While all the developed and developing countries of the world constantly endeavour to modernise and update their educational structures, we in India seem to have other ideas. When people in authority, whose every word is reported in the national (and international) press, both print and electronic, unabashedly make uneducated statements with a high degree of candour wherein claims are made about ancient India’s prowess in plastic/cosmetic surgery going to the extent of replacing a human head with that of an elephant and thus leading to the genesis of the elephant god, what signal does that give to our above average students Many an unsubstantiated statement has also been proffered about our expertise in stem cell biotechnology in days of yore. Are we attempting to move ahead in our educational sphere or taking retrograde steps Has anybody bothered to pause and gauge as to how our scientists, the objective ones at least, have cringed on being subjected to such “torture” Also, without batting an eyelid when tall claims are made that we flew aeroplanes before Isaac Newton had even time to spell the word gravity, where does that lead us We would not be far off the mark if we conclude that what is being witnessed is, undoubtedly, the politicisation of education. Before we proceed any further it may be quite appropriate to debate whether it is education that we are talking about or mere literacy of the pedestrian kind. Let us keep aside the “Degrees Controversy” that has engulfed the topmost political/ministerial offices in the country and persuade ourselves that we are indeed dealing with an “educated” class, though mere possession of degrees may not always lead to proper education.
Soon after the Emergency when the Janata Party came to power with a myriad of political components (the BJP was yet to be born and was in its erstwhile avatar of the Jana Sangh), one of the first things it did was to ban history text books brought out by the then respectable NCERT. These were the text books authored by highly respected left historians like Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, R.S. Sharma and Bipan Chandra. That was a highly loaded political decision taken in 1977. Have things changed and are any better today Events that are unfolding around us, both at the Centre and the various states, do not give us much encouragement to think positively in this realm. While there could be room to criticise some of the things that the Congress did while in power, to be fair, it has to be said that while there could have been a bias in selecting some of the academics in terms of their left leanings, those who were commissioned were academics with impeccable international reputations unlike the half-baked ones that the present dispensation has been bringing in; suffice to name just one, the Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research, Dr. Sudershan Rao, whose appointment was condemned in all sane academic quarters!
Looking at the educational scenario in different states, ruled by different political parties too does not enthuse us. Each party seems to have its own vested agenda of some sort. Rajasthan wants to do away with the Nehru legacy. By removing Nehru’s “Tryst with Destiny”, the state is hell bent not only in playing with historical events but is blind to the fact that it is indeed playing with the destiny of its own students! A party like the BJP which has hardly any stalwarts of international standing is on the one hand struggling to “adopt” and appropriate leaders whom it has at times in the past despised. For instance, Baba Saheb Ambedkar. On the other hand, it is trying to keep at a distance leaders like Nehru because followers of Nehru, in BJP’s thinking, can only be Congressmen, but adopting Ambedkar can bring in potential Dalit votes. Nor does the BJP have any compunctions in appropriating Kamaraj in order to ingratiate the Tamil society and thereby attempt to win a few votes in Tamil country.
Karnataka is making it mandatory for students of professional courses to study Kannada from the coming academic year. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and many other states have toyed with two- and three-language formulas and all these policies have made life difficult for the students. The idea of choice and option which should be the guiding force and facilitate students’ progress does not seem to have any priority in the way policies are formulated. The latent factor that goes into such jingoism and chauvinism is the insider vs outsider factor. Make things hard for those who have migrated into a state and keep them away from taking a share in the state’s cake. The son-of-the soil policy has wrought havoc not just in the sphere of education but has had an adverse effect in not enabling the migrants to have a degree of integration at their own pace and of their free will. Forcing things down the throats of people is not a civilised way to treat fellow-citizens.
The concerted efforts of our states should be towards improving the lot of our children through proper and balanced educational reforms. It is no secret that the various sectors and the industry feels that almost 90 percent of our graduates/postgraduates are unemployable! Those in the seventh/eighth standards are unable to handle maths of the third standard. Nor can they write proper sentences in any language. We should concentrate on improving the lot of these pupils rather than indulge in politicising education in so many different ways.
