The Gita in School
Roop Kanwar The Gita is going to be part of school education in India. The goal is to bring “moral, ethical, and value-based education” to children. The Prime Minister’s own state of Gujarat was the first to mandate the holy book in schools. Himachal Pradesh followed soon. Uttarakhand and Haryana have asked all their schools to recite Gita verses during morning assemblies. I am a little appalled. The first thought that struck me was B R Ambedkar’s verdict on the Gita as a text that entrenched caste-based inequality and undermined the rational, egalitarian values that are essential for a civilised democratic republic. [I wrote about this just last month.] Imagine a teacher who is a hardcore right-winger teaching the Gita to school children. I wonder whether we will create more Roop Kanwars. Do you know Roop Kanwar? She died less than four decades ago, burnt alive on her husband’s funeral pyre, following the dharma of a virtuous widow in Hinduism. She was just 18 and recently ...
