Resources for all concerned with culture of authoritarianism in society, banalisation of communalism, (also chauvinism, parochialism and identity politics) rise of the far right in India (and with occasional information on other countries of South Asia and beyond)
Sainik
Schools, run under the Defence Ministry’s guidance, send cadets to
India’s armed forces. The new initiative however relies on ideologically
slanted organisations to train future cadets
RSS pracharak as 'professor of practice' under national scheme
Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan
Nyas is a self-appointed adviser to the government on curriculum reforms
and has suggested the teaching of 'Vedic mathematics' at schools, among
other recommendations
Basant Kumar MohantyNew Delhi
Published 31.03.24, 05:49 AM
Central University of Himachal Pradesh
www.cuhimachal.ac.in
The Central University of Himachal Pradesh has decided to appoint an RSS pracharak
as “professor of practice” under a national scheme that relaxes the
requirements of academic degrees and publications for these posts.
Atul Kothari, national secretary of the
Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, will be professor of practice in Hindu
studies. The Nyas is a self-appointed adviser to the government on
curriculum reforms and has suggested the teaching of “Vedic mathematics”
at schools, among other recommendations.
Education for Hindu
Rashtra: UGC-NCERT’s on Rightwing Drive
Ram
Puniyani
As the
ruling party BJP is close to completing two terms in office, its impact on most
of the institutions is more than obvious. While ED-IT-CBI have played their
role in cornering the opposition parties, Election Commission at times has
played a partisan role, the UGC and NCERT are not far behind in changing the
educational pattern to suit the political ideology of the ruling Government.
At one
level the New Education Policy is out to change the whole pattern and structure
of our educational system. On a regular basis new instructions are being sent
to induct the Hindu nationalist sentiments and ethos for the students. One
recalls that when this Government was trying to intimidate and undermine the
student movements and protests, these activities were labeled as anti National
and the then MHRD Minister Smriti Irani came up with the idea of installing a
tall pole in each University to hoist the national flag. The idea was also
floated to put a military tank in JNU in particular, where the vocal students
were articulating on various issues which went against the grain of thinking of
the ruling Government.
Recently a
few more circulars have been issued. One is that students should be made to
participate in the year long celebrations of the birth Centenary year of
Dattaji Didolkar. Didlkar was RSS Pracharak, who set up the Akhil Bhartiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). This cult building exercise for a Hindu Nationalist
is particularly meant for colleges in Maharashtra. Is UGC right in promoting
the celebration of figures from Hindu Nationalist stable? The figures who
should be promoted are surely those who stood for Indian Nationalism or fought
against British colonial rule. Mr. Didolkar, being a part of RSS, was never
part of neither freedom struggle nor he stood for the values enshrined in
Indian Constitution.
The other
circular is asking for setting up of ‘Selfi points’ with the backdrop of Prime
minister, Modi. Such a step is being taken surely with the 2024 elections in
mind. This is an idea, which has no place in a democratic country. It is a
deliberate propaganda for a leader belonging to one party and its supreme
leader. It violates the ethos of democracy for sure! Such blatant violation of
democratic and constitutional values; is a gross abuse of power by the ruling
party.
Topping it
all has come the instruction that for students between 7to 12 standard Ramayan
and Mahabharat should be taught as a part of history, (Times of India, 22nd November).
As per the expert Panel of NCERT, this will bring self esteem, patriotism and
pride in the Nation! These two great epics of India are definitely a part of
our mythology. They do represent the social norms of the times when
they were written. One can learn a lot about those times from these epics.
Ramayan
amongst these is extremely popular not only in India but also in different
countries of Asia like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bali, Sumatra etc. Interestingly it
has many versions. Originally written by Valmiki, later it was made more
popular by Goswami Tulsidas, who rendered it in popular Avadhi. It became part
of popular culture from 16th Century onwards in Northern parts
India. Interestingly there are many versions of Lord Ram Story. The version
being promoted by Hindu nationalists is one among many. The book by Richa
Paulman, “Many Ramayans’ (OUP) deals with the diverse version of Lord Ram
Story. On similar lines A.K.Ramnujan wrote an essay, ‘300 Ramayans: Five
Examples and Three Thoughts on translation’. This remarkable essay was part of
Delhi University curriculum till the ABVP protested and this was removed from
the syllabus.
The Hindu
nationalists want a particular version of Lord Ram’s story to be projected.
Ramanujan in his essay tells us the diverse telling of the story, Jain version,
Buddha version, Women’s version (by Rangnayakmma of Andhra). Adivasi Ramayan
has yet again a different story line. Ambedkar wrote ‘Riddles of Hinduism’ and
drew our attention to Ram killing Shambuk as he was performing penance, and as
Shudra’s were not permitted such a thing he was done to death by the Lord
Himself. Ram also kiiled Bali from behind, Bali is a king revered by backward
castes, who chant:’Eida Pida Javo: Baliche Rajya Yevo’ (Let our pains
go: Let Bali’s return as a King). Ambedkar is very critical of Ram banishing
Sita to forest on the suspicion of fidelity. Periyar is also critical of Lord
Ram for imposing the North Indian Aryanism on the Dravidas. The real history is
mired in some vague understanding while the great epic gives us a valuable
insight into that time.
Similarly
Mahabharat, composed by Maharishi Ved Vyas is the longest poem ever composed,
gives us a valuable glimpse of those times. They are important sources of
historical knowledge. To put them in the syllabus as history is a different
idea altogether. It is linked more to the Hindu nationalist agenda than
unraveling the truth of history.
In
addition, among many other moves by the panel; is to instruct the name India
with Bharat on the ground that India denotes slavery, as the word was given by
the British. They deliberately want to suppress the fact the variations of word
India are prevalent from the times much before the British came here. As early
as BCE 303, Megasthanese had called it Indica. The derivatives from river
Sindhu have been in vogue from early times. ‘Bharat that is India’ is the
perfect formulation outlined in our Constitution. But in tune with Hindu
Nationalist Agenda they are not comfortable with the word India. Lastly they
want to re-periodize Indian history. The early period of Indian history, which
the British called as Hindu period, they want to call it ‘Classic Period’. The
idea is to present the values of that period as the baseline for our society.
And these values, outlined in Manusmriti were the precise one’s which made
Ambedkar rebel against and to burn this book.
