By Harsh Thakkar, PGPX-08
A native Gujarati speaker, I am passionate about keeping the embers of Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) alive among the young generation. My tryst with the language started when one of the PGPX students of the 2007-08 batch in 2008 invited a volunteer from Samskrita Bharati, a non-profit dedicated to promoting Sanskrit, to help a few of our batchmates speak in Sanskrit. Samskrita Bharati’s flagship program “Speak Sanskrit workshop” (सम्भाषणशिबिरम्), that teaches anyone basic conversational aspects in just 20 hours spread across 10 days, was instrumental to rekindle my love for Sanskrit.
Then, when I moved to Canada in 2009, I connected with a few volunteers of Samskrita Bharati’s USA chapter that kept the flame alive. After a few years of informal activity, I led the efforts to get Samskrita Bharati formally registered in 2014 and since then I lead the team of volunteers in Canada as the honorary President. Samskrita Bharati (Canada) is a non-profit registered with the mission of “promoting Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) as a spoken language” in Canada can boast of having the seeds sown on our esteemed institution’s new campus, thousands of kilometers away.
In 2024 when Samskrita Bharati celebrates 10th (Tin) anniversary of formal existence in Canada, I am reflecting on a few notable achievements of the organization over the past decade.
Through long drawn effort and advocacy that helped gather enough community support, we were instrumental in introducing Sanskrit as one of the international languages in several public School Boards (starting with Peel in 2016). As of 2024, four major district school boards within the Greater Toronto Area now have it being offered to Elementary school students. All these classes spread across a vast region are conducted by teachers who have been either volunteers or students trained by Samskrita Bharati, and they make learning of Sanskrit fun and engaging for the younger Canadian generation who might have their roots connected to India. To further support these families in their quest to not only keep the ancient language alive but thriving, Samskrita Bharati (Canada) designed “संस्कृतम् on Wheels”–world’s first Sanskrit mobile library— which was launched by Consulate General of India, Toronto in 2021.
With similar goal in mind, another creative project led by Samskrita Bharati (Canada) is Śrī-Satyanārāyaṇa-Kathā. A short animation movie based on it was released in April 2024 to promote ancient wisdom and literature in a fun filled manner that attracts screen-agers.
During the pandemic in 2020, Samskrita Bharati (Canada) led the collaboration with IIT-Roorkee’s Sanskrit club and sponsored their ‘TA-RG-ET’ संस्कृतम् (World’s First Sanskrit Hackathon) which was very well received. It also led to the start of an interesting open-source Project शतम् on GitHub where sponsors encourage developers globally to collaborate and create teaching aids, recreational games or edu-tainment tools to help both teachers and learners of Sanskrit using technology. The repository has so far garnered 150+ stars.
Apart from the above few unique and innovative big projects, there have been many more creative ways, Samskrita Bharati (Canada) team has been trying to fulfill its mission – be it by releasing ghaTI app on Google Play store (to learn how to say time in Sanskrit) -OR- through “Paint by ‘सङ्ख्या” book on Amazon (a coloring book by numbers in Sanskrit) -OR- 3-in-1 coloring and activity calendar.
With more newcomers from Bharat pouring into Canada these days, Samskrita Bharati (Canada) volunteers feel their work has just begun and they will have to ramp up their efforts to successfully meet the increased demand of those who want to speak Sanskrit in their daily lives. Despite of being in Canada, you often hear volunteers and students of Samskrita Bharati chant जयतु संस्कृतम् । जयतु भारतम् । (May Sanskirt win! May Bharat win!)
Harsh Thakkar works as Professor at Sheridan College (Canada). He lives in Toronto and can be reached at harsht@sbusa.org
