Does language have a voice?As Doordarshan (DD), India’s national public broadcaster readies to present a weekly news round-up of international events in Sanskrit from July 2015, the question that many people are asking is – what purpose will this serve.Must language serve a purpose? Is that purpose economic? Media reports say DD officials are studying the use of Sanskrit across India to come up with the most effective way of entering the news and current affairs arena with a half-hour telecast to be aired on weekends. The push from DD comes at a time when countries, universities, private organisations and entities around the world are trying to save languages as distinct from Amharic to Dzongkha, Macedonian to Tagalog and Shona from disappearing or being classified as a dead language.What is a dead language and who decides if a language is dead or alive? Is killing a language tantamount to killing a culture and in some cases decimating the people whose tongue it was like the original inhabitants of the Americas or Australia? English, French, Spanish and Portugese are languages of the conquerors who also wrote the first draft of their conquests which means the language of the powerful is also the language of money and economies. The conquests and crusades resulted in the extinction of several languages. Extinction happens when there are no more speakers of the language. This is not the same as a dead language.The latter occurs when a language is limited to medical, scientific or technical usage or for prayer. Avesta, the language of the Parsis in India is tilted towards this. Sanskrit falls into an interesting category because it is neither dead nor extinct and there are communities and villages in India that converse in the language. Millions of Indians pray in Sanskrit, but few understand what the words mean or the weightage granted to them.Sanskrit is among the few languages in the world which has a grammar and syntax that embraces sounds, calculations, rhythm and silence thus calling into play several faculties. There is a theory which suggests that music, science, mathematics and language skills are intertwined as if you speak three languages you can speak five, seven and nine. The closest any western language comes in grammar to Sanskrit is perhaps German but the two are vastly different in their usage. Germans speak German, the French speak French and the British would argue that the Americans do not speak English.Indians do not speak Sanskrit.The challenge before the DD programme is manifold, beginning with sustaining interest. There will be the polyglots who will tune in, but the viewership will be limited as happens with similar programmes in other parts of the world where. For example, Romansch is Switzerland’s fourth language after German, French and Italian, but its presence and currency is limited. It is a descendant of Latin which was spoken in the Roman Empire.What would be truly engaging and worthwhile is to see if Sanskrit versions of Indian history are available, how they perceive the world and their commentary on contemporary affairs. Doordarshan has just set itself a difficult task.