Everyone studying Ayurveda doesn't know Sanskrit: Why BAMS students in Karnataka are protesting exam rules

Students pursuing Bachelors of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) under the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) in Karnataka protested inside the RGUHS campus in Bengaluru asking the university to go back to the old set of rules for examinations and the number of attempts awarded for clearing a paper. They said the current system of four attempts is unfair because two years are spent in just learning Sanskrit.

Students from around 22 colleges across the state came down to the university to protest against the rule that a student will have a maximum of four chances and an extra attempt on the VC's discretion to clear a particular paper. Without clearing that they cannot move on to the next level. Seems like a fair rule? But the students claim that a chunk of what they are taught is in Sanskrit and most of the students take two years to just learn the language.

The students said that the Registrar, along with a few other officials, met them and assured them that they too have written to the Ministry of AYUSH but haven't got a reply and that they do not have the jurisdiction to change such an ordinance. The university had clarified this in a previous letter as well. "We will be writing to the Ministry again and will also take our protest there if our demands are not met," said a student. "Most of us have no exposure to Sanskrit when we come for the course. While the text is in English, it uses Sanskrit terms and a major part of what is taught is in Sanskrit. There aren't any good translations that can help either," he added.

Students from various parts of the state came together for the protest. "We have come from across the state just for this. We haven't studied Sanskrit before and it takes us time to grasp the subject — almost two years are spent to understand the language. By then four of the chances have gone," added another student.