UGC-NCERT
are totally being guided by the Hindu Nationalist agenda, totally in contrast
to the values of Indian Constitution.
In India, Hindutva Schools Are Indoctrinating Poor Children
In rural India, private
schools run by the Ekal Foundation provide access to education – but
force children to imbibe divisive teachings that preach Hindu
superiority.
Shammi Shukla teaches Hindu hymns to students, sitting beside photos of Hindu deities in Mishrikh, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Credit: Tarushi Aswani
On a scorching afternoon in Mishrikh, a remote village in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, children are gearing upto
go to Ekal Vidyalaya. Most children who attend these schools wear
tattered clothes and hand-me-down slippers, and carry half-broken and
half-chewed pencils.
The
school is part of the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation (EVF), which claims that
it aims to ensure children in rural India get access to education.
These one-teacher schools are free and offer vocational classes
alongside literacy to children aged five to 14 from any caste or
religion.
However, the curriculum is firmly rooted in Hindu nationalism.
As
children trail behind each other, they can be seen entering a local
Hindu temple in their village, where they obediently sit on the floor,
which exhales the heat of the sun. Facing a table with photos of Hindu
deities neatly placed with the support of incense sticks, children focus
all their attention toward the deities.
Shammi Shukla,
the teacher at this makeshift school strictly goes by the book. She
makes sure that all children, irrespective of their religion, are made
to chant Hindu prayers and mantras. “We need to learn who the Adharmis (unrighteous) are and only Hinduism can teach us that,” Shukla said.
This alternate school where Shukla teaches is called Ekal Vidyalaya, meaning
a school that belong to the EVF, a U.S.-based organization that sets up
private, single-teacher schools in rural India. This concept was
conceived in 1986 in India’s Jharkhand; in 1989, Shyam Gupta, a senior
member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu paramilitary
organization, stepped in to take over the campaign for Ekal Foundation.
The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA was established in 2002. This branch is the primary campaigner for the donations that are received to run schools in India.
Another
radical Hindu organization responsible for attacks on Muslims and
Christians – the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) – has boasted of its
involvement with the EVF. The VHP’s website states that the launch of
the EVF of USA was among “some of the major contributions made by VHP of America.”
Classes
at Ekal include a mix of children from all spheres of village life:
Hindu upper castes, lower castes, tribals, and Muslims. As of March
2023, Uttar Pradesh housed 17,188 Ekal schools, where more than 519,301 students
were enrolled. Students from the ages of five to 14 attend these
schools, which provide free non-formal and vocational education.
Shukla, the teacher at the local Ekal school in Mishrikh, feels
that Ekals are significantly different from mainstream schools due to
their syllabus, which binds together nationalism and Hinduism.
During its investigation, TheDiplomat met with Mahender
Yadav, the supervisor of Ekal schools in Sitapur district. Yadav, a
staunch Hindu, is not shy about proclaiming the Hindu nationalist
agenda.
“Muslims and
Christians need to be shown their rightful place in society, they can
either accept Hindu supremacy or convert to Hinduism. Ekal prepares
children to identify enemies of Hinduism at an early stage,” he told The
Diplomat.
Under Yadav, 430 Ekal schools and institutions are able to further their agenda of radicalizing students.
Yadav
also shared with The Diplomat a textbook that the teachers follow. Upon
even a cursory glance, the reader can glean that the book has doctored
stories about how Muslims forcefully convert Hindus to Islam – a
narrative that has been pushed since years by radical Hindu
organizations in India.
During
the lessons that The Diplomat attended at a dozen Ekal schools across
Uttar Pradesh, children were being made to correlate the Hindu goddesses
to the idea of India as motherland. Teachers at Ekal schools are clear:
for them there is no separation between Hinduism and nationalism.
Hindu
students display the textbooks that they received from the Ekal
Vidyalaya Foundation in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh. Photo by Tarushi Aswani
Harnessing Hate
At
the same Ekal school, Nikhil Shukla, a 15-year-old student, is an
energetic young man who chooses to wear the color saffron, purely
because the color is considered holy in Hinduism. Shukla, inspired by
his teacher’s understanding of Hinduism, has recently joined the Bajrang
Dal, a Hindu nationalist militant organization.
“Hindu religion is being attacked across India, we need to fight to save it,” Shukla proclaimed.
Despite being just 15, Ekal has motivated Shukla to join a Hindu militant organization responsible for vandalism at churches and mosques,
the murders of several Muslims, and furthering a demand to economically
boycott Muslims so as to kill their mode of livelihoods across India.
Owing
to the anti-minority harassment, for the the last four years, the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has
recommended that India be designated a “Country of Particular Concern,”a category of governments performing poorly on religious freedom criteria.
The Diplomat also spoke to two
senior officials in the Uttar Pradesh Department of Basic Education
regarding the functioning of the Ekal schools. Both officials denied
having any information about these schools and their operations. The
officials also confirmed that these schools are not affiliated with
their department.
Instead, these schools are funded by individual donations and through foundations, including one that was registered with authorities in the United Kingdom until 2020, one in Canada, and one in the United States. According to 990 tax documents, over the last decade, the Ekal Foundation of USA sent over $60 million to its sister organization Ekal Abhiyan in India to run Ekal schools.
In 2009, a report issued by India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development
found that the “training to the teachers of Ekal schools was mainly to
spread communal disharmony in the communities and also to inculcate a
fundamentalist political ideology… creating enmity amongst communities
on the basis of religion.”
Yet,
these U.S.-funded schools are allowed to exist in India and those with
limited resources are being lured to send their children to these
schools.
Students learn using computers at an EVF center in Naimisharanya, Uttar Pradesh. Photo by Tarushi Aswani
Poverty and Propaganda
At another school, in Sitapur district’s Naimisharanya village, 30 students await their teacher, Lakshmi Kumari.
As
students learned math inside a brick room, Lakhan Pal waited for his
daughter, who is a student at this school. Pal, a daily wage laborer at a
construction site, said, “I earn $5 a day on good days, so free schools
like Ekal are a good option for my daughter, I don’t have to spend on
her education then.”
