V. Kumaresan
In the Indian sub-continent education was mainly oriented on vedic religion with its mythical texts, scriptures, puranas and the like. Education was not wide spread, wherein everyone did not have the opportunity to learn, but was kept as the monopoly of ‘supreme’ brahminical coterie in the four fold division of Varnasrama dharma. Such supremacy of one sect, excluding the remaining was made to be believed as the dictum of ‘almighty’ god. So for the major sections of the society, education was an inaccessible subject that was not at all connected to them. Those toiling masses, some of whom tried to get educated were strictured with severe punishment for which legal codes were framed. The severity in the denial of education that prevailed in this ‘holy’ land for many centuries to the extent of maintaining the divine ordain of god by distancing themselves from the education environment can be gauged from sayings like: ‘Manu Smriti’ says, “if the sudras (toiling people) who remain in the audible distance of Mantra chanting, and happen to listen to it, then the punishment to such violation of code was that molten lead will be poured into the ears of such listener – sudras”.
If remaining and listening to the chanting of vedic mantras itself was a crime as per vedic religious code, where is the question of joining the stream to get educated? Discriminating and distancing the discriminated people from some vital and righteous needs was the inner core on which vedic religious structure was built up, enabling the miniscule brahminical minority to sustain their supremacy over the rest in the society. This sort of societal set up prevailed in this land where denial of education to major sections prevailed as divine dictum.
The story of Ekalaiva of the hunter tribe is only too well known to be repeated here. Spurned by Dronacharya, the best teacher of the days, Ekalaiva put a clay figure of Drona in front of him, started learning archery and attained perfection in the art. When the Acharya came to know of it, he demanded guru dakshina from the hunter youth, claiming that it was his figure which taught him the art. The guru asked for the right thumb of the young man, who gave it to him with all reverence, though Drona himself had played no part in his learning. A wily and scheming Brahmin acharya succeeded in making the education useless to the learner.
From this scratch, the principle of education to all was felt by various political rulers, especially those who invaded this holy land through wars, commerce and trade. When things started to improve during the later royal dynasties, that ruling phase was projected by the then indigenous social ruling class as interference in the Vedic religious affairs. The main purposes of royal dynasties however, was to politically exercise sovereign power and hence they did not interfere too much in educating the masses. The Muslim emperors did not achieve much in their exercise of imparting education to all. In order to maintain the status quo in the vedic religious society, the supreme sect did not hesitate to welcome the British people to assume the ruling of the land, dethroning the Moghul kings and the progressive indigenous royal kings who were very much concerned with education to all. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s ‘Vande Mataram’ song comprised in his ‘Ananda Madam’ is nothing but the welcoming gesture to the Britishers to rule the land and, ironically, is being sung at present popularly as a patriotic song. The change of rulers is immaterial to the traditional ruling class viz. brahminical supremicists. Exclusion of education to people other than Brahmins was the rule of the rooster.
The dawn of the 19th century through many discoveries and inventions in the field of science and technology transformed the educational curriculum throughout the world. In India, during the British rule, the education was revamped in 1833. Lord Macaulay was instrumental for the drastic change in the educational system of the country.
Though there is a lot of criticism against Macaulays’ system his attempt to introduce what was known in Europe of his days as liberal education, liberated from the clutches of religion, was of immense benefit to us. There are still among us who had education under his system, still being grateful for the vast vista of knowledge they were made to visit and traverse.
Education was earlier limited to learning Sanskrit which ensured the traditional arrangement of keeping it under the fold of brahminical supremacists. Sanskrit education means learning of Vedic religious texts and scriptures. Macaulay introduced system in education minimized the extent of Sanskrit language…..
Education was earlier limited to learning Sanskrit which ensured the traditional arrangement of keeping it under the fold of brahminical supremacists. Sanskrit education means learning of Vedic religious texts and scriptures. Macaulay introduced system in education minimized the extent of Sanskrit language that was mainly responsible for the exclusion of education for the major sections of the society. Subjects other than religion did also find their place in the new education system of education which the brahminical classes tried to capture and treaded a lot in that line. During the British rule also education remained under the dominance of Brahmins, leaving little share to other religious people and very little to the neglected sections in the Vedic religion.
