Hyphenating language and religion: Protests push Sanskrit back into shell

The popular perception of Sanskrit being a language of religion has only become more entrenched by the protests at BHU, writes Amrita Singh

The news first came in on November 5 as the students chatted away in their hostel room late in the evening. Someone told them that they would have a new professor joining their department from the next day.

The name of the professor, Feroz Khan, had the students intrigued. Khan, a 29-year-old Sanskrit teacher, had secured the highest marks among 60 candidates in the entrance test for the post of assistant professor in the Sanskrit department of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He was supposed to join on November 6 — that is, had the students let him.

“The idea of  learning