Most of us don't know much about India's history of education.At present, i would like to touch upon the beginnings of western education as sponsored by the British and modern times.For us in India today this is most important to understand the true relevance of what is really the problem. The problem, let me say at the outset has nothing to do with ancient India or any of it its systems.The problems which are evident in education today are created very recently and are largely a result of a phenomenon i term as poverty of the mind.
This was and could only have been a result of being a slave country and colonial policy. The breakdown of a certain cultural structure, the trauma of losing faith in one's language brings about poor thinking, deranged thinking even and a whole nation suffers from the poverty of the mind. India has been accused of being superstitious, of believing in hobgoblins. Who wouldn't blame a society which watched a small girl being thrown on the burning pyre of her dead husband?
However, this deranged thought process has a reason. That reason is relevant even today. Lack of self-esteem. That is the global phenomenon that Indians all over the country suffered from and still suffer from. From this underlying cause springs the black falls of poverty of the mind. The antidote lies in education as intervention and not mere literacy or in the pursuit of technical skills as we still see education as.
Way back in the early 19th century when Macaulay's system of education forced our children into stuffy shirts and English alphabets, some colleges were also opened as the British needed clerical staff to run the government. Indians, needed jobs. Some of us, however, resisted. My maternal grandfather was one of them. He studied political science from Presidency college but refused to work under the British. What he was doing was to delink degrees from jobs, something we still haven't achieved.
H came back to his village,Runshi, opening a small school for the village children. The village schoolmaster was soon forced to marry one of his tomboyish pupils.He remained her Guru, however, and my grandmother graduated in English Literature from Dacca university under his care.They brought in the flavour of English romanticism in that village corner, so that, years later, i could feel it's heady scent and followed it in defiance of a technical education.
This spirit of rebellion is not peculiar to my grandparents alone. This was the flavor then, as Indian youth tried to understand modernity within a traditional context. I am sure most of us such stories tucked away somewhere. When India became free these rebels came forward to lead the country. The colleges were flush with idealism.
Our parents had difficult childhoods.Society was in transition and they had no clue as to where they would be as adults.But the spirit of rebellion continued and flavored college education. The very rich would go abroad for their studies. The middle class went to the colleges opened by the British.My stepfather attended Banaras Hindu University or BHU, a symbol of national aspirations.It was an institution built by Indians for India. A bastion of ancient culture BHU instilled the kind of confidence in him that took him from a remote village in Bihar to Prague ,addressing the labor unions.
We saw all this , were affected by it but our mantra was austerity. Our parents were not ready to shell out too much for a fancy education.My husband and his sisters entered government colleges to study medicine.Ever the rebel i took up a course in English Literature in a private college.It was a tad expensive but the spoken language was tolerable. Then we had a comfortable ladies hostel and a fully functioning library which was open late evenings. An unheard of luxury those days.
Perhaps it was us who ushered in the era of private colleges and universities. It was certainly us, the debonair private scholars who patronized MBA or management education.Some of us went abroad and most of us girls decided to work. Braving well meaning aunts, mothers, possessive fathers and lady teachers we wanted to do everything. We smoked, we fought, we spoke to boys and broke all taboos. It was necessary. We felt that the onus of being change makers was on us. Privileged girls. We had to show the way out of harassing in laws, dowry deaths and a host of things our deranged society forced on the young people.
We also fought through the issue of reservations. Some of us were for it others weren't but the fight was important. There was still rebellion. My grandparents rebellion, my stepfathers' rebellion and my own. Indian colleges fostered all this while still trying to plod on with Macaulay's justification for college degrees: cushy jobs.
Now What? The colleges are numerous , some are private and affiliated to foreign universities. But the youth do not rebel. Macaulay looms large. Most of us just want our children to get a job , preferably escape the country. They have forgotten the pain of slavery or maybe, poverty of the mind has numbed them. They have erased revolution.Instead, the young people are resorting to cheating, happily paying for seats in colleges or tamely going to private universities. The colleges are bigger, smarter but i look on with horror at the failure of all rebellion.There will be no myth making anymore and our sons and daughters will not blow their bugles for war. I applause the colonial culture for it has been tenacious, it has won.
