“Hinduization” of Education: Saffronize, Commercialize, Medievalize 

Rooting out of ‘academic fascism’ has begun – RSS academicians are trumpeting. All Heil to the RSS, with Murli Manohar Joshi, Human Resource Development Minister, at the chariot head of ‘Indianization’ of the education system in India.

“Marx, Macaulay and Madarasas”. The forces of majority communalism in India have now officially declared all these ‘foreign’ entities to be under siege in the field of education. The enshrined, official academics now in power is Goebellsianism. It may be small comfort to them, but nevertheless, those who used to bemoan that science teaching in India fails to inculcate a scientific attitude, have been proved right and how? As so many citadels of science succumb, astrology has just missed a scientific label. A physicist ushers in the obscurantist reversion. And there are two sides to this Indianization coin – medievalization is one and commercialization is the other.

Distort the historical facts to fit the bill of an upper caste Hindu male as Indian and the Indian subcontinent as the actuality of “Akhand Bharat”. The long-lusted-for agenda of the RSS has finally got an opportunity to come into bloom. All the years of patient preparation, consistent indoctrination of large sections of middle classes by “shakhas”, shishu mandirs and vishwa bharatis have finally found spring time. The totality of the unfolding scenario in education talks much about the content of their philosophy, and also about whom it serves.

But pay now, India, for your 3.2 crore children who have never been to school. Pay for the ignorance of your vast masses who have received either none or so poor a quality of education that they are onlookers, bystanders in this debate. When educational facilities recede even further for their children, while the past of the country is distorted to deepen and create fissures between people, while exploitations are wrenched from their historical perspectives to occupy the space of everlasting truths, they are onlookers. Many academicians have stepped out energetically in large numbers but being essentially alone, without the people, they have been brushed aside by the neo-Goebelses. Those who looked to Parliament must have by now faced the despairing truth – when we are party to a system fostered on superstition it recoils. Murli Manohar Joshi faced little hostility there to his assertion that Astrology was a precious science – most Parliamentarians across the lines live by it anyway.

Overlooked Aspects: Commercialization and Medievalization

In the raging debate about the changes being brought by the BJP ruled NDA Govt., there are some not so obvious aspects which need to be attended to. The historical distortions introduced and the purposes they serve are being avidly discussed. But among those overlooked is the aspect of how an obscurantist revival is compatible – or even necessary – in the current ‘modern’ economic scenario. Why are the other ruling partners of the BJP in the NDA – not known to have such agendas – silent and conniving? The answer lies somewhere in the region of how it has long been compatible with the interests of US imperialism to stand with fundamentalist, revivalist, ‘Talibanist’ regimes.

In what is currently happening in Indian Education, we should be quite clear. Macaulay is not under siege, ‘Marx’ is. But Macaulay is a clever introduction to actually preserve those tools of the colonisers which are necessary for the RSS arsenal, while exploiting the anti-colonial sentiments of the people.

Where stands the majority communal agenda today in India if it will not also serve the interests of imperialism? How is the current offensive against the spirit of Macaulay? What is its anti-imperialist content? None. Firstly the RSS has long gone along with the belief that the British freed India from the Muslim scourge. The period relating to the history of British India and Modern India – along with all the distortions introduced by the Congress – significantly have been preserved intact by the NCERT in its currently announced syllabus. This also serves, of course, to recruit the sympathizers of saffronization from within the Congress ranks. Dual education system will remain – rather will be reinforced in the name of ‘rationalizing’ costs of higher education, and enforcing ‘non-formal education’ for under-six-year olds. Sanskrit will be enforced in govt. institutions but an elitist, anglicized education for the children of the haves will continue in exclusive schools, whose syllabi and books are not determined by prescriptions.

What then is actually happening? Under the cloud of saffronization, further commercialization is being ushered in – quietly. So quietly that most fail to observe that both sides of the field are commercializing. The forces most vociferous against saffronization are themselves runners in the commercialization race. Hence their one-legged fight against saffronization is neither going very far nor very deep. The fight against distortions cannot be partial if the masses are to participate in it. How can they be bothered about the content of something that is being increasingly alienated from them and theirs? For wide sections of the people to participate in the debate of what is to be taught, the system must be accessible to them.

Commercialization of education has specifically now targeted higher education. It is being implemented across the country by govts. of all hues. Actually the dictation is from World Bank and is enshrined in NEP. Hence the uniform response by all sections of Indian ruling classes. The issue has been extensively covered by New Democracy (Aug.-Sept. 2000). Only some salient features are being repeated here and some additional facts added.

Actually, the onset of this round of commercialization and attacks on funds for higher education began from the new National Education Policy enunciated under Rajiv Gandhi. In the early years of NEP an attack on funding for social sciences in universities was begun. The Govt. in power at the Centre then was the Congress and later the United Front. The logic then was that in a funds crunch, these needed less funding because they were less important.

