JUDGMENT

HANSARIA, J. :- A Professor of Cambridge University is deeply engrossed in his studies in his calm 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 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 states that he is contributing to that culture. The soldier calms down and bows in respect to the Professor 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 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 is high esteem the cultural heritage of this ancient land . And 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 untenable 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 learning of Arabic and Persian -these being also classical languages, which is the ground advanced by Additional 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 along with Assamese, Bengali etc., Which are the languages specified in the Eighth 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 Additional Solicitor General that the Board feels that arrangement may have then to be made for imparting education even in Lepcha, a language whose name many of the Indians 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 the youths of this country "in whose hands 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.

5. The question raised being important requires us to answer it appropriately, to first know what our policy makers 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?

Our Education Policy Qua Sanskrit

6. Being called upon to decide whether Sanskrit is required to be included in the syllabus of the Board as an elective subject so far as teaching in secondary school is concerned, may we 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 Unnikrishnans case, (1993) 1 SCC 645, in which the majority 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 th