VOICES SPEAK OUT AGAINST POLITICISATION OF EDUCATION Professor G. Ravindran, Head, Journalism and Communication department, University of Madras We are still very feudal and medieval in our character. What happened during ancient times was there used to be a dominant ruler who wanted its subjects to fall in line. This seems to be the mindset of present day BJP as well.
Now newspapers are writing as to what happened in Rajasthan and two months back there was a controversy as to who was the architect of Modern India. It is to be expected in India because of the historical factor. But a government/ party that has been voted as the majority party has no right to re-write India’s history.
As an academician I have huge issues with projection of Nehru himself. There were so many freedom fighters and politicians - all those who gave their life for India’s freedom. The present discourse whether it is BJP or Congress I am not in favour of any of the parties because both have their dominant discourse as to who got freedom for India. This has been happening at the state and central level for a long time.
All these people don’t understand we can’t erase Nehru’s contribution to modern India whether they like it or not. We can tear Nehru’s books and destroy Nehru but can’t destroy the facts. There was a time there was also removal of English writers. This is nothing but Fundamentalism.
What BJP is doing is a kind of terrorism like that of Afghanistan Taliban who tried to destroy Buddhist history. Either they should stop talking on modernism and embrace fundamentalism. India has a collectivist and secular image, these activities must be read as a dangerous part.
India exists because of Muslims, Hindus, Jains and Christians. If we want India to exist in a pluralist manner we have to oppose what is happening. This has to be read outside the binary logic of BJP and Congress as these two parties are not the character of India. The party which has five years of mandate cannot re-write a history of 1,000 years.
P.B. Prince Rajendra babu, General Secretary, State Platform for Common School System, Tamil Nadu There is a big difference between what happened in Rajasthan and what happened in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu it's political vendetta. No historical fact has been removed. One or two government programmes, the credit for which they thought would go to the former CM Karunanidhi, were removed by the present government.
What has happened in Rajasthan was totally different, because they removed portions from Nehru's Discovery of India. The book introduces the evolution of mankind to a child. It’s not only Jawaharlal Nehru many Muslim scholars’ writings also removed. It’s out and out destroying the multi-cultural concept and introducing a uni-cultural one.
If they want to update the syllabus and bring in something new not taught till today in schools, they should have brought in discrimination in the name of caste and the kind of society we have. Now they are trying to glorify the Vedic religion in India. Celebrating diversity is the essence of Indian culture. If you bring the single religion, single culture then you are demolishing the concept of India. People belong to any religion can live safely in India and it is proved after the independence.
Updating syllabus is bringing in new scientific ideas, new discoveries and anthropological developments. But if you go and talk about only unscientific ideas like pushpak vimanas and warships in the ancient period then you are outdated.
In the new education policy, the central government wants to Sanskritise education. Instead of national integration, they are talking about cultural integration. It’s not a progressive step, but a regressive one.
Prof Arunan, Former Professor in Madurai Kamaraj University It is the plan of the RSS group to inject their own views into the minds of school students. Though many are okay with the act, it is felt that the RSS should be open to accepting others’ views as well. It is essential that the students are left to decide what opinion to accept and what not to and teachers should ensure that the students are given that freedom. That is the proper method of teaching.
Politicization of education is mostly seen in subjects like History and Sociology. Teachers and politicians fail to realise that without knowing the past, students will be unable to understand the present. The RSS is distorting history, a method I condemn. In the past as well, the Congress distorted history by trying to impose their views on the students. The only distinction was the different angles in which the distortion is taking place. We must oppose this act and encourage freedom for students. History should be taught according to the rules of historiography and not based on the politicians in power.
BITTER PILLS THAT CHILDREN HARDLY KNOW In Tamil Nadu, the political polarisation between the two main Dravidian parties is so sharp that changes in Government school textbooks often have to decry the achievements of a particular regime or deny the role/contributions of a particular leader when his/her political adversary is in power. The changes in contents in school textbooks, for instance, are so subtle that many are even hardly aware of it unless a reporter extensively covering the education beat stumbles by chance and goes to town with a good story. The additions and deletions from contents could range from the trivial to the unaesthetic categories. For Children in Government schools in particular, it is just consumption of information, without even having to know who is right or who is wrong as it is grades at the end of the course that matters. Or else, scholarships could be cut.
(The writer is professor of Eminence, department of Sociology/Social Work at Tezpur University)
