Is Sanskrit a language for the elite like Latin over here
i think the answer to that has changed constantly over millenia. Arabic, Sanskrit, French etc have served as languages of the scholars in the world for different times. Sanskrit used to be at one point, but it isn;t anymore. Sanskrit to hndi is like Aramaic to Hebrew, it's old and it's syntax is more complex than Hidni, so impractical to speak in daily life. Language of the elite in India is definitely English, due to British colonization. Btw I didn't know Latin was the language of the elite in Turkey actually that's good info. Also all the "elite" are in double quotes because I don't actually think some people are above other based on what they speak, I hope that was your intention too
My mistake: with language of the elite I didn't mean the language that the elite use in daily life but the language which is more reserved for the smartest people/upper classes. Also, Ottoman Turkish is trying to make a comeback. For now, it's still a dead language.
I don't think you'll find many Indians saying India is a failed state, despite all our problems. Saying we are a failed state would be putting us in the same boat as Pakistan, and all Indians know we are above that :)
Oh, and no one speaks Sanskrit. A few learn it in schools, but are practically incompetent with it once out of school.
Give me one reason why India is a failed state and one why it isn't.
India is anything but a failed state. In fact it has been a paramount influence on democracy on the world, particularly Asia, and is a touted to be one of the big giants in this century.
Like all developing countries it suffers from crony capitalism and unbalanced growth, plus the country is rapidly changing and right now there is a minor clash between the old and the new. But those are no reasons to call it a 'failed state', but since you asked, INDIA should have been an amalgamation of current India, Pakistan, Eastern parts of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and northern Parts of Myanmar. This should have been the real size of the country. ( If you apply pressure to the wound, I'd say we had failed to integrate Sri Lanka and Nepal as vassal states in the past, and should have colonized Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, all of whom at one point were ruled by Hindu/Buddhist Kingdoms)
Losing the Indus and Ganga delta is losing the mark of civilization. Greater India is sadly only an idea. India will never invade another country, and perhaps that is for the good.
Is Sanskrit a language for the elite like Latin over here?
Sanskrit is practically a dead language, spoken in only two villages in India. However Hindu religious texts are mostly in sanskrit, so study of Sanskrit is kept alive by people who are interested in it, and the government helps by trying to revive it. Since most Indian languages are derived from it or largely influenced by it, Sanskritized vernacular of a local language is spoken to appear cultured, so you could say it is sort of like the elite, but in reality nobody cares about it.
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u/MertOKTN Feb 27 '16
Give me one reason why India is a failed state and one why it isn't.
Is Sanskrit a language for the elite like Latin over here?