The University should respond to a "well-felt need" among students and professors for a course in Hindi, Daniel H. Ingalls '36, Wales Professor of Sanskrit, said yesterday.
A sizable number of students in Anthropology, Government, and Indian studies have asked for a Hindi course, Ingalls stated. He agreed with John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, that such a course "is essential to an effective coverage of India."
At present no modern Indian language courses are offered at Harvard, although colleges such as Penn and Cornell have such courses. "With international commitments and connections growing, in ten years a knowledge of Hindi will be crucial," said Ingalls.
"The Russians have schools of Hindi," Ingalls warned. "If we don't take steps in that direction we might as well build up a wall around the United States and live inside of it."
Ingalls pointed out that Hindi is one of the "critical languages" eligible for federal matching funds provided under the National Defense Education Act if the University supplies half the funds.
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