Naional Pride in Indian Schools
While reading an opinion
piece in The Hindu today, I was reminded of Khetaram, a Gramin Dak Sewak,
of the dhaanis lying “some 120 km beyond the last railhead at Barmer, 50 km
beyond the last phone and 10 km beyond where the Barmer-Chotan road
directionlessly (sic) crumbles into sand so soft that even bicycles can’t ply…”
What does the article in The Hindu
and Khetaram of the Thar desert have in common? NCERT, India’s official institution
for manufacturing textbooks as well as the country’s culture, is the answer.
The article questions the worth of what
NCERT calls the Indian Knowledge System (IKS). Khetaram is a postman in Rajasthan’s
deserts and his story is one of the lessons in NCERT’s grade 9 English textbook,
Kaveri.
The article questions the worth of IKS. Khetaram makes us wonder whether the textbook
is teaching the children English at all.
Even the highest institutions of
learning in India such as the IITs are asked to do research in IKS on topics such
as ‘consciousness,’ ‘reincarnation,’ and ‘Vedic biology.’ These are beyond the
reach of verifiable, evidence-based science. IKS is a “farcical” effort to “decolonise
the Indian mind,” argues the writer. [Read my previous post, The
Colonialism of Hindutva, to understand the irony of this “decolonisation.”]
IKS is mistaking myth for history and
tradition for science in the name of upholding the country’s ancient and
glorious civilisation. Students can be taught about their cultural heritage.
But the kind of overreach that NCERT and the government are indulging in will
do more harm than good. Critical thinking that builds resilient minds is what should
be fostered in educational institutions. Myth and science are totally different
and they serve different purposes. Conflating them doesn’t honour heritage; it
weakens our capacity to understand the universe.
Something similar happens
to the English textbook mentioned above. There are eight major lessons in the
textbook and none of them is written by a writer whose ‘native’ language is
English. A few such writers do appear in the supplementary reading material
attached to the main lessons. But all the main lessons are about people like
Khetaram whose lives bring in more Indian vocabulary than English. [And that
word ‘directionlessly’ grates against the grain.]
We can learn English through texts
written by Indian writers or any others for that matter. That’s not the issue. Shouldn’t
a student get minimal exposure to the culture behind a language when they’re
learning a language? Yes, I repeat that there are a few lessons by English
writers in the supplementary reading section. Are students going to read those,
however? If those lessons are included in the assessments, students will read
them. Otherwise, no. And then they will think that English is like putting
together Gramin Dak Sewak and his dhaanis. I mean,
they can put together words from their own language connecting them with
English prepositions and conjunctions, and think they’re expert English writers,
like those in their English textbook.
I must add, however, that the English textbook goes out of its way to inject cultural nationalism and patriotism into the veins of the students. The very first poem in Kaveri is ‘Bharat Our Land’ by Subramania Bharati. The mighty “Himavant,” “generous Ganga,” and “sacred Upanishads” with no parallel in the world, all belong to the great India where lie the roots of “Brahma knowledge.”
The last question in the exercise is:
“How does the poem foster a sense of national pride?”
How will CBSE assess the students’
patriotism in the exams, I wonder.
How the NCERT becomes the stooge or handmaiden of the Sangh Parivar? I get the same feeling about the IAS, IPC and IT'S of India. Not a steely frame but a Stealy frame.
ReplyDeleteIsn't every government institution a stooge now? IITs are shamelessly so! Pathetic situation. I never thought India would sink so low.
DeleteOf course. Obviously they're going to go about it all the wrong way. It wouldn't be an educational institution if it didn't muck things up.
ReplyDeleteImagine these textbooks in the hands of fundamentalist teachers. And too many in India have become caninely fundamentalist.
DeleteThe trouble is the current regime has a severe problem with English as a language. An overpowering inferiority complex. So they resort to all these silly means to give English an Indian tone. In my daughter's European classical literature book they try to give an indian context to Oedipus Rex and criticize it and point fingers at Greek literature.
ReplyDeletePrecisely, Jai. It all arises from some kind of inferiority complex. In fact, the very starting point of all of these - Hindu khatrei mein hai - amplifies that complex too loudly. Just imagine beliitling Greek classics for the sake of highlighting our own!
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteI completely accept your argument that education is being used as a cultural weapon/indoctrination. I may not have quite the same ire you do for the use of the word picked on today.
Interestingly, I was always impressed with the level of English among my Indian colleagues and batchmates... better than among some to whom the language is 'native', and who develop their own colloquial version. As a language that was cobbled together from different tongues in the first place, it is probably the most malleable of languages. I learned grammar a certain way and received the impression the 'rules' were set in stone. Later, I learned this was not the case and that it was perfectly acceptable to use a comma before 'and' or, indeed, to turn an adjective into an adverb - directionlessly, then, being perfectly legal. I didn't actually quail when I read it and only your question made me question. It is true that the context was odd and 'aimlessly', or perhaps, 'without direction' might have worked better. What I have learned about my first language is that it is absolutely not a fixed feature... although I do rail at the current trend for using two and sometimes all three adverbs - also, too, as well - in the same sentence! Even newsreaders are starting to fall into that ear-crunching trap. Or the lack of understanding that I is not always the case, that me it should be. Sigh....
So let Indians have their own version of English, for there is no harm in this. The potential harm, though, I agree, is in the context you have described... YAM xx
I don't disagree with you, Yam. In fact, I had looked forward to some response like this from you.
DeleteI have no problem with Indian writers being used in the textbooks. Some of them deserve to be there too. For instance, I would have no objection to Subramania Bharati's poem in a textbook. But the intention or motive matters. The textbook is designed with a clear intention of indoctrinating young minds with the right-wing stuff.
There are plenty of institutions in Kerala teaching German simply because Germany offers a lot of job opportunities to youngsters now. Some 40,000 Malayalis are working in that country now. Just imagine the learners of German acquiring mere communication skills. Will that help them? Shouldn't they know about the German culture and their ways of dealing with people, etc? Language is a lot more than communication, you'll agree. Especially when it comes to a global language like English.
Learn 3 languages among which 2 are native to India - there you have the answer
ReplyDeleteThis is creating a lot of problems. The Hindu carried out numerous studies on it. Many students are facing serious difficulties because they have to change to a totally strange language now in higher classes. Many are opting for Sanskrit since that's the easiest way now. Probably that's what the govt wanted!
Delete