Applause for Cricket, Silence for Badminton

Mumbai: When Lakshya Sen walked off the court after the final of the All England Badminton Championships, he carried with him the disappointment of another near miss. The Indian shuttler went down in straight games to Lin Chun-Yi, who created history by becoming the first player from Chinese Taipei to lift the prestigious title. But the story of Lakshya Sen’s defeat is not merely about badminton final. It is also about the contrasting way India celebrates its sporting heroes. Had the same...

min read

Applause for Cricket, Silence for Badminton

Mumbai: When Lakshya Sen walked off the court after the final of the All England Badminton Championships, he carried with him the disappointment of another near miss. The Indian shuttler went down in straight games to Lin Chun-Yi, who created history by becoming the first player from Chinese Taipei to lift the prestigious title. But the story of Lakshya Sen’s defeat is not merely about badminton final. It is also about the contrasting way India celebrates its sporting heroes. Had the same narrative unfolded on a cricket field, the reaction would have been dramatically different. In cricket, even defeat often becomes a story of heroism. A hard-fought loss by the Indian team can dominate television debates, fill newspaper columns and trend across social media for days. A player who narrowly misses a milestone is still hailed for his fighting spirit. The nation rallies around its cricketers not only in victory but also in defeat. The narrative quickly shifts from the result to the effort -- the resilience shown, the fight put up, the promise of future triumph. This emotional investment is one of the reasons cricket enjoys unparalleled popularity in India. It has built a culture where players become household names and their performances, good or bad, become part of the national conversation. Badminton Fights Contrast that with what happens in sports like badminton. Reaching the final of the All England Championships is a monumental achievement. The tournament is widely considered badminton’s equivalent of Wimbledon in prestige and tradition. Only the very best players manage to reach its final stages, and doing it twice speaks volumes about Lakshya Sen’s ability and consistency. Yet the reaction in India remained largely subdued. There were congratulatory posts, some headlines acknowledging the effort and brief discussions among badminton enthusiasts. But the level of national engagement never quite matched the magnitude of the achievement. In a cricketing context, reaching such a stage would have triggered days of celebration and analysis. In badminton, it often becomes just another sports update. Long Wait India’s wait for an All England champion continues. The last Indian to win the title was Pullela Gopichand in 2001. Before him, Prakash Padukone had scripted history in 1980. These victories remain among the most significant milestones in Indian badminton. And yet, unlike cricketing triumphs that are frequently revisited and celebrated, such achievements rarely stay in the mainstream sporting conversation for long. Lakshya Sen’s journey to the final should ideally have been viewed as a continuation of that legacy, a reminder that India still possesses the talent to challenge the world’s best in badminton. Instead, it risks fading quickly from public memory. Visibility Gap The difference ultimately comes down to visibility and cultural investment. Cricket in India is not merely a sport; it is an ecosystem built over decades through media attention, sponsorship, and mass emotional attachment. Individual sports, on the other hand, often rely on momentary bursts of recognition, usually during Olympic years or when a medal is won. But consistent performers like Lakshya Sen rarely receive the sustained spotlight that their achievements deserve. This disparity can also influence the next generation. Young athletes are naturally drawn to sports where success brings recognition, financial stability and national fame. When one sport monopolises the spotlight, others struggle to build similar appeal. Beyond Result Lakshya Sen may have finished runner-up again, but his performance at the All England Championship is a reminder that India continues to produce world-class athletes in disciplines beyond cricket. The real issue is not that cricket receives immense attention -- it deserves the admiration it gets. The concern is that athletes from other sports often do not receive comparable appreciation for achievements that are equally significant in their own arenas. If India aspires to become a truly global sporting nation, its applause must grow broader. Sporting pride cannot remain confined to one field. Because somewhere on a badminton court, an athlete like Lakshya Sen is fighting just as hard for the country’s colours as any cricketer on a packed stadium pitch. The only difference is how loudly the nation chooses to cheer.

‘Shabda Shala’, a new Sanskrit dictionary is in the making

Abhijit Mulye
Dec 29, 2025
5 min read

Shreesh Deopujari is national communications head of Samskrit Bharati, an organisation devoted to preservation, popularisation and propagation of Sanskrit language. In an exclusive interaction with Abhijit Mulye, the Political Editor of ‘The Perfect Voice’, he puts forth a broad canvas of various activities the organisation has taken up to make Sanskrit - the ancient language of knowledge - Jnana Bhasha, which also is the carrier of our culture, a common people's language - Jana Bhasha. Excerpts…

Q. What is the practical use of learning Sanskrit?

Learning to speak Sanskrit has several benefits on different levels. There are general benefits like development in skills with speech and memory etc. But one of the new found benefits is very peculiar. Having Sanskrit as one of the major subjects and being able to converse in Sanskrit helps students crack UPSC exams easily. This is the reason why we get several UPSC aspirants as students in our conversational Sanskrit courses. Also, since these courses are being conducted for a long time we now have many Sanskrit babies - who have been learning to converse in Sanskrit from their parents since childhood. I recently met such an engineering graduate girl at Bengaluru. Such babies reinforce the feeling that Sanskrit would soon be the people's language.

