If asked what ails education in India most people would point to the
inadequate infrastructure. Too few schools, too few teachers, not
enough outlay on education. For the Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya
Shiksha Sansthan, the education wing of the RSS, however, this is only
part of the problem. More important perhaps is the kind of education
that is being imparted, the syllabi taught, the curriculum enforced. It
is just not in tune, the RSS believes, with the Indian ethos.
Far from being embarrassed by the controversy that arose over the state
education ministers' conference (October 22-24), the supporters of
Hindutva welcome it. "It is a war of ideas," declared Dinanath Batra,
Vidya Bharati general secretary. "On the one side are ranged the forces
of Macaulayism, Marxism and Minorityism. On the other are those who
revere the Indian tradition and want the present trends in education to
be reversed.
"Let the people of India decide once and for all whether Saraswati
Vandana should be sung or not. Let us make up our minds whether the
contents of the Vedas and the Upanishads should be widely disseminated
or not." Added P.D. Chitlangia, the educationist whose very presence at
the education ministers' meeting was strongly objected to on the
grounds that he was "an outsider": "I don't understand the mindset of
the people who objected to Saraswati Vandana. Saraswati Puja is a
holiday in West Bengal, and yet its state minister [Kanti Biswas]
objects! The Bible can be taught in Christian schools, the Koran can be
taught in madarsas, but Hindus cannot be taught the Ramayana!"
It was Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi who
rendered the conference controversial. In his invitation, along with
the official agenda, he appended the 14-page infamous annexure, a
recommendation by unnamed 'experts'. But Joshi's faux pas is only being
seen as a minor setback to the larger plan of saffronising education
and the arts.
In the top-level central research institutes, Joshi has replaced
left-leaning academics with those close to the sangh parivar. The
Indian Council for Historical Research was the first to come under the
axe, followed by the Indian Council of Social Science Research and the
Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. Protests were muted since Joshi
was well within his rights.
In some BJP ruled states, the RSS element in education was
unobtrusively introduced. In Rajasthan, RSS supporters have been
nominated to crucial education related boards. The writings of Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya and contributions by RSS stalwarts, Rajendra Singh and
K. Sudarshan discussing science and environment respectively, have
entered textbooks.
But RSS leaders offered numerous examples to underscore the perfidy of
the forces ranged against them. On Macaulayism: "Our present education
system is a legacy of the British and specifically Lord Macaulay, who
wanted to create a nation of clerks," said a senior RSS leader.
On Marxism, Vidya Bharati leaders fished out a newspaper clipping of
1992 which reported that one of the essay topics in the Hindi paper of
the West Bengal state education board examination was Lal kilay par lal
nishan, Maang raha hai Hindustan (India needs Communist rule at the
Centre).
"And these are the people who accuse the RSS of indoctrination," said
Batra. On minorityism, Batra referred to the Urdu syllabus of
Karnataka. "Of the 237 lessons taught in the Urdu language classes from
Standard II to X, 35 are on Islamic festivals and religious sites, 56
are about Muslim religious leaders and only seven on Indian national
leaders. In these seven too, the content is very peculiar, they have
one lesson on 'Gandhiji at a Madarsa'.
On its part, the RSS is doing its best to match the activities of 'the
three Ms' it despises. In its own schools, run under the auspices of
the Saraswati Shishu Mandir, and affiliated to Vidya Bharati, the RSS
has ensured that students receive their version of politically correct
education.
"The all-round development of a child's personality is not possible
without spiritual attainment," maintains the Vidya Bharati booklet.
"The western materialistic outlook, based on the concepts of Darwin and
Freud, cannot impart fullness to life." Thus, though the Saraswati
Shishu Mandirs teach all the subjects stipulated by the state education
boards, they also teach a compulsory 'core curriculum' comprising six
subjects: physical education, Sanskrit, music, yoga, moral and
spiritual education, and sanskriti gyan (knowledge of culture).
Moral and spiritual education has a heavy dose of precepts and
quotations from the Hindu religious texts. But it is Sanskriti Gyan
which is the real eyeopener. Special textbooks on the subject published
by Vidya Bharati are prescribed from Class IV. An All-India Sanskriti
Gyan Examination is also being conducted since 1980, open to all those
who want to take it.
And what are the assertions made in these textbooks? That Ram
Janmabhoomi is Ram's birthplace. Aryabhatta, and not Copernicus or
Galileo, first said the earth revolved round the sun. The Pythagoras
theorem was known to Indians long before it occurred to Pythagoras. The
Iliad of Homer owed its inspiration to the Ramayana. Ayurveda is the
first medical system of the world!
"This is what we mean when we talk of 'Indianising and nationalising'
education," said Batra. "The wisdom of the Vedas and the Upanishads
must be made available to our children. The contribution of our
ancients to physics, chemistry, architecture (the entire Vastu theory)
should be appreciated. Vedic mathematics is taught outside India, but
in India it is not taken seriously. Ayurveda is catching on in the
West, while we disparage it and turn to allopathy." The second major
focus of the Hindutva brigade is Sanskrit. "I attended a Hindi-medium
school," recalled Chitlangia, "where we were taught three languages:
Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit. No English! And this was in British times!
There was no objection to Sanskrit then. But there is objection to
Sanskrit now!"
The controversial annexure at the education ministers' conference had
spelt out that Sanskrit should be made compulsory from Class III to
Class X. If Sanskrit is to assume more importance, which language
should be correspondingly de-emphasised? Not Urdu, which is hardly
taught in state schools, but English. "Every commission on education
has stressed that primary education should be in the mother tongue,"
pointed out Batra. "Then how do we allow so many primary schools where
the medium of instruction is English?"
Chitlangia added: "English is spoken by just three per cent of our
population, who enjoy an unfair advantage because of this knowledge.
Why should it be allowed to continue?" Among the less harped upon
proposals of the RSS-Vidya Bharati are the setting up of value
education centres, where the merits and demerits of different religions
could be debated by young people, the introduction of special courses
for girls in 'housekeeping', as well as a course in Indian philosophy
for all those taking up higher education.
But what it has set its heart upon is the amendment of Article 30 of
the Constitution which allows minorities to run their own educational
institutions. "We do not want to tread on minority rights," said Batra.
"All we want is that members of the majority community should enjoy the
same privileges if they set up their institutions. Or else we have such
situations as the Ramakrishna Mission being forced to call itself a
minority institution."
If the RSS agenda in education ever comes to pass, what will be the
fate of the minorities? RSS leaders are quick to offer security. "The
Vedas are inherently secular," insisted the RSS leader. "The Vedas
maintain that Truth is One, but people have different perceptions of
it. Which other religion could have produced a Ramakrishna Paramhans,
who could become a practising Muslim and Christian for brief periods
and yet remain a Hindu?"