Meethi
and Pinky Kumari, two 4-year-olds, also attend the Ekal. While they
barely understand anything beyond their ABCs and 123s, their mother
Pooja, a recently widowed, unemployed woman sends them there because she
is unable to send them to a public or private school.
Pooja,
a Hindu, who chooses to stay indoors since the death of her husband,
has no agency to earn money for her daughters and herself. Since her
in-laws and parents have mandated her to not venture into the village,
Ekal Vidyalaya is the only place where her daughters can learn.
“I
don’t earn and the family is not willing to invest in the education of
two girls. Government schools are subsidized, but I don’t have any way
even to afford basics such as uniforms, books, and transportation,”
Pooja lamented.
The Ekal school is not only free, but provides amenities many of the rural residents can only dream of –
such as access to a computer lab, a luxury in a village that is barely
electrified. That serves as a potent attraction, drawing students into
receiving the Hindu nationalist teachings on offer.
Nidhi Maurya stands in front of Muslim students at an Ekal Vidyalaya in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh. Photo by Tarushi Aswani.
Sitting
100 kilometers away from Naimisharanya is a Muslim-dominated district,
Bahraich. In another Ekal school, Nidhi Maurya in Bahraich’s Gulra
village has accomplished a task that has fetched her admiration from her
superiors: during her eight-month tenure, Maurya has made Muslim
children into Hindu-prayer-reciting students.
Maurya beamed at the sight of the Muslim girls sitting near her feet. “These Muslim girls know three Hindu prayers – the Gayatri Mantra, the SaraswatiVandana and Pratah Kaal prayer – by heart,” she boasted.
On
being asked why the Muslim girls were being sent to Hindu schools where
the goal of the syllabus is to glorify Hinduism and demean others, a
Muslim girl named Muskan told The Diplomat, “This school is free, our
parents send us here to learn whatever little we can.”
The Muslim students at Maurya’s school are essentially being made to give up Islam in order to gain a free education.
Filling
the gaps in access to education, Ekal is a unique model. While
providing decentralized, non-formal education, it mandates that its
students to follow and believe in Hindutva, a radicalized form of
Hinduism, by making it a part of the compulsory curriculum. Students
across Ekal schools are being made to believe that being Hindu equates
to being more “Indian” than following another religion.
While
the schools may be free for individual families, they do come at a
steep cost for society: deepening communal divisions and further
marginalizing hundreds of millions of non-Hindu Indians.
APPEAL FOR ENDORSEMENTS: OPEN LETTER TO MP CM ON COMMUNALISATION OF EDUCATION
Dear all,
Please find below an Open Appeal to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, urging him to STOP COMMUNALIZATION OF EDUCATION in the state and allow Ganga Jamuna H.S. School, Damoh to function properly.
Do click the link below to read the full Appeal and sign.
Please endorse before 6 pm on 31st July. Circulate widely.
In solidarity,
Parents, Teachers, Organizations and social activists from Madhya Pradesh.
हस्ताक्षर के लिए अपील: मध्य प्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री को खुला पत्र: शिक्षा का सांप्रदायिकरण रोके:
साथियों,
मध्य प्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री से की गई एक खुली अपील नीचे देखें, जिसमें उनसे राज्य में शिक्षा का सांप्रदायिकरण रोकने और दमोह में गंगा जमुना हायर सेकन्डरी स्कूल को काम करने की अनुमति देने के लिए आग्रह है।
पूरी अपील पढ़ने और हस्ताक्षर करने के लिए नीचे दिए गए लिंक पर क्लिक करें।
कृप्या 31 जुलाई को शाम 6 बजे से पहले हस्ताक्षर करके, समर्थन करें। इस अपील को व्यापक रूप से प्रसारित करें|
एकजुटता में,
मध्य प्रदेश के अभिभावक, विद्यार्थी, संगठन एवं सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता
Communal Textbooks, Teachers Who Brought Down Babri: How RSS Schools Create Hindutva Foot Soldiers
Vidya
Bharati schools across the country use false claims, cultural
indoctrination and consistent anti-Muslim rhetoric to instil Hindutva
ideology in young minds.
New Delhi:
It was time. Everything was ready for the biggest function in the
school – a grand stage, a hall decorated with magnificent lighting, jam
packed audience seats, and high-profile chief guests: Union minister
D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi and several
ministers from Karnataka.
Data points to falling Muslim enrolment. This level of absolute decline has not happened in the recent past for any group
Written by Christophe Jaffrelot , Kalaiyarasan A
The Sachar Committee Report (SCR) submitted in 2006 showed that the condition of Muslims in education was comparable to, or even worse than, the country’s most backward communities.
The recently released All India Survey on Higher Education 2020–21 shows some contrasting trends. On the one hand, enrollment of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs in higher education has increased by 4.2 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 4 per cent respectively compared to 2019-20. The upper castes, whose share in enrollment had been declining with the implementation of Mandal II since the late 2000s but who have come back with the highest growth rate of 13.6 per cent. On the other hand, the enrollment of Muslim students dropped by 8 per cent from 2019-20 – that is, by 1,79,147 students. This level of absolute decline has never happened in the recent past for any group.
UP accounts for 36 per cent of that total decline followed by Jammu and Kashmir, which accounts for 26 per cent, then Maharashtra (8.5 per cent), Tamil Nadu (8.1 per cent), Gujarat (6.1 per cent), Bihar (5.7 per cent) and Karnataka (3.7 per cent). Except in Tamil Nadu, Muslims alone witnessed an absolute decline in their enrollment. While the states that have a larger share of the Muslim population account for the higher share of decline, small states too show similar trends. For instance, between 2019-20 — 2020-21, Delhi lost about 20 per cent of its Muslim students while J&K lost about 36 per cent.
If OBCs constitute about 36 per cent of total enrollment in higher education, Dalits 14.2 per cent and Adivasis 5.8 per cent, Muslims stand at the bottom at 4.6 per cent when they represent about 15 per cent of society.
The Sachar Committee Report (SCR) submitted in 2006 showed that the condition of Muslims in education was comparable to, or even worse than, the country’s most backward communities. Their marginalisation, since then, has deepened. Initially, Muslims were slightly above Dalits. But Dalits overtook Muslims in education in 2017-18 and in 2020-21, it was the turn of the Adivasis.
