University of Kashmir’s Sanskrit department struggles to find students, remains defunct since 1990

Kashmir is known as adobe of well known sages like Sage Kashyap and it was also had famous institutes like Sharda temple (Sharda peeth). But today students from Kashmir are not interested in learning Sanskrit. Now it is duty of Hindus to unite together and establish Hindu Rashtra to change this situation ! – Editor, HJS

Srinagar : From outside, this two storey building at Hazratbal in Srinagar looks desolate. But there are four professors and six non-teaching staff working in there, focusing on a total of eight students. At a time when millions of students are jostling for admissions in colleges and universities across the country, the Sanskrit department of the University of Kashmir is still waiting for its first applicant for last two years.

“No student has filled the admission form this year, even though we don’t conduct entrance test for the course,” said an official of admission section at the university. That has been the story of this department ever since militancy erupted in the Valley in 1990, changing the social situation in the state overnight as Kashmiri Pandits fled in droves.

Started with fanfare in 1983, the department became defunct in 1990. With improving political situation, the department was revived in 2001, but it struggled to find students. Few students enrolled since 2001. In 2013, four students — all from Jammu — enrolled for the main Sanskrit MA course, which has a sanctioned capacity of 20 students But in 2014 and 2015 the department could not attract a single MA student.

“We are trying hard to create awareness about Sanskrit language, but things are not happening,” Prof Zohra Afzal, head of the department, told ET. Prof S Razdan, the senior most faculty member, has three books, six translation works and 26 research papers to her credit.

The department conducted several national and international conferences and workshops during 2007-12, attracting language luminaries and philosophers from across the world. However, it has not been able to attract students.

A technical reason could be that no college in the valley teaches Sanskrit language at the under graduate level. But then, Kashmir is seen as a home of Sanskrit language and literature.

Source : The Economic Times

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