Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the academic building of the Maharashtra National Law University at Nagpur on Wednesday (14 April), Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Bobde said that Babasaheb Ambedkar had prepared a proposal to make Sanskrit the official language of India.

“I was wondering in which language should I speak, Marathi or English. This dilemma has been witnessed in our country for a long time. I have seen this question cropping up frequently as to which language should the courts function in. We have High Courts with the official language as English and Hindi. Some want Tamil, some others want Telugu. I want to humbly submit that nobody is paying attention to this subject. Doctor Ambedkar, however, had anticipated this and had prepared a proposal. I don’t know if that proposal was tabled. It had signatures of some mullahs, pandits and priests and of Dr Ambedkar himself. The proposal was that the official language of the Union of India should be Sanskrit,” Justice Bobde said.

“Ambedkar was of the opinion that Tamil won’t be accepted in north India and Hindi won’t be accepted in south India. But Sanskrit won’t be opposed in either north India or south India. So, he had made this proposal which did not succeed,” he said.

Stating that Nyay Shastra, the ancient Indian jurisprudence, is not a bit inferior to the Aristotelian system, he said we should benefit from the genius of our ancestors. He also congratulated National Law University for introducing a course in Nyay Shastra in Sanskrit, reports The Indian Express.

“The Indian judiciary draws its jurisprudence from the Anglo-Saxon model which is based on Aristotelian and Persian logic. When I read about Nyay Shastra, I found that it is not a bit inferior to the Aristotelian system. I see no reason that we should forsake, overlook and not benefit from the genius of our ancestors,” said Justice Bobde.