Communalism thriving Elections

With elections in the 5 states (UP, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa) of India just round the corner, the campaigning is in full swing. It is widely accepted that in a democratic system, candidates make use of diverse methods to magnetize the voters, or rather hoodwink them, into the trap of often false promises. While conducting free and fair elections is an immensely convoluted yet commendable task undertaken by the Election Commission of India (one of those few institutions which people still hold in high esteem and respect), it appears that contesting and winning elections is as easy. What it truly requires today is to harp in an open arena about the pitiable state of affairs in the current regime; institutionalize communalism, hatred and fear of loss of opportunity in the conscience and psyche of people; promise them reservations (reservations within reservations) and quietly shirk from any responsibility, whatsoever, to pull them out from the clutches of deficiencies of awareness, education, discretion and assertion.

Ours is a multiethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious country. Consequently, the first thing that any party incontestably does is to field the candidate belonging to the dominant community in the constituency. These candidates seek support from their castes thus preserving casteism to the period after elections as well while showering special benefits on their caste members. How is Mother India left standing in grief bereft of the shine (read: India Shining) is nobody’s food of thought.

I heard somebody say that numbers speak in a democracy. Yes they do, numbers speak for the polarized, divided and apathetic society of the nation as big and as united as India is. Where in this world would you find people shamelessly grounded on the beautifully carved stages, consolidating the feeling of casteism, embittering the citizens against each other for no reason and still being applauded on requesting to be voted !? You would find the caste card resonating even in the allotment of portfolios. I wonder our constitution makers would be turning in their graves at the pitiable condition our country is heading towards.

Involvement of caste in politics is being seen from independence itself. It is because if there is anything that is quintessentially Indian for centuries, it is the ingrained caste system that flows in our veins. It is the most dominant and the most easily identifiable feature of our existence. It is this fact that makes the caste an easy object of political manipulation and mass mobilization. Instead of tiding over the deplorable practice to create a unique identity of one India, our leaders have been exploiting the caste issue to bargain for benefits.

A poor is a poor is a poor…How does that matter whether he is a dalit or an OBC or a muslim? In the six decades of electioneering and governance, we have witnessed umpteen saviors of the downtrodden and the backward popping out of the window of ignorance with a benign face only during elections and disappearing in oblivion for the next 5years only to rejuvenate themselves to surface again like monsoon frogs. Our school teacher taught us about the concept of our unity in diversity; unfortunately that diversity devoid of unity today.

What does progress mean to us? Is it achieving high GDP growth rate at the cost of peace and brotherhood?  Is it to use the religion and caste propaganda to fan violence in the society so as to pursue political ambitions?  The game of communalism is essentially based on mutual hatred and is an antithesis to the concept of oneness. We are a nation whose populace are our fellow brethren. All of us owe as much to mother India as we demand from her. The air we breathe, the grain we eat and the water we drink don’t discriminate between a brahmin and a dalit.  It is we, who dismember our fellow citizens from ourselves. It is sad that today, Indianness has assumed innumerable forms. None of us is as Indian as everybody else is!

Articles 38 and 46 in the chapter of Directive principles, enjoin upon the state the duty to strive for the welfare of the people in general and the backward classes in particular. Accordingly, a system of positive discrimination was introduced to uplift the people discriminated for ages and to bring them into the national mainstream. The rationale behind it is that there can be no equality among unequals. Equality of opportunity in absence of equality of conditions would result in amplification of inequality instead of promoting it. To our utter dismay, it has led to different people vying for the extension of such benefits to their own communities. How does that bring education, awareness, progress to them is anybody’s dilemma of sorts!

The grim reality that stares us in face is that while we have too many caste identities, we have no national identity. We are pulling the nation in different directions. The trend if continued would be impossible to reverse owing to the enormity of our population and deep religion-region-caste divide. Its time we talked constructive, of fulfilling our Vision for a developed and a progressive nation. (Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high…Where the world is not broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls…Into that heaven of freedom my father, let my country awake!)

Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye

“Sa vidya ya vimuktaye” (that which liberates us is education)

Education is not the knowledge of the world but the realization of the self. It is the freedom from the clutches of ignorance. It is that which illuminates the path of righteousness and rationality for us. It is said that education is a superior sentinel of one’s liberty than a standing army itself.  The ancient Indian system classifies a pupil as ‘dvija’ after his attainment of education. It implies ‘twice born’, as if in a new existence. That, is the strength of the education.