This was and could only have been a result of being a slave country and colonial policy. The breakdown of a certain cultural structure, the trauma of losing faith in one's language brings about poor thinking, deranged thinking even and a whole nation suffers from the poverty of the mind. India has been accused of being superstitious, of believing in hobgoblins. Who wouldn't blame a society which watched a small girl being thrown on the burning pyre of her dead husband?
However, this deranged thought process has a reason. That reason is relevant even today. Lack of self-esteem. That is the global phenomenon that Indians all over the country suffered from and still suffer from. From this underlying cause springs the black falls of poverty of the mind. The antidote lies in education as intervention and not mere literacy or in the pursuit of technical skills as we still see education as.
Way back in the early 19th century when Macaulay's system of education forced our children into stuffy shirts and English alphabets, some colleges were also opened as the British needed clerical staff to run the government. Indians, needed jobs. Some of us, however, resisted. My maternal grandfather was one of them. He studied political science from Presidency college but refused to work under the British. What he was doing was to delink degrees from jobs, something we still haven't achieved.
H came back to his village,Runshi, opening a small school for the village children. The village schoolmaster was soon forced to marry one of his tomboyish pupils.He remained her Guru, however, and my grandmother graduated in English Literature from Dacca university under his care.They brought in the flavour of English romanticism in that village corner, so that, years later, i could feel it's heady scent and followed it in defiance of a technical education.
This spirit of rebellion is not peculiar to my grandparents alone. This was the flavor then, as Indian youth tried to understand modernity within a traditional context. I am sure most of us such stories tucked away somewhere. When India became free these rebels came forward to lead the country. The colleges were flush with idealism.
Our parents had difficult childhoods.Society was in transition and they had no clue as to where they would be as adults.But the spirit of rebellion continued and flavored college education. The very rich would go abroad for their studies. The middle class went to the colleges opened by the British.My stepfather attended Banaras Hindu University or BHU, a symbol of national aspirations.It was an institution built by Indians for India. A bastion of ancient culture BHU instilled the kind of confidence in him that took him from a remote village in Bihar to Prague ,addressing the labor unions.
We saw all this , were affected by it but our mantra was austerity. Our parents were not ready to shell out too much for a fancy education.My husband and his sisters entered government colleges to study medicine.Ever the rebel i took up a course in English Literature in a private college.It was a tad expensive but the spoken language was tolerable. Then we had a comfortable ladies hostel and a fully functioning library which was open late evenings. An unheard of luxury those days.
Perhaps it was us who ushered in the era of private colleges and universities. It was certainly us, the debonair private scholars who patronized MBA or management education.Some of us went abroad and most of us girls decided to work. Braving well meaning aunts, mothers, possessive fathers and lady teachers we wanted to do everything. We smoked, we fought, we spoke to boys and broke all taboos. It was necessary. We felt that the onus of being change makers was on us. Privileged girls. We had to show the way out of harassing in laws, dowry deaths and a host of things our deranged society forced on the young people.
We also fought through the issue of reservations. Some of us were for it others weren't but the fight was important. There was still rebellion. My grandparents rebellion, my stepfathers' rebellion and my own. Indian colleges fostered all this while still trying to plod on with Macaulay's justification for college degrees: cushy jobs.
Now What? The colleges are numerous , some are private and affiliated to foreign universities. But the youth do not rebel. Macaulay looms large. Most of us just want our children to get a job , preferably escape the country. They have forgotten the pain of slavery or maybe, poverty of the mind has numbed them. They have erased revolution.Instead, the young people are resorting to cheating, happily paying for seats in colleges or tamely going to private universities. The colleges are bigger, smarter but i look on with horror at the failure of all rebellion.There will be no myth making anymore and our sons and daughters will not blow their bugles for war. I applause the colonial culture for it has been tenacious, it has won.
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