If we strictly follow the age cohort 18-23, the PLFS data confirms this trend. Muslims do even worse than Dalits and Adivasis. According to this source, only about 19 per cent are currently attending higher education institutions, as against 21 per cent among Adivasis, 26 per cent among Dalits, 34 per cent Hindu OBCs and 45 per cent Hindu upper castes. Among major states, in 2020-21 in no state did Muslims do better than Dalits except in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi. Advasis do better than Muslims in many states such as Rajasthan, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
Being the most populated state, UP pulls down the national average. Muslims, who account for about 20 per cent of the state’s population, have just 4.5 per cent of total enrollment. UP alone witnessed the dropout of 58,365 Muslim students from 2019-20 — a decline of 16 per cent. If UP illustrates the story of the deepening deprivation of Muslims, Kerala offers a story of upward mobility. Kerala has not only seen positive growth in enrolment, it also tops in the percentage of Muslim youth (43 per cent) who are currently attending higher education. The century-old positive discrimination in favour of Muslims has helped the community to build educational capital in the state.
Muslims in Kerala enjoy 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and 12 per cent in educational institutions. After Ezhavas (14 per cent), Muslims form the largest population who also claim a large share of quota in the state’s OBC list.
While the sources of marginalisation began much before, what is new is the acceleration of such marginalisation in recent times. How can this be explained? A few factors might have played a key role in the context of rising Hindu majoritarianism.
First, the future is bleak as job opportunities have been shrinking for Muslims even more than for others — they face the highest unemployment rate among socio-religious groups. The percentage of regular/salaried workers who did not report work during the reference week for Muslims rose from 1.6 per cent in 2018-19 to 13.2 per cent in 2019-20. This data is partly a reflection of some discrimination in the job market – an old trend that has been documented by surveys: You send the same CV with Brahmin names, Dalit names and Muslim names, and the percentage of those invited to an interview is the lowest in the case of the latter.
Second, in such a bleak context, one may not have enough money for studying and may, on the contrary, need to work to make a living. Hence, the high dropout rate among Muslim youth who continue with the kind of manual work and low-paying self-employment the community is known for, such as weaving and car repair.
Third, increased violence against Muslims has restricted their spatial mobility and has forced them to withdraw into their shells, a development evident from the ongoing process of ghettoisation in almost all Indian cities.
In this context, the only reasonable policy for the government, as the Sachar Committee Report and (even more) the Mishra Report recommended, would be to initiate positive discrimination in favour of Muslims — something some southern states have done successfully. On the contrary, the state support for Muslims has come down. Karnataka which had been providing Muslims a sub-quota — 4 per cent within the OBC quota — was scrapped recently by the BJP government. The Ministry of Minority Affairs has stopped the Maulana Azad Fellowship — dedicated to pursuing higher education — for minority students from 2022-23.
Where else have we seen a constant policy of discrimination vis-à-vis a vulnerable minority targeting their access to higher education? Only in countries where the intention was to manufacture second-class citizens. And there it worked, but never resulted in harmonious development.
Jaffrelot is senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s India Institute, London. Kalaiyarasan is assistant professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai
Sachar Committee which was
appointed by UPA I in 2005 released its report in 2006. It observed that the
condition of Muslim community in all areas of social and political life has
been sliding down. Faced with the insecurity due to violence against them, its
representation in social-political life has been going down for a free fall.
UPA in all its wisdom decided to work on this nagging social political issue.
One of the steps taken by it was institution of Maualana Azad National
Fellowship. This was meant for higher education and research for the minority
students. It had provisions for scholars from all religious minorities, Muslims,
Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhist. Still as the number of Muslim minority
is much higher from among the 1000 fellowships lately 733 were awarded to
Muslims.
Among
Muslims the status of education worsened after Independence due to the
intimidating atmosphere, poverty and lack of any affirmative action. As the
level of education went up the number of Muslim students enrolled fell down
steeply. Above 17 years of age educational attainment of Muslim students is
abysmally low. As per Ministry of education data the national average for
Matriculation is 17% for Muslims while the national average is 22%. The literacy
rate stands at 57.3% as against the national average of 73.4%. The overall
illiteracy among Muslims is higher than among other religious minorities.
Similarly their enrollment in higher echelons of education and research is much
lower. This is where MANF came in as a small boost for higher education among
Muslims. As against 14.2% of their population only 5.5% Muslims reach higher
education. As per 2011 census data
Graduates among Hindus were 5.98 and amongst Muslims was 2.76%.
On similar lines Pre Matric
scholarship for Muslims has been restricted only to 9th and 10th
standard students only. The pre-matric scholarship was launched in 2008 and was
definitely of great help to Muslim students in secondary education. Even at
that time with Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat argued in Supreme Court that
Center cannot force Gujarat to implement it as it is based on Religion! The
central contribution for the scheme was returned by the Gujarat state. In tune
with this the Central Government has now restricted the scope of Pre Matric
scholarship only to 9th and 10th standard students as per
a notification in November 2022.
The MANF has been stopped from
this December as per proclamation by the minority’s affairs minter Ms Smriti Irani
on 8th December 2022. There have been protests against this high
handed policy of the Government and many Congress and other MPs have also
raised the issue in Parliament. The argument of Ms Irani is that this scheme
overlaps with other similar schemes for which Muslims students are entitled,
the ones for OBCs. She forgets that one cannot get two scholarships at the same
time.
As
per research scholar Abdulla Khan (Muslim Mirror) “The enrollment of Muslims in
higher education, as per All India Survey on Higher Education Reports (AISHE)
(conducted by MHRD, GOI) revealed that the representation in higher
education has also been lowest from other communities such as SCs, STs and
OBCs…”
It
is very clear that the present Government is out to undo whatever little
affirmative action directed ‘Equal Opportunity’ exists. At political level we
have witnessed the communal forces targeting the Muslim minorities in different
ways. We have recently witnessed the angle of love Jihad being highlighted in
cases like Shraddha-Aftab. This is being projected in communal angle while the
core reason is anti women violence in our patriarchal society. We have witnesses
many such cases of violence against women by Hindu men being underplayed with a
political agenda.
