English has Sanskrit roots: Govt

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 2

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ today claimed the origin of English could be traced back to Sanskrit. The minister made the claim while introducing The Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2019, in Rajya Sabha amid din, as he said, “We can well assume that Sanskrit is the origin of many foreign languages, including English.”

To justify his contention, Pokhriyal said, “In Sanskrit, maa (mother) is called ‘matar’, which in English is addressed as mother. Similarly, in Sanskrit we say ‘bhatri’, which in English is called brother.” He went on to insist that there were more than a dozen languages in the world, which had Sanskrit words besides several of the Indian languages.

The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11 and was passed the following day. It is intended to convert three deemed-to-be Sanskrit universities into Central Sanskrit Universities.