Q. What is the timeline for achieving this goal?

Efforts to take teaching and learning Sanskrit to the mass scale are going on. But, that in itself won't achieve the goal. The real goal will be achieved when speaking Sanskrit would lead people to learning Shastras and leading one's life as expected by the Shastras. For example, one who has learnt Sanskrit scripts and understood or imbibed how women are revered in our culture, would not dare cause any crimes against women. So, the ultimate aim is 'Vishva Kalyan' and the instrument for that is Sanskrit. Currently, if we consider taking Sanskrit to all as the first step, we hope to achieve it by the centenary of India's independence i.e. by 2047.

Q. What is the tool to achieve this goal?

We firmly believe that languages can be best learnt by speaking. Emphasis on grammar drives people away from learning languages. Our tool for teaching people to speak Sanskrit is Samvada Shala. In April 2025 we conducted 1008 Samvada Shalas or Sanskrit Speaking camps in Delhi alone. Over 25,000 people participate in it. That was a special drive. But otherwise it is a very regular activity. It's a fortnightly camp where one can learn to speak Sanskrit fluently, naturally and correctly. It's an activity-based learning process. Extensive practice is key to the success of this program.

At Samvada Shala Sanskrit is learnt through Sanskrit without using any other language as medium of instruction. A Russian student had once attended the course. He knew neither English nor Hindi, which are generally the communication languages among the students. But this didn't prevent him from learning Sanskrit. He learnt quickly.

Similar 10-day Sambhashana Shibirs (conversational Sanskrit camp) are organised at various places. Between March 2025 and February 2025 a total number of 107 such camps were organised across India.

Q. What are the other activities of Samskrit Bharati?

Apart from converational Sanskrit classes Samskrit Bharati runs Sanskrit Vidyalayas where advanced knowledge of the language is imparted typically over a span of 4-5 years. Correspondence courses to learn Sanskrit too are being run. They are available in 11 Indian languages and have courses that run for four semesters. Shlokas and Subhashitas are the beauty of Sanskrit language. Hence, we also run Shloka Pathan Kendras, where people are taught how to recite various shlokas. Shloka recitation helps build memory and do away with defects in speech. We also train Sanskrit teachers. Our teachers are more effective as they get to learn teaching methods in an atmosphere charged with Sanskrit based lifestyle.

We have trained over 10 million people to speak Sanskrit through 1,20,000 Sambhashan shibirs till date. Over 1,35,000 Sanskrit teachers trained to teach in medium of Sanskrit and over 6000 homes have identified themselves as Samskrit-Homes with our inspiration.

Apart from these we run Geeta Kendras and Bala Kendras where we teach recitation of Bhagawat geeta to all and various shlokas, songs, prayers etc. to school students respectively. We actively reach out to over 25,000 new persons every year through all these activities.

Sanskrit Bharati currently has presence in almost 80 per cent districts in India except Mizoram and 17 countries of the world other than Bharat like the USA, Canada, UK, Kenya and Mauritius, all Gulf countries except Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia.

Q. But, Sanskrit had been known as a Jnana Bhasha - language of knowledge since ages. What are the efforts in that direction?

Process of becoming a language of knowledge begins with formation of glossary of words that have the ability of expressing knowledge across various words across the variety of domains of knowledge. The Samskrit Bharati is currently working on one such project. Next comes the application of these words. for that work is being carried out in 17 Universities across India. The central government had put forth a goal to make available all the professional courses in all the Indian languages. Sanskrit is one of these languages and books are being written in Sanskrit.

The union government has developed a software titled Anuvadini for making translations across all the Indian languages easy. Samskrit Bharati is one of the partners in this endeavour also. While previously the software for translations used words from the pair languages, the new approach brought in by Samskrit Bharati uses readymade sentences. This will help reduce time in machine translation. Books in Sanskrit made using this technique are expected to be ready within three years.

Similarly Sanskrit Bharati had been involved in NCERT's project to write books on Indian history of Science. Most of the work has been completed and the books are also out in the market. While working on this project an idea came forth to teach science in Sanskrit. A project is currently being developed at Varanasi where such an activity would be undertaken. Finding scientists who also know Sanskrit is a challenge, but we are sure we will overcome it.

Q. NEP lays a great deal of thrust on Indian languages. What role Samskrit Bharati had in that?

Samskrit Bharati had been involved in policy discussions on NEP since its draft level and integration of workbooks in textbooks is one of the major suggestions that we insisted on. The NEP also warrants making available all the text books in all Indian languages. That practically means Sanskrit becoming a medium of instruction. Hence, we are running a project named Shabda Shala. A new dictionary will come soon having such words. We all know that Sanskrit language has got the tremendous capability to coin new words. Therefore, there is no need to accept the current English terminology within Sanskrit or any Bharatiya language.

Q. Tell us about how Samskrit Bharati is embracing new technology.

Majority of the Sanskrit learning students are from the mainstream of education. They learn English and Computer Science as a subject as well as Sanskrit. Few students learn in traditional schools called Pathshalas or Gurukuls. Those are also learning computer and English. For example, Ved Vijnan Gurukul at Chennanhalli near Bengaluru has students who can give a presentation in English as well as Sanskrit with the help of PPT.

Samskrit Bharati has its website and several of our programs have independent mobile applications. So, new technology is not alien to Sanskrit Bharati. We have published more than 300 books, CD's, DVDs. The language used in those books and teaching material is very simple and hence easy to understand. The books are attractive and are cheaper as compared to any other language books. We even organised a World Sanskrit Book Fair in 2011 at Bengaluru. It was a grand success. Inspired from that we also organised a Sahityotsava at Ujjain in 2013.

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