Undoubtedly
education is the key to social progress for any community. The Saeed Mirza
classic ‘Salim Langade pe Mat ro’ brought this forward in a very perceptive
way. The recent survey conducted by Mumbai based human rights group, Bebak
Collective’ points out that Muslim youth are suffering due to social conditions
prevailing currently,
Unfortunately
in India the dominance of divisive politics has affected the lives of Muslim
minorities in diverse ways. Even when not in power they put immense pressure on
semi secular parties not to undertake any affirmative action in favor of Muslim
and Christian minorities in particular. With new education policy and ruthless
privatization of education, the poor and marginalized will be the big victims.
The
ruling party has a majority in the parliament and the opposition to such
decisions of the Government is not going to change its pro-elite and
anti-Minority stance. The powerful electoral machinery of the divisive party is
going to come in the way of a coalition at center which can undertake the
issues of marginalized sections in a sensitive way. Still a way has to be
thought of as to how in prevalent adverse circumstances how to pull out the
intimidated community from being left behind in the march to progress for a
healthy society with concern for all sections of society, irrespective of their
religion, caste and language.
The
present Government has a different agenda. Those who have been behind ‘Youth
for Equality’ type movements cannot understand the values of affirmative action
or ‘Equal opportunity’ in an unequal society. The minority community will
recall with pain the attack on Jamia and AMU students. On parallel grounds when
the same Ms Irani was MHRD minster we painfully witnessed the plight of Dalits
in the form of suicide of Rohith Vemula.
So
where do we go from here? Can Muslim community philanthropes, those controlling
Waqf and other community resources come forward to fill the massive gap left by
the withdrawal of MANF or restricting pre-matric scholarship only to 9th
and 10 standard students. It’s a tall order but it has to be done if the demand
for reversal of these orders by the Government are not yielded to by the ruling
Government, which at present is out to implant its anti Minority agenda with
full force. The students in the middle of their higher education and those
aspiring for such education need to be helped in all the ways possible.
*O*n a windy Tuesday afternoon in May 2022, loud howls erupted from a house
in Adaichani, a village in southern Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. The
sound led villagers to the home of Sundar Rajan, a 40-something man who was
in a fit of rage: in one hand, he held his 16-year-old son’s collar, and in
another, he had a small shovel. The son cried and begged to be let go. The
women in the neighbouring houses hurriedly called the police stationed in
their village to calm the angry father down.
The neighbours explained to me that the father was furious because he had
found out that his son had gone to the village temple festival, despite
being directed to stay at home. Things were not normal outside. “Being out
during this time is not safe for us, that is why the father was angry,” a
neighbour explained. “We have to be on guard at all times.”
The villagers belong to the Scheduled Caste community of Arunthathiyars.
Eleven days earlier, a Class 11 student from the village, who belonged to
the community, had been in a fight with a Class 12 student from another
village, who was from the Thevar caste, an Other Backward Classes
community. The Class 12 student, Selva Surya, had later died, allegedly
from injuries that he suffered in the fight.
The incident had occurred at the Pallakkal Podhukodi Government Higher
Secondary school, a kilometre away from the village. The region was already
tense, and this incident had made it even more so. The police had, in fact,
been stationed at the village to prevent any clashes that could break out
between the two communities.
“Now that they have lost a son, they will be determined to take one of
ours,” said Karpagam, a resident of Adaichani, who goes by one name. “So we
are asking high school students in the village to stay home and not step
out.”
Karpagam’s son missed his Class 11 exam that morning. He had been sent away
to a relative’s house for his safety. He, too, was a student of the school
where the incident had occurred. Karpagam and her husband have decided not
to let their son return to the same school the next academic year. Instead,
they plan to send him to another school, somewhere far away, where he will
be safe.
* “It’s okay if his studies are affected, his life is more important,” she
said.*
Some other parents in the village also shared these fears and said they
were considering moving their children to different schools.
The fight between the two students had erupted over a caste thread. These
caste threads, or bands, are worn around the wrist by people in some
districts of Tamil Nadu, and are particularly common in southern districts
like Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Tenkasi. Some caste communities in these
districts have their own flags, and caste threads reflect the colours of
these flags.
“It was the upper castes who used to wear these bands,” said AK Manikumar,
a retired professor of history, who has studied and written on caste riots
and caste politics in the state. “It wasn’t a practice among the OBC and
Scheduled Castes. But slowly, the OBC castes also began to emulate the
upper castes by wearing these threads.” In this region, he said, it was the
Thevar community that first began to display them – over the last two
decades, other communities also began to develop their own symbols.
“It was gradual,” said Marimuthu Bharathan, a Dalit rights activist in the
region. First, caste associations designed their own flags, which would be
displayed on streets to mark the entry into areas where that caste was
predominant. “Then, young people began to wear vests in the colour of these
flags,” Bharathan said, adding that the vests sometimes had caste names
printed on them. “They would wear the vest under their uniform, so it would
be easy to identify who was who. Then they came up with *bottus*” –
decorative dots on the forehead – “and caste threads in the same colours,”
he said.
These caste markers “are a way to hold on to the identity and to the past,”
said Karthick Ram Manoharan, a scholar from the University of Wolverhampton
and author of a book on Periyar. “It isn’t even about superiority, it is
just a way to show they are ‘different’ from other castes.”
Bharathan said that he had noticed young people, especially students,
wearing these threads from the late 2000s onwards. But members of Scheduled
Castes started to sport the threads only in the last ten years, he added.
“Subaltern assertion is vital in a political democracy,” said Vignesh KR, a
doctoral scholar from King’s College London who researches Tamil Nadu
politics, caste and democracy. He observed that the success of the
Dravidian and anti-caste movement have in different ways helped ensure
access to education for Scheduled Caste students, which resulted in a
newfound confidence, and a desire to assert caste identity.
*“The fact that Scheduled Caste students are also wearing the thread is
unsettling the OBC students, who feel that the caste thread is exclusive to
them,” he said.*
Some accounts suggest this tension was the root of the Adaichani incident.
Salim Amir, the father of a student in the school who was friends with the
Scheduled Caste student, said his son had told him that Surya had been
harassing the Scheduled Caste student for some time over his caste thread.
He had allegedly demanded that the Scheduled Caste student remove his
thread because he belonged to a lower caste. (The names of the Class 11
student, other students accused in the incident, and their families, are
being withheld because the Juvenile Justice Act prohibits the disclosure of
any identifying information of juveniles accused in crimes.)
