The Hindu : Miscellaneous / This Day That Age : dated January 06,1955: Literary trend in country

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Thursday, Jan 06, 2005

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - This Day That Age

dated January 06,1955: Literary trend in country

Prime Minister Nehru said in Ahmedabad on January 5 that the people in India had definitely entered a hopeful period of creativeness. Performing the opening ceremony of the Gandhi Bhavan, the library of the Gujarat Vidyapith, established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, he said the rather long period characterised by lifeless and imitative work had passed and the country had commenced its march towards progress. "It is not only the achievement of Independence I am referring to, but I can see a creative urge among the people at large as observed in the changes in our literature, our art and in other aspects of life." Mr. Nehru said the state of the language of a people was an indication of the amount and nature of the progress made by them. Sanskrit was at one time a most powerful language depicting the high altitudes our people had reached. But three to four hundred years ago the language ceased to evoke the strength which it used to. A colourful sentence of ten lines could be written in Sanskrit but it was lifeless and imitative for, the people themselves had lost the creative urge. Referring to a number of "fruitless" controversies over language in the country, the Prime Minister said, "I do not understand why such controversies should arise at all. Ultimately, it is the language which decides its own fate. Unless a language has its roots among the masses, it cannot progress."

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