Eventually funding for university libraries, magazines and development of facilities began to evaporate. Universities were told to ‘generate their own funds’ for these; laboratories told to tie up with industry for research. This was followed by the theoretical proposition that subsidies for education were ‘non-profit’ subsidies and higher education must be paid for. It must also be paid for because it costs less than the money spent by students in one day in their canteens (World Bank) and because those who travel by private vehicles can afford high fees (West Bengal Govt.)! The point of course was totally masked that these did not represent the majority of students, but the new fee structures would definitely restrict higher education only to them. Again the existence of a dual education system with monstrous fees of elitist schools was pointed at as a justification to raise the cost of higher education – further conceding that actually the facilities built up by public money in higher education, was being virtually ‘reserved’ for them!

On the other hand, the committee seated by this Govt. to discuss the problems of funding of higher education consisted not of educationists, but industrialists. The Ambani-Birla Committee, by its very existence, proves that education is very much a ‘high profit’ sector. The Ambani-Birla Report also went out of the way to counterpose the needs of higher education in India against the assets needed for primary education, as though the two had to divide a fixed fund between them. Incedentally, a WB report earlier also made the same view. (See New Democracy, Aug.-Sept., 2000)

Thirdly, if there is really a paucity of funds to put into higher education for development (also the unfortunate logic of the Left Front Govt. as it whimpers about needing money to give better facilities) where is the money coming from for funding university seats, teachers, and whole institutions to teach Sanskrit? Where is the money coming from to set up and finance departments of Astrology? Where is the money coming from to develop the new textbooks being prescribed by the NCERT? Money is not the real issue, intent is.

Professional education – IITs, Medical Education – have seen back breaking fee hikes. Private institutions for Information Technology and Computers charging astronomical fees are being affiliated to new universities. Pay-seats are being introduced with the blessings of the Supreme Court. The UP Govt. was among the first to announce that all higher education in the state would henceforth be paid for.

Some details are being added about the new steps taken by the West Bengal Govt. against which recently a day-long bandh was called by many revolutionary parties and other political parties. Examination fees for Secondary and Higher Secondary Examinations, as well as their registration fees have been hiked tremendously:

                Secondary                Higher Sec.(with Lab.)    Higher Sec.(without Lab.)

Past            Rs.   36                  Rs.   50                              Rs.   40

Present      Rs. 150                   Rs. 170                              Rs. 160

Hike in Annual Tuition Fees

                  B.A.       B.A.       B.Sc.      B.Sc.          M.A.         M.Sc.         Engg./

             (Pass)   (Hons.)   (Pass)   (Hons.)                                 Tech.

Past     Rs.144    Rs.168   Rs.168   Rs. 204   Rs.168    Rs.216      Rs. 216

Present Rs.600    Rs.900  Rs.1020   Rs.1320  Rs.1500  Rs.1800    Rs. 3600

(Biplabi Ganaline)

A second aspect that the saffronization cloud is covering is that of medievalization of Indian education. As we examine the steps in detail, we will see this facet clearly. Decrease the teaching of science and mathematics in schools. (Who does not want the school bag to be lighter? The point is what is to be unloaded?) Teach Sanskrit compulsorily. Teach Vedic history, Vedic mathematics. Inculcate ‘traditional’ values in women. Give religion-based education if you want value-based education. Yes, all these cater to the sentiments of a castist, communal section in India, but it serves a very current pro-imperialist function too.

The severe and serious imperialist crisis is being fended off by attacking and restraining productive capacities of all except a handful of advanced countries. As stated by New Democracy earlier, the WTO aims to use “the vast developing world as a vast countryside for the exploitation of imperialism.” (New Democracy, Sept. 1993) Now an education system, if medievalized, will further marginalize the capacity of all except the creamy layer to compete for technological advancement, to do anything except be adequate clogs at lower rungs of imperialist production and further bring down labour costs.

Deepen and Perpetuate Divisions in Our Society

The ruling classes of India are viewing with distrust the increasing restlessness of common people in the wake of economic ‘reforms’. Imperialism is seeing it too, and it serves neither.

The attack on history, is not only part of the RSS agenda, it is part of all anti-people agendas, always used by those who wish to distort the future.

The issues in focus in the current round of ‘saffronization’ or communal distortions pertain principally to the period of Ancient Indian History. Firstly, a veil of secrecy is to be drawn over the genesis of the caste system, who it served and how it was perpetuated. This lends credence to the falsity that what is has always been and will continue to be. If it does not have an explicable and circumstance dictated birth, all the more harder to explain that it can be taken to its grave. Hence ‘lower castes’ had better accept the social order as ordained, and semi-feudal land relations along with.