Francis L, the deputy superintendent of police of Tirunelveli, told
*Scroll.in *that teachers from the school had previously called Surya’s
parents, “complaining that he was causing communal issues”. But he had not
heard anything specific about Surya targeting the Scheduled Caste student.
On the day of the incident, Amir said, Surya had allegedly picked a fight
with the Scheduled Caste student during their lunch interval, and his son
and another Muslim student tried to defend him. “They were friends since
class six,” he said, of his son and the Scheduled Caste student.
According to Amir, Surya’s friends also joined in the fight. In the course
of the fight, Amir said, the Scheduled Caste student allegedly threw a
stone at Surya, which hit his head. Amir’s son returned home that evening
with a wound on his head, and told his parents that “he could not stand by
while his friend was being beaten up”.
Meanwhile, Surya was taken to a hospital, where “the doctors stitched up
the wound instead of doing a scan,” Surya’s mother said. The family found
out the next day that he had internal bleeding. Five days later, he passed
away. His family alleged that delayed medical attention and
irresponsibility on the part of the school resulted in Surya’s death.
Police arrested the Scheduled Caste student and the two Muslim students on
murder charges. School authorities declined to comment for this story.
Surya’s family has a different version of the events that preceded the
incident. They told *Scroll.in* that Surya had only asked the accused
student to remove his thread because the school had prohibited it. The
police are still investigating the incident.
Currently, the Scheduled Caste student and two Muslim students are in a
juvenile home.
*“One life has been lost and another three hang in the balance,” said
Vargis Rani, a social worker who works with the Arunthatiyar community.*
After the student’s death, police seized caste threads from shops and
warned students against wearing them. Since exams were on, they threatened
to disallow students from attending them if they arrived wearing the
threads. “They just cut it with a scissor before we enter,” a school
student said.
*N*early a century has passed since EV Ramasamy, better known as Periyar,
founded Tamil Nadu’s self-respect movement in 1925, aimed at dismantling
the caste system. At that time, Brahmins occupied most positions of power
in the state, then known as the Madras Presidency.
According to the 1916 “non-Brahmin manifesto” of the South Indian People’s
Association, in one provincial civil service exam, “15 out of the 16
successful candidates were Brahmins” although “not less than 40 out of 41
and a half million, who form the population of this presidency, are
non-Brahmins”.
In 1927, Madras Presidency became the first province in India to implement
reservations in government jobs. That legacy endures till this day: Tamil
Nadu reserves 69% of seats in government educational institutions and
government jobs for disadvantaged communities, higher than any other state.
It ranks among the top in the country in terms of development indices, for
which many credit its reservation policy.
Periyar, the philosopher and social activist, subsequently went on to lead
the Justice Party, the parent of Tamil Nadu’s two major political parties,
the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam. Governance in Tamil Nadu has historically been guided by his work
and thinking, and leaders have strived to provide equitable access for
communities that were ranked among the lowest in the caste system.
But even in this relatively progressive environment, caste tensions surface
frequently. While formal political power may have moved away from Brahmins,
it has come to be concentrated in Other Backward Classes, a diverse
category marked by wide disparities. In recent years, social and economic
change has further created a churn, helping Dalit communities progress, but
making groups in the lower end of the spectrum of OBCs grow resentful.
The result is that caste tensions are now seeping into schools, with even
children developing a strong sense of caste identity. The manner in which
these tensions develop and spill over into violence is revealing of how
deep-rooted the problem of caste is in the country, and of just how
challenging it is to try and tackle it.
The prominent castes in southern Tamil Nadu are the Nadars, a Backward
Class community, and the Thevars, also a Backward Class community, which is
divided into three subcategories – Agamudaiyar, Kallars and Maravars. (Of
these three, the Kallars and Maravars are significantly disadvantaged
groups – both were previously classified as “criminal” and were
subsequently denotified.) The three main Scheduled Caste communities in
this region are Paraiyars, Arunthathiyars and Pallars.
According to responses to Right to Information Act applications filed by
Evidence, an NGO based in Madurai, 300 murders were registered in the state
between January 2016 and December 2020, under the provisions of the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment
Act, 2015. In one particularly violent period, in September 2021, four
beheadings were reported
<https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/four-beheadings-in-10-days-all-is-not-well-in-tamil-nadu/articleshow/86470078.cms>
in
a span of ten days in southern Tamil Nadu – most of the incidents involved
members of the Thevar community and Scheduled Castes.
This violence is also mirrored in a rise in tensions between schoolchildren.
* “What students see in their homes and neighbourhoods, they replicate in
their school as well,” said Rani, the social worker. “Where else will
children learn these things?”*
Bharathan, who noticed that many school children had begun wearing caste
threads, petitioned the National Human Rights Commission in 2015, seeking
its intervention in the matter. That same year, the Commission issued a
notice to the Tamil Nadu government, directing it to look into the issue of
caste threads and other caste markers among school students in Tirunelveli.
Four years later, a 2018 trainee batch of IAS officers appealed to the
Tamil Nadu government, seeking its intervention in the matter of caste
threads. The subject had come up for discussion during a training session,
following which the batch decided to make the representation. In 2019, the
Tamil Nadu government issued a circular banning the wearing of the threads,
and directing authorities to identify and crack down on schools where they
were being worn.
The BJP leader H Raja called the move “anti-Hindu” and condemned the
circular. The next day, the then education minister K Sengottaiyan, of the
AIADMK government, which was an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the
Centre, did a U-turn and claimed that it had been issued without his
permission. A day later, he backtracked. *The Hindu* reported him as
saying: “Necessary action will be taken if complaints are received in this
regard.”
Bharathan explained that the interventions have had little impact.
“Students continued to wear the caste thread,” he said. “In some instances,
teachers who are casteist allowed it to continue, in others, the
administration simply failed to implement the rule.”
Those teachers who are trying to enforce the rule struggle to discipline
students who are determined to display caste markers.
