a sudden drop in the popularity of Prakrit and Pali and almost an entire generation missed remains ignorant of these languages."

To attract more students, the universities should introduce courses in digital humaniaties, new communication devices or methods, update their curriculum and offer bi-lingual education and only then will it be counted as real growth.