India has been the land of knowledge and wisdom from times immemorial. Our ancient scriptures have served as the repositories of our spiritual, philosophical, scientific, artistic and literary heritage. Ancient India saw the flourishing of education at Nalanda, Takshila, Ujjain, & Vikramshila Universities where various subjects like Art, Philosophy, Literature, Buddhism, Hinduism, Economics & Politics, Law, Medicine etc. were taught. The most eminent fact that surfaces is, that even women were regarded as capable and eligible to taste the fruit of education. In fact few of us are aware of the fact that many of the hymns in rig veda have been composed by some female sages.

In our life, our past mostly assumes the role of our shadow. But looking at the present educational scenario, we seem too distant from our past. It is as if, the shadow has silently left us in the hullabaloo of ignorance. The figures speak a sad story for the land of knowledge and wisdom.

Well, lets start from primary education. What prevents universalization of primary education is the low enrolment rate. Though, after the launch of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, we have improved the figures to 95%. Still, we have some 8million children who are not yet enrolled. But ensuring enrolment doesn’t complete the story. It certainly gets extended to the retention, which speaks a grim reality in the terms of high dropout rate.

Even after having achieved these two milestones, the next big task before us would be tackling the problem of teacher absenteeism and the quality of instruction imparted. The vacancies should urgently be filled up in terms of an acceptable student-teacher ratio and at the same time, the quality of education should never be compromised for quality. Also, appropriate training should be imparted to the teachers to help them realize the needs of the students because the aim of the education should be to make the students competent enough to face the challenges and to be able to afford a decent quality of life. Preferably, each school should have the teachers from the same region or community as that of the students enrolled so that they can empathize with their problems better.

Mid day meal program, which is the most important incentive for poor children to come to school, should be made free from pilferages and poor quality of food. These situations can be better monitored by regular auditing by PTAs, local populace etc. It is to be noted that while for the children of well-off families, it is the secondary incentives like praises, recognition for hard work and prizes that motivate the most, it is just the other way round for the poor. They value material incentives of immediate utility like food, cash etc. much more than their privileged counterparts. Therefore, any setback on that count in terms of irregular meal supply, poor quality food; acts as a major deterrent in keeping them motivated enough to attend the schools. Moreover, parents of such children should be awarded some financial incentive so that they may make up for the loss suffered for not having sent their children to work.

It is seen that while at the primary level, gender disparities may not be huge in terms of school performance; but the disparities between urban and rural children are quite enormous. There is a high need to focus on education in rural areas through proximity of schools to villages (which is being addressed through Education Guarantee Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), adequate toilet facilities especially for girls, library and playground/ sports facilities. I recently went through a novel scheme implemented by a Bangalore based company Selco wherein children were given a solar LED lamp along with a battery. They can charge these batteries in the centralized solar charging system at their schools, so that they can use solar lamps back at home to study in the evening and night without any disturbance. Such, initiatives give a good boost to the morale of the students.

Also, it is seen that children from disadvantaged background suffer from learning and concentration problems owing to the restricted exposure to the diverse stimuli in the growing stages. On an advanced level, we can introduce a system of programmed learning for these children as it helps them attain self pacing and gives them graded exposure to education, in accordance with their own capabilities and flaws.

Next realm is that of secondary education. Secondary education serves as a bridge to prepare students to take the challenge of getting into the realm of higher education. It is in these growing years, that the paramount focus should be on building the spirit of inquisitiveness, infusing the acumen of challenging the existing notions and making them dream big.

Our current education system focuses more on private tuitions, mugging up of the subject matter without an in depth understanding and subsequent coaching to compete for admission to the elite educational institutions. Such a practice hampers the development of acumen for research and development and makes a person just good enough to handle the routine jobs only. Also, there has been a lot of focus on the marks a student obtains rather than getting a comprehensive understanding of the subject. True, children of today are burdened under the crumbling weight of books to emerge victorious in the competitive exams and hence, are not to be blamed for the faulty objective of their quest for knowledge.

One of the ways to tackle the menace is the popularization of non-conventional courses of higher education and awareness about the alternate career options (read: doctors and engineers are not the only career options to attain societal respect and decent living). There is a need to develop the mindset of investing one’s efforts in the field where one’s acumen lies. For that, we need proper counseling at the school level to help explore one’s latent potential for things unusual. Today is the age of information overload. We hardly need minds that can retain facts and information. Internet is brimming with more information than is required. What we require are the minds that have the capability to analyze. And only those minds can analyze that are truly absorbed in one’s area of interest.