At around 1.30 pm on a Thursday, high school students of a government
school in the village of Nadakallur in Tirunelveli strolled out of their
classrooms after an exam. Outside at the gates, on the busy highway on
which the school was located, middle school students waited to be let in
for their exam. As I stood at the gate, speaking to a physical education
teacher, he pointed out a student who had one palm wrapped around the wrist
of his other hand. “See, he knows we’re watching so he’s trying to hide the
caste thread,” the teacher said. That student slipped away but the teacher
managed to stop another student and make him wipe out the *bottu* on his
head.
“It’s not easy,” the teacher confessed. “When I ask them to remove it,
they do it immediately but the minute I turn away, they put it back on.”
Many teachers said that social media had had a role to play in reigniting
children’s feelings of caste pride, often referred to as “*jaati veri*”, in
Tamil, which literally translates to “caste mania”. Caste pages and
caste-related videos on YouTube were contributing to this mania, teachers
told me.
The problem can be dealt with if school administrations take effective
steps, noted R Shankar, the principal of the Nettoor Government School in
Tenkasi. “But the teachers and principals are scared,” he said. “They are
scared of the students and their parents, so they do not take strict steps.
That is why these practices continue to take place.”
Shankar said that he himself took about six months to ensure students were
not wearing caste threads to class. If students threatened to call their
parents, he asked them to go ahead. “I would ask the parents, do you want
your ward to sit on a chair like me?” he said. “If they said yes, then I
would tell them to let me do my job and not interfere.” Currently, he said,
no students wore these threads to his school – but he added that sometimes,
he observed some wearing them outside the school.
More than 80 km away from Nadakallur, in the village of Palavoor
In the name of rationalization of
curriculum many a topics have been removed from the CBSE syllabus (April 2022). From the tenth standard syllabus; the
topics excluded are democracy and diversity, rise of Afro-Asiatic Islamic
states, history of Mughal Courts, non alignment movement, impact of globalization
on agriculture, popular struggle movements, poems of Faiz in the section of
Communalism and challenges to democracy.
Criticizing this; Rahul Gandhi labeled
CBSE as Central Board for Suppressing Education, and called RSS, the force
behind these policies as Rashtriya Shiksha Shredder. Also All India Democratic
Students Organization has launched a signature campaign against it. As such when
the BJP comes to power, one of its major goals is to modify change the
education policy and curriculum to tune it to its version of sectarian nationalism.
Its focus is on faith based knowledge away from scientific temper and rational approach
to social, historical issues.
One recalls when BJP led NDA came
to power in 1998; Dr. M.M. Joshi was the MHRD minster. He changed the history books
to introduce communal angle to historical events. Accompanying this was the introduction
of Paurohitya (Priest craft) and Karmakand (Rituals). In contrast
to scientific astronomy, astrology started being taught. There was an interesting
paradox. In astrology Saturn was the trouble makers, while in astronomy Saturn
was taught as a planet of Sun. In opposition to biological understanding that
sex of child is determined by X or Y chromosome coming from father, the
Putrakameshti Yagna (ritual to get male child) was being taught as the method
for getting the much sought after son.
The pattern continues. RSS has
already formed Shiksha Sanskriti Uthan Nayas, an RSS affiliate, to campaign
with influence the MHRD ministry. It has been pressurizing NCERT for removal of
English, Urdu and Arabic words, the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore; extracts
from painter M F Husain’s autobiography; references to the Mughal emperors as
benevolent, to the BJP as a “Hindu” party, an apology tendered by former Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh over the 1984 riots; and a sentence that “nearly
2,000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat in 2002”. (25th July 2017) As such
these recent recommendations to NCERT are continuation of the same agenda which
is working for its goal of Hindu Rashtra.
It had also been putting pressure to undertake
Bharatiyakaran of education. Under its pressure many publishers have also
buckled. The major example is that of Penguin, pulping the book ‘The Hindus’ by
Wendy Doniger. This was an academic work which looked at various aspects of
Hindus, particularly the plight of women and dalits. One RSS leader Dinanath
Batra has been very active in this area and has produced number of books for school
children. In Gujarat 42000 schools introduced his books after their translation
to Gujarati.
The pattern of the curriculum
presented in these books spells things like Kutub Minar was a Hindu Monument, called
Vishnu Stambh, built by Samudra Gupta. These books totally bypass the syncretic
traditions and present the Kingdoms through the eyes of king’s religion. The
focus is to present the view that foreign Muslim rulers were doing atrocities on
the native Hindus. It is through this lens that Kings of Mughal dynasty are
presented. Now in the new scheme of things the Mughal Courts and their pattern
will be totally eliminated. Even the during much maligned Mughal period the
Mughal Kings had Hindu associates (Akbar+Mansingh, Aurangzeb+Raja Jaising) to
give just a small sample.
In these books Muhammad Gazni and
Ghori are the key villains. Gazni had many Hindu generals (Tilak,
Sondhi,Harzan, Rai and Hind) in his army. Shivaji and Rana Pratap presented as the
main heroes. Incidentally Shivaji’s confidential secretary was Maulana Haiser
Ali and Rana Pratap had Hakim Khan Sur as one of his generals.
The disturbing changes brought by
BJP are an attempt to construct a history to suit its narrative of Hindu nationalism.
Gandhi (Hind Swaraj) and Nehru (Discovery of India) gave the history of India, which
was inclusive and reflected the emerging National movement and underlying
concept of Indian Nationalism. The changes brought in by BJP in education were
called as Saffronization by its critics. Initially BJP and company responded to
this criticism by ignoring the phrase. Later they aggressively said that the
syllabus needs to be saffronised. Even present Vice President Venkaiah Naidu
asserted that syllabus needs to be saffronized.
The current changes which are
seeing are in tune with their political requirements of RSS Combine. Mughal
Court was an example of Hindu Muslim unity, so it can’t have a place in BJP
scheme of things. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, who was a democrat and secular and was also nominated
for Nobel Prize for Literature, is an icon for literature for progressive
democratic values. Having a poet with Pakistani identity will surely be big no
for the present ruling dispensation.
Currently one of the aims of the
Government is to undermine the first Prime Minster of India, the architect of
Modern India, one who stood tall for his commitment to democratic and secular
values, Jawaharlal Nehru. His major contribution on global scene was to evolve
and work for Non Alignment Movement. This movement gave a new direction to
global alignments. It also helped India to develop taking advantage of
collaboration of different camps in the World despite the Cold war. So the chapter
on Cold War era and non alignments has been kept out of the syllabus.
