Detoxify the youth of India

Issue

Detoxify the youth of India
By Bulbul Roy
Mishra

Our secular
education system simply weighs the learning and does not
teach its value. Students are told that degrees are
required to get a job and higher degrees will fetch
higher income. The thought of service to the poor, the
nation or the humanity is summarily dismissed as
Platonic and nonsensical.

“The ass carrying the load of
sandalwood” so says an ancient Sanskrit proverb, “knows
only the weight and not the value of the sandalwood.”
Its animalistic instinct nevertheless helps it find out
the equation—heavier the weight larger the meal. I am
tempted to draw a parallel of the above to our current
education system, which teaches students to bear the
load of studies with the refrain—better the performances
higher the return. Like in the case of the ass, our
secular education system simply weighs the learning and
does not teach its value. Students are told that degrees
are required to get a job, and higher degrees will fetch
higher income. The thought of service to the poor, the
nation or the humanity is summarily dismissed as
Platonic and nonsensical.

I am, therefore, not
surprised that our education system has produced errant
and arrogant kids like Manu Sharma, Jagat Singh, Vikas
Yadav, Amit Jogi, Sanjeev Nanda, Fardeen Khan and many
others, all of whom got the best of education—thanks to
their parental affluence and influence—but were not
taught humility and dedication, which were fundamental
to our traditional education system. It is not that only
the scions of celebrities and the affluent freak out and
the rest are okay. As a matter of fact, the alma mater
that discriminates the poor from the rich, the powerful
from the commoner, sows the seeds of arrogance, hatred
and complexes in impressionable minds, thereby causing
distortion in the society.

It is no body’s case
that the aim of a sound education system is to create
perfect equality among students or to raise their merit
to even height. As a matter of fact, the Vedantic
philosophy that envisions the ultimate unity in Tat tvam
asi (Thou art that) does not also envisage perfect
equality in a phenomenal world. According to it, when
the three gunas (sattva, raja and tama) get into the
position of perfect equilibrium, involution results and
creativity comes to an end. The universe evolves as a
result of disturbance in this balance when any of the
three gunas becomes predominant. The above philosophy
applies to human life as well, as the key to liberation
is stated to be perfect equanimity.

Both Swami
Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi stressed on spiritual
education simultaneously with secular education. In the
words of Vivekananda, “Our life blood is spirituality.”
If it flows clear, no disease germ can possess it. The
spirituality does not mean worship of a particular god,
but selfless concern for welfare of all beings. Totally
rejecting the colonial education system, Gandhiji echoed
Vivekananda when he wrote in True Education: “We assess
the value of education in the same manner as we assess
the value of land or of shares in the stock exchange
market. We want to provide only such education as would
enable the student to earn more… As long as such ideas
persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true
value of education.” Gandhiji was totally against state
interference in educational sphere.

A
materialistic thinker may snigger at the idea of
injecting spirituality in secular education, as he is
unable to segregate spirituality from religion. Once
convinced that spirituality has nothing to do with any
particular religion, I am sure, even the staunchest
materialist will see merits in the proposition that
students must be taught to think more for the suffering
multitude, the nation and the humanity, than for
self-promotion.

The reason why Indian
civilisation survived despite the fall of the empires
and kingdoms in the face of foreign invasions was its
impregnable education system. Its foundation was laid by
gurukuls in numerous hermitages as mentioned in the
Mahabharata, where pupils from distant parts gathered
for instruction. It is pertinent to mention that the Rig
Veda named 23 women sages for their contribution and a
hermitage near Kurukshetra produced two noted women
hermits, thus establishing that women were considered
eligible for studying the Vedas and also running
gurukuls.

By the 9th century BC, university
education almost on modern lines was founded in
Takshasila (Taxila), the capital of Gandhara, followed
by Ujjain, Nalanda, Benares, Ballavi, Ajanta, Madura and
Vikramsila. Panini, the famous grammarian of the 7th
century BC, Jibaka, the noted physician of the 6th
century BC and Kautilya, the author of Arthasastra of
the 4th century BC were students of Takshasila. We find
mention of women’s hostel called chhatrisala in some of
those universities.

Even though the University of
Takshasila was destroyed by the barbaric Huns in the 5th
century AD and that of Nalanda by the Khilji invaders in
the 12th century AD, the Indian education system
survived owing to resilience of the scholars who took it
as their mission to impart what they learnt to the
posterity. It is no wonder that Sir Monier Williams
found Indian education system unparalleled in history.
In his words: “Invader after invader ravaged the country
with fire and sword but the simple self-contained
township had preserved its constitution intact, its
customs, precedents and peculiar institutions unchanged
and unchangeable amid all other changes.” (Brahmanism
and Hinduism). India survived because Indian
educationists never treated material progress as the end
in itself but as a means to the end that was spiritual
growth.

The overdose of self-centric materialism
sans spirituality, borrowed from colonial and alien
thoughts, commenced the process of transformation from
man-making into money-making education. The blame, in
the first place, goes to successive governments which,
contrary to Gandhiji’s prescription, relentlessly
interferred with the governance of universities and
academic institutions. The blame also goes to the
political parties, which strived to impose their
political thoughts or ideology on students. The
socio-religious organisations also share the blame for
doing precious little to arrest the rot.

I am,
however, incurably optimistic, being a firm believer in
what Swami Vivekananda said over a century back: “A
mighty tree produces a beautiful ripe fruit. The fruit
falls on the ground, it decays and rots, and out of that
decay springs the root and the future tree, perhaps
mightier than the first one.” (Refer: The Complete
Works, vol. 3, pp. 286).