The higher education system, too, charts an obscure path in our nation. Nobody in this world would doubt the acuity of an Indian mind. Ours are the most sought after professionals in the world. Our people adorn the respectable offices in so many international institutions of repute. Who would believe that we had just 20 universities and 500 colleges in India in 1947? Today we have over 300 Universities and 45,000 Colleges sprawling in even the remote towns of India. Ours is one of the largest educational systems of its kind in the world. We have given to the world great scientists and scholars like Aryabhata, C V Raman, Hargobind Khurana, Homi Bhaba, Amartya Sen etc, to name a few.

Today we have mesmerizing growth statistics. But the involvement of people at large in research and development is disheartening. Our students don’t want to opt for a career in research. One of the reasons could be the insubstantial amount of remuneration and respect that one gets for his involvement and contribution to the field of research. Same geniuses who are a neglected lot in India, when hired abroad make massive contributions to the scientific developments in that country. Though we have made institutions, only few of them have required infrastructure for facilitating research. And those who have it are poorly maintained.

Our PM had termed 11^th five year plan as India’s educational plan. At INR 2.70lakh crores, education constitutes 20% of the plan, representing a credible progress towards the target of 6% of GDP. Our investment in R&D amount to almost 0.9%of GDP. What we need today is the efficient utilization of these massive investments to create a capable human resource pool that is valued and possessed at every cost, through promising teaching, research and extension activities, so as to achieve our growing demands for thorough professionals. Also, we need to expand our scholarships base to reach out to the talented pool of inquisitive minds that don’t get an opportunity because of the resource constraints. Further, private sector can be roped in to establish their research labs in the institutes to work in collaboration with institutes in the respective fields. People who wish to contribute in philanthropic activities should be encouraged to establish educational institutes. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research presents a very good example of such a contribution.

In the fast changing domestic and global scenario, mere quantitative expansion will not deliver the desired results. For growth and investment to be meaningful, it has to be fruitful to the people. The purpose of the education lies in increasing productivity, developing social and national unity, modernizing the country and consolidating democracy. ‘When you swim on the surface’, said Swami Ramkrishna Paramhansa, ‘you get only cheap shells. To get pearls, you have to dive deep.’ Its time we dived deep to get the pearls of knowledge. 

Women and Fait Accompli

“..The bodies of widows who die in government-run shelter homes in Vrindavan are taken away by sweepers at night, cut into pieces, put into jute bags and disposed of as the institutions do not have any provision for a decent funeral. This, too, is done only after the inmates give money to the sweeper! ...”

 Didn’t our conscience get pierced and heart suffered a thousand mutilations to know the deplorable fact that has come to the fore in a survey by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA)? One is forced to reflect on the status of women in our society. Is this really the land of Vedas which recognized two halves of the divine-feminine and masculine, where without knowing both the halves in entirety, one could not have found the way to the God!? Women who were regarded as blessed, not only because it was them who the God had chosen to fetch continuity to this world, but also, because they were adorned with an exceptional ability to discern the subtleties of emotions and to hold the world around themselves; were prayed as goddesses (kali, saraswati, durga and laxmi) assuming various forms. From Vedic wisdom emerged the concept of shakti, the personification of feminine strength and courage. Not only this, women were thought of embodying the quality to bring coherence in their environs. In fact if there is one feature that existed and is still extant in women across the races and continents, its their ability to nurture.

Not many are aware of the fact that women in ancient times could opt for upnayana out of volition. They had the freedom to decide for their educational attainment and acquire the highest form of intellect. Maitreyi, Romasa, Gargi, Lopamudra are a few amongst those learned women. During the time of the king Ashoka, women even took part in the religious preaching. His daughter, Sanghmitra was sent along with her brother Mahendra to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism.

However, it is unfortunate that with the advancement of civilizations, while on the one hand we made a steady progress towards making our lives easier with the scientific, political and economic developments; on the other, we made a gruesome retreat on the moral and ethical grounds by discriminating against our own mothers, sisters and daughters. Whether all this emerged from or gave rise to some of the most devilish practices such as Child Marriage, Sati, restriction on education and work etc., is a question that remains to be answered. But the fact we face today is that they have come to be considered more as a liability; a burden that has to be taken to its logical end; sometimes in the form of infanticide and sometimes as a destitute old widow left in a government run shelter to fend for herself. In this vicious circle, women have been at the receiving end for centuries.