Present ruling party and its
ideology want to push the country in authoritarian sectarian state, where
democracy has no role, so that chapter on pluralism and diversity is out. India’s
pluralism and diversity have a major role to play in the culture and strength
of India. India’s freedom movement and Indian Constitution respect our
diversity. But uniformity in language, religious traditions and other cultural
aspects is what is being aimed at.
Overall the changes proposed, to
be implemented are in tune with the concept of nationalism, and the culture
which sectarian nationalists want to impose on the country. These need to be opposed
and ensure that our syllabi are in tune with rationalism, scientific temper of
pluralism of India.
THE announcement by the Gujarat education minister that the Bhagavad Gita
would be taught in schools as part of the syllabus for class 6 to class
12 students from the academic year 2022-23, is a flagrant breach of the
secular principle of the State.
It
is a fundamental principle of all secular States that State-run schools
do not impart religious instruction of any sort. The United States,
France, Japan and a host of other countries follow this principle.
Private schools are free to offer religious instruction of any kind but
not State schools.
The Bhagavad Gita
is a religious text. It seeks to expound a way of life and conduct
based on Hindu religious traditions and philosophy. It cannot be
depicted as a book of morals and ethics divorced from its religious
context, as the BJP-RSS are claiming. There are some from within the
Hindu fold who are critical of some aspects of the Gita such as the exposition of karma on its pronouncement that the chaturvarna system of caste is divinely ordained.
But the real issue is not whether the Gita
is obscurantist and purveys some regressive ideas. The question to
focus on is how government schools can have religious instruction of a
particular kind?
The
Constitution of India, in the Fundamental Rights chapter states in
Article 28 (1) that: “No religion instruction shall be provided in any
educational institution wholly maintained out of State funds”. It
further states that in educational institutions (which are not
State-run) but are recognized by the State or receiving aid out of State
funds, if there is any religious instruction, no student attending such
institutions can be made to take part in any such religious instruction
or religious worship unless the guardian of that student, if a minor,
has given consent.
The Gujarat decision on the Bhagavad Gita,
therefore, goes against the basic premise set out in the Constitution -
no religious instruction in State-funded and run schools.
The
Gujarat example will now be emulated by other BJP-ruled states. The
Karnataka minister for school education has stated that the state
government will consider introducing Bhagavad Gita in schools after discussions with educationists. He said that, “Bhagavad Gita is not only for Hindus, it is for all.” It is the same Karnataka government which has outlawed the use of hijab by Muslim students in educational institutions.
The Union Minister, Prahlad Joshi, promptly stated that “Bhagavad Gita teaches us morality and ethics….Every state government can think about it.”
The
efforts to introduce Hindu religious texts and scriptures in government
schools is part of the overall project of the RSS-BJP to desecularise
the Indian State. The Gujarat education minister cited the New Education
Policy recommendation to include “Indian culture and knowledge systems”
to justify the introduction of the Gita
in the school syllabus. In all other spheres of the State, the
introduction of Hindu religious symbolism in State functions and
provision of State funds for expanding and renovating Hindu places of
worship have become a common feature. The Prime Minister’s inauguration
of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor is a prime example.
The
State patronising the religion of the majority and privileging it in
State institutions and systems is going to spell the end of any
semblance of secularism left. The obverse side of this are the various
laws passed by BJP state governments against `love jihad’, conversions
and the drastic ban on slaughter of cattle which target the minorities.
The Central law, the Citizenship Amendment Act, introduced a religious
criteria to citizenship.
In Gujarat, the introduction of the Bhagavad Gita in
schools has been welcomed by the main opposition party, the Congress.
Its spokesperson said: “We welcome the decision to introduce Bhagavad Gita in the syllabus, but the state government also needs to learn from the Gita
first”. Not to be left behind, the AAP spokesperson said, “We welcome
the decision of the Government of Gujarat. This will benefit the
students”.
This response
of the opposition parties in Gujarat indicates the new reality –
Hindutva is steadily acquiring a hegemonic status. The Left and
democratic forces and all those who wish to see India remain a secular
State will have to factor in this reality while working out a strategy
to fight for an alternative vision to Hindutva.
The Veer Gatha Project must not be allowed to go
the way of other seemingly innocuous programmes that seek to
surreptitiously indoctrinate young minds
The Editorial Board
|
Published 29.10.21, 03:30 AM
Admiration for national
heroes comes naturally to the citizenry. Problems are bound to arise
when an elected government deems it necessary to impose a template of
reverence. The ministry of education has asked students of central board
schools as well as state authorities to prepare projects on the lives
of the winners of Gallantry Awards under a month-long ‘Veer Gatha
Project’. According to an official circular, the initiative aims to
“disseminate the details of acts of bravery and the life stories” of
armed forces personnel, thereby raising awareness among schoolchildren
about the magnitude of the sacrifices made by those who guard the
nation. The initiative has been lauded by several educationists who
opine that interactive projects — the defence ministry will organize
hour-long programmes for schoolchildren — can help students learn about
topics of importance in a more comprehensive manner than can be achieved
through rote-learning. Recognizing valour is important. But the
methodology of doing so merits examination in the light of the fact that
the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has not only been guilty of
encroaching upon educational curriculum but also rolled out several
programmes with a pronounced ideological tilt in the garb of celebrating
‘Indian heritage’. Take, for instance, Yoga Day; it aims to instil a
holistic approach to health but, curiously, coincides with the death
anniversary of K.B. Hedgewar, the founder and first sarsanghchalak of
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The celebration of Hindi Divas had
also drawn attention after the Central Board of Secondary Education
tweeted that Hindi is “our identity”.
The Veer Gatha Project must, therefore, not be allowed to go the way
of other seemingly innocuous programmes that seek to surreptitiously
indoctrinate young minds in a particular ideological — militaristic? —
mooring. Such a proclivity not only infringes upon the autonomy of
educational institutions — they, not the government, should have the
right to frame curricula — but also presupposes that citizens need to be
tutored on the mores of reverence. There is also the question of
developing independent, critical thinking as opposed to instilling
passive admiration. Would students be allowed to appreciate not only
valour but also the conditions — political, historical and strategic —
that compel India’s brave jawans to make the ultimate sacrifice?
