Chinese and Indian students walk in a procession with a dragon mask during Chinese New Year celebrations in Kolkata, India in February. Photo: IC

The ancient city of Varanasi in northern India, famed for its temples, dreadlocked, ash-smeared holy men, and mammoth bulls wandering freely in and out of shops, once had students flocking in to learn the even more ancient language of Sanskrit. Today, however, they have other interests.

With China becoming India's largest trade partner and the two governments seeking to raise bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015, businessmen, professionals and the youths in India are now keen to master Chinese, the language spoken by more than one-fifth of the world.

One such person is Sushil Kumar, who left his family home in Gaya, a small town in eastern India, to learn Chinese at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, the second oldest university in India to teach the language.

"A senior student told me about the benefits of learning Chinese," Kumar told the Global Times. "If I can master it, I can get a job as an interpreter or tour guide."

Kunda Kumar, his classmate, is an avid watcher of Chinese martial arts movies and a Jackie Chan fan to boot.

"I have a diploma in tourism management," the 20-year-old from Bhagalpur town in eastern India says. "If I add Chinese to that, I can get a good job in the tourism sector."

Career-minded

"Interest in Chinese language and culture is increasing as students grow more conscious about careers," adds Aditi Jha, one of the three professors at the Chinese language department. "After graduation, almost all our students get jobs in different companies and educational institutions.

"In fact, we are now getting fewer students for our master's course as most get jobs after completing graduation."

The first Chinese language course was introduced to modern India by none other than Asia's first Nobel laureate in literature, Rabindranath Tagore.

After visiting China in the 1920s, Tagore founded the Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal province with the vision of it becoming a meeting place of nations to exchange thoughts.

Cheena Bhavan, the Chinese department, was started in 1937, thanks to the efforts of Professor Tan Yunshan, a Chinese scholar in Singapore, who raised funds from China.

Abhijit Banerjee, head of Cheena Bhavan, says with growing Chinese investment in India, more and more Chinese companies are setting up bases in the subcontinent, creating a growing demand for interpreters.

"Students these days want ensured jobs when they graduate," Banerjee told the Global Times. "And they feel they have a readymade career if they learn Chinese."

Cheena Bhavan has an educational and cultural cooperation agreement with China's Yunnan University, which provides two Chinese teachers to augment the eight-member local staff.

Growing popularity

Some of the best known universities in India teach Chinese, as do a host of private language schools in major metros. Business associations have introduced Chinese courses and from 2011, the Central Board of Secondary Education announced Chinese would be offered as a third language from the sixth grade.

Zhongwen Xuexiao, the school of Chinese language in Kolkata, was started as a labor of love by Madan Saraff, an Indian businessman who was overwhelmed by his first trip to China in 1978.

The 67-year-old found that the two countries were separated by an ocean of "un-understanding" as they could not comprehend each other's language.

Saraff opened the school in 2008 with the support of the then Chinese consul-general in Kolkata, Mao Siwei.

Today, there are about 80 students. A retired railway official is the oldest student at 68 while the youngest is 13.

"Indian students are mature and intelligent," says Xu Shuai, a 25-year-old teacher from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. However, his students are the first to jokingly contradict him.

"Being a tonal language, Chinese is difficult," says Charisma Saraff, the vice-principal of the school and also a senior student. "If you pronounce 'ma' in one way, it means mother. Pronounce it another way and it means horse. If I am not careful, I can turn my mom into a horse."

The 34-year-old began learning Chinese in order to better field admission queries.

"We get so many questions about our courses from prospective students that I felt I had to undergo the experience myself," she says. "Only then could I give them honest feedback and benefits of learning Chinese."

This year, Zhongwen Xuexiao introduced a kids' course for 9- and 10-year-olds. The students are mostly children of people who do business in China.

Tapan Biswas, the 68-year-old student, has two reasons for learning Chinese.

"I know another European language besides English as I was posted in Germany for some years," he says. "It's good to look eastwards now."

In the past, Biswas says Indians used to head for Europe and the US for higher education and good jobs. But in the last four years, the focus has shifted with China becoming the second largest economy in the world.

While many students learn Chinese with a career in mind, many are also interested in Chinese culture, literature and cuisine.