A similar sequence pertains to the RSS’s explosion when confronted with the impeccable evidence of beef eating Aryans or of waves of Aryan migration into India. Everything that denies the evidence of the Aryan as the born-of-soil cow worshipping Indian cuts into the logic of Muslims as ‘foreigners’ or ‘invaders’ or aliens. So RSS takes recourse to the logic that if you do not talk about the caste system or the beef-eaters in the class room, you will not colour the child’s mind. Never mind that in the confines of homes and society he will see casteism in practise, hear the terms by which certain professions are addressed, or learn the insinuation that beef-eaters are symbolized by lowly castes and Muslims. That all rituals, traditions, practices are brought about at given points of time in accordance with definite needs – this is an understanding which the class room will deny the child.

Women, of course, are to be dispatched home – from Taliban to Gorbachov, to RSS, they all have the same panacea for medievalization.

Step by Step Distortion

The agenda of saffronization has been carefully unfolded. First came the introduction of National Song as the compulsory song for schools in daily prayers. In its company arrived Saraswati Vandana as a daily prescription. In the same conference of education ministers which reacted severely against this, a Mr. Rajput was introduced to present a paper on educational reforms. He subsequently has reappeared as Director of NCERT.

Next, under garb of an attack on ‘academic fascism’ and ‘imported left’ ideas, a change of guard was carried out in various prestigious centres. In the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) twelve historians had a second term left. None of them continued. The member secretary was not allowed to finish his term. Of the new team, three were on the VHP committee which argued the RSS stand on the Babri Masjid. The ICSSR, IIAS, AICTE and subsequently the NCERT were all constituted anew. The ‘Towards Freedom’ series commissioned by the ICHR had certain sections summarily rejected.

Now the NCERT under Rajput has come out with a theoretical document to explain a new curriculum which it says will be introduced from April 2002. The document hardsells the need for a religion based education, also stating the need to shift from ‘religious education to education about religion’. It fails to specify which NCERT document had yet advocated ‘religious education’, but Goebelsianism is the official religion now. The new document says Sanskrit is scientific and the language of Indian “life, traditions and festivals”! In speaking of women’s education it talks of invoking ancient Indian traditions. However, it also talks about the importance of e-commerce, internet and email and of supplying computers to rural areas.

The main target of the saffronization team as detailed earlier is (a) establishing of Aryans as son-of-the-soil Indians, (b) establishing the existence of a civilization near Saraswati river as the oldest civilization in India, which was highly advanced and developed, (c) establishing the Vedic traditions as the only contributions of ancient India ignoring the old materialists, the contribution of Buddhist period in India, and other aspects. In this too, there are problems. One is, some details should be taught of the actual advancements of civilizations of any period, a second aspect is of mythical advancements.

In total, the version of the upper caste Hindu male is then to be the version of Indians and India.

Distortions in the teaching will also cover up the genesis of the caste system. The other serious aspect of what the Hindutva team is upto must be viewed from the way other religious minorities like Sikhs (whom the RSS anyway labels as ‘variants of Hinduism’) are being provoked to rise against phrases which describe the military character of their gurus. Actually textbook writing can hardly be the job of mob frenzies. It is entirely possible that current texts are distorted or contain unnecessary information. The method of informed correction is to gather together the experts on the matter and let them revise material from time to time.

Instead Murli Manohar Joshi is on the rampage with wild expletives against ‘left’ historians. RSS theoreticians write of them as ‘apologists of Islam, pampered by Nehru’. The problem lies by not pinpointing how the country is going to deal with ancient history. The scientific method would involve the explanations to be based on archeological evidence, supplemented by written material of that period and to admit that beyond this our knowledge is incomplete. But the real fascists – and they are not at all exhibiting their academic skills – the Hindutva Brigade, cannot possibly afford to subject their agenda to scientific scrutiny. It may also be interesting to know that across the border, Zia was a strong advocate of totally decreasing the teaching of history to Pakistani students. His aim, of course, was to draw a veil over the shared history with India.

Where do we go from here? The answer will be in the progressive students, youth and intellectuals coming together to stand up for a scientific education system, and an end to dual education policy. Even if we were to go back to status quo -is it true that under Congress rule there were no communal distortions in the teaching of history? Or that colonial distortions were removed? Since this is not the case, it is necessary to present our own case before the large masses of students and intellectuals while also to build a broad  based movement against the current attack of the Hindutva brigade.

Academic Fascism or Freedom?

Following a cabinet meeting of Gujarat Govt. on 12th Dec. 2001, a circular was issued by the BJP Govt. of the state to all schools. It asked them to observe the anniversary of the 26th January earthquake by singing saraswati vandana, holding prabhat pheris, lighting 101 lamps with pure ghee in front of images of Bharat Mata and performing ‘dharati pujan’ to appease “Mother Earth”. It makes it mandatory for schools to send 5 photos of the ceremonies along with a two page report to the chief of salary section of their districts.

There is not even a line in the Circular for educating children on either seismological and scientific reasons behind the disaster or discussing the role of builders in the devastation. What is this, academic freedom?

(Based on Report in Hindustan Times dated 26th January, 2002)