Well, nothing speaks better than the data. A look at the provisional Census-2011 figures would show that even the affluent regions of the country (Haryana, Punjab etc) fare badly in terms of development parameters related to women. In fact what comes out is the gruesome reality that the well heeled sections of the society use their clout and riches to exploit the system and indulge into sinister practices, for e.g. of sex determination to nip the daughters of this country in the buds; thereby leading to a skewed sex-ratio in the country. Not only this, figures representing female literacy rate, maternal mortality rate, entrepreneurship among women etc. paint a dismal picture of the status of women in this country. Women comprise the majority of the population below the poverty line. At the grass roots, one would find that they are very often in situations of extreme poverty and dejection, given the callous realities of intra-household and social discrimination. It is said that one can find India in its villages- any visit and keen observation would project the immense strength women enfold, to work relentlessly in fields, at home, fetching water, cooking food, doing the dishes, looking after the kids, taking care of the elders; the list is endless. In spite of that, it is she whose perspectives are neglected the most. For those who constitute 48.5% of the population, can we really progress without involving them in the growth scenario?

On the other side, if I were to move beyond the boundaries and look for a room for inspiration, I am inadvertently reminded of the times of 15^th century when a peasant girl who was born in France, led the French army to crucial victories during the Hundred Years Wars, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. Yes, the Joan of Arc. She was arrested and transferred to the English, put on trial and burned at the stake when she was 19 years old.  From Cleopatra to Rani Laxmibai, Madam Curie to Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi to Aung Saa Syu Kyi, history is replete with the examples of the exemplary strength women have displayed.

But regrettably, such examples are far and few between and there has come to exist in this mother nature a society, where the parameters of making contributions, rating success and being respected have become so masculine that the beauty and strength of the feminine nature is ignored as non-consequential. What appears most paradoxical is the fact that while, since their very inception, they have been devoting their lives for the good of their families in particular and community in general; women have been unable to organize themselves into one single force to fight for their own cause. They have been bearing the brunt of the crippled mindset of female infanticide, domestic violence, physical and mental abuse, and confinement to the four walls of the home with no opportunities to choose their own course of actions. For centuries, their spirit of enquiry and retaliation has been slaughtered in the name of protecting the honor of their families, raising the children, inculcating in them values and in feeling satisfied with the progress of the their better halves and children.

Flipping through the pages of the dailies every morning and reading through the perpetrating crimes against women, our mind unconsciously paints a picture, where to prove loyalty; sometimes one is being forced to burn oneself alive by jumping onto the pyre and the other time, is even being offered as a compensation for loss to a gambling opponent. But the canvass refuses to accept just half the picture of the reality. What comes out looks more like an oxymoronic ladder of multiple rungs, where the bottom is the embodiment of sordid realities, while the top is balancing the stories of successes. There has been a great upsurge in awareness about the rights of women among all the sections of the society. They have left the shielded domain of the four walls and are now combating in the theatre of war of life, fully armored with their capability and talent. They are proving themselves. The developmental programmes and policies, too have been giving emphasis to improving social status of women.

Although slow and late, we do have made some progress. The likes of Vijaylaxmi Pandit, Indra Nooyi, Chadna Kocchar, Kiran Bedi and Kalpana Chawla do stand as examples of guiding light for us. The involvement of women in panchayats and local bodies, too, is commendable. What we need today is healthier and a more mature environment so that they can come up more confidently and be more assertive. Constitution does mention in the article 15(3) about the special status to women but the real change comes from within. The dreary state of affairs looks more like a function of mindset. The strength and the caliber of womenfolk and their ability to contribute to the development of the nation, should be understood and realized at the deepest level of our conscious. Moreover, the laws to tackle the crimes against them should be stringent and the justice should be meted out to them for any atrocity, whatsoever. The hurtful fact is not that the illiterate and powerless are denied justice, but also that even in the relatively high-profile cases; as it is in the murder of a woman journalist of a national daily, who also happened to be the wife of a senior journalist; investigations remain rather confusing and tardy.

Every woman is a story of struggle and victory. Sacrificing one’s ambitions and desires; and investing one’s life for the sake of the family demands an immense deal of strength and patience. Its time we gave our womenfolk their due. And there can be no denying that given a fair opportunity, women have the potential to outperform the male counterpart. In fact it is in this country, that women, who once lay in the sink of ignorance and neglect, came up in open defiance against the British during swadeshi, anti-partition and home rule movements. In a country where the office of the head of the state is adorned by a lady, where the government is presumably run by another iron lady and where the women from humble backgrounds have risen to rule the roost sometimes in the politically most powerful state or sometimes overturning the popular govt. governing for decades in another important state, it is least expected that they are still struggling for equality of status.