The brahminical class did not proclaim directly that education has to be denied to non-brahmins. But indirectly they applied hurdles in the way of the other communities so as to sustain their monopoly over education. In early 1920s, to get admission in medical colleges in Madras Province, knowledge of Sanskrit was stipulated as one of the pre-requisites. With this condition, who else than Brahmins (historical monopolist and claimer for Sanskrit) would get admission? In this way medical college admissions were denied to non Brahmins who did not get the opportunity to learn Sanskrit, even though the knowledge of Sanskrit was irrelevant to pursue medical studies.
The Justice Party who ruled the Madras Province under Diarchy system, withdrew the peculiar pre-requisite of Sanskrit knowledge which enabled many non Brahmins to pursue medical studies in the Province. Justice Party approached the problem with a resolve to make education to the lowest of the lowly. They threw open the portals of education to all communities, opened schools which could be of easy access to the deprived and downtrodden and introduced the reservation system which would ensure admission to schools and colleges to the lower caste people. The Brahmins went on fighting this system in every manner they could, and the fight is going on till date, in one form or the other.
Even now in 2018, the denial of medical education to rural students who are predominantly non Brahmins is indirectly encouraged by the introduction of NEET (National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test) for medical and dental college studies. The Saffron rule by BJP with its Hindutva ideology is particular about of conducting NEET even prior to the deliverance of judgment related to the NEET that is pending at Supreme Court of India.
Only the time space and the mode of denial have changed; the mentality of monopolists over education still continues denying educational opportunities to major population of the country. If blatant denial of education to all is not possible, exploration of the avenues for the ways and means to accomplish the ‘denial agenda’ has to practised’ – the Sangh parivar and saffron brigades adopt this policy to sustain the brahminical supremacy.
In the current Saffron regime, Sanskrit language education is being encouraged very specially. The loading of Sanskrit which is not in vogue as spoken language during the past and present, is nothing but accomplishment of Hindutva agenda in the educational institutions. The move is against the secular advocacy of Indian Constitution.
The BJP Government of Haryana State has introduced ‘Gayatri Mantra’ in the school curriculum. ‘Gayatri Mantra’ has been chronicled in Rig Veda. It was a well guarded secret from those outside the Hindu-Brahmin Community.
It is nothing but blatant inculcation in the young, receptive minds of students the concepts of Hindutva, the basic tenet of which is to discriminate, divide and distance the subjects enabling the supremacy of only one sect at the helm of the hierarchy. Unmindful of opposition to Hindutva induction into the curriculum, the Saffron rulers are marching forward in their agenda, making the country go backward by centuries. Modernity and change are anathema to Hindutva.
The ‘Saraswathi’ vandhana, stipulated in the Kendriya Vidyalaya, run under the direct administrative control of Central Government, makes the students to adhere to the dictum of Hindu religion over the rest. It is ironical that this ‘holy’ land which prescribes ‘Saraswathi Vandha’ is no better in education compared to the West where the almighty god is not vested with exclusive portfolio of education.
In West the religious base has been getting demolished slowly with the advancement of science and technology. Scientific findings are not accepted by religion at initial stages. The findings that were contrary to the religious texts and belief were not allowed earlier to be in the curriculum of studies. Now the religious head has bent down to accept the scientific findings and to add them in the curriculum. This is the intellectual honesty of religion in the West.
In spite of all the advance in the field of science and technology, very serious attempts are made in our country to put the clock back by hundreds, nay thousands, of years. Attempts are afoot to show that science had its origin in ancient India and mythology is adduced as proof thereof. (If an invention was made, there would be material to show how it was made, how it worked and so on, without such material, the mythological material has to be discarded as wild imagination.) And the latest of the howlers is the statement made by a Central Minister of Education that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is unacceptable to him since none of his ancestors had seen a monkey metamorphosed into a man! And he wants it to be scraped from the curriculum. This, after the Pope himself had apologized for the Church having censured Darwin in his life time!
One shudders to think what would happen to this country if this perverted thinking becomes part of the curriculum. It is time that all those interested in the right kind of education which sharpens thinking, whets the appetite for learning, and takes the society forward in the course of scientific temper unite and put education back on the right track.
The BJP Government of Haryana State has introduced ‘Gayatri Mantra’ in the school curriculum. ‘Gayatri Mantra’ has been chronicled in Rig Veda. It was a well guarded secret from those outside the Hindu-Brahmin Community.
