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Our Education System
Major problems of our education system are well known strong at the
college & post graduate level and weak at the school level, particularly in the
rural areas with teachers absent, lack of infra structure and the like
!n interesting insight into the inade"uacies of our education system isprovided by the following
#$n a television discussion about the %ood ill, the anchor at one point
asked in e'asperation, ()ow long can the middle classes be e'pected to
subsidise the poor*+ # said )arsh Mander on page of )industan .imes , the/0 th March, /1 /
2et us discuss the pros & cons of the "uestion posed by such a wise, all knowing
member of our media 3avan 4arma in his very illuminating & a very readable
book, #.he 5reat $ndian Middle 6lass7 opines that our middle class has hijacked
$ndia )e reveals, if $ remember right, that on adding up the total budget spent on
education by the centre and states together over the st 01 years of our
independence, it stands out that the budget spent on school education has beena small fraction of budget devoted for the college level and post graduate level
education here does the bulk of our population live* $n villages was their
primary need after independence for education at the gradate & post graduate
level or the school level * o who benefited most from this generosity* .he
middle classes ho were the decision makers* .he middle classes ho was
subsidi:ing whom, in this scenario*
)owever, one initiative with a vision of some thing like a ;oon chool in
every district of $ndia is alive and kicking, but is hardly remembered, which is
hardly talked about these days
)ere is a success story that $ heard from some one who was actively
involved in running this initiative and deserves to be better known
.he reference is to a system of schools started in 980 - .he
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-91-
.here are around 001 plus such schools today, one in each district of
$ndia, e'cept for .amil
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problem of such children adjusting to a new and different environment does e'ist
and it does re"uire a lot of patient and empathetic handling
-9/-
Our Democracy
efore thinking and discussing about the health of our democracy in $ndia
to day, let us have a "uick look back as to what was the state of affairs prior to
our e'periment with democracy hat kind of rulers we had had , what did they
do or did not do and how did they treat their people*
Gn an early morning of 9DD, we the young brigade of a large joint family ,
were asked by our Chacha ji [ fathers younger brother] to rush to his study and remove
& hide post haste all the bundles of some propaganda material, which our young
group had only the other day unloaded and arranged it in shelves e could not
understand the significance of this instruction , but carried out what our dear
Chacha ji desired !bout an hour later we saw a group of uniformed police enter
our house and search all over including the study, but could not find anything and
returned empty handed
.his was a raid ordered by the 3rime Minster to the Maharaja Gf 6hamba,
against the movement our Chacha JI had started to end the Begar Syste in the
state !s a child $ had seen earlier a number of times when my father , a forest
officer in the Maharaja7s administration, had to proceed on tour , the headman of
the village would be summoned $ clearly remember the head men of many
villages asking the same "uestion, ! Janab" #itne begaroo bhejun$ I sir, how manybegaroos should $ send*J
!nd the term Begaroo referred to unpaid labour from the village, who had to
put in days of work shifting the luggage of Maharaja7s officers trudging manually
up and down hills, since there were no motor road those days nor could tongas
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ply on the hilly terrain .hey were also not supposed to be fed and were e'pected
to manage on their own, though my father, may his soul rest in peace, being a
kindly hearted man would always arrange for their meals !nd this was the
routine for any officer going on tour
!nd would you agree that this was certainly a representative practice of the
times* 2et us savour the following K
-9 -
# .he king granted land and in return the recipient was re"uired to provide the
king with troops and money )e was given complete autonomy in the
administration of his affairsFFF .hey got the land cultivated from serfs, slaves
and forced labour .he Maha-samantas and samantas were the main stay of the
governmentFF .he king waged war but did not ruleH the great landowners
ruled but no longer as official, but as independent lordsFFF .hey
desperately fought on the battle fields and wasted their time in harems .hey
took pride in love making and indulged in intriguesFFF .heir halls were
decorated with gold, jewels and embroideriesFF Avery noble had the
ambition to con"uer the enemies or rivals of his country .hat resulted in regional
rivalries and wars which crippled the morale and strength of the country F .he
practice was to set fire to the towns and villages and the result was that all things
e'cept stones and pebbles were consumed by the fire .he earth was strewn
with broken skulls and fleshless skeletonsFF .he people were trained for
warfare from the beginningFF Avery thing led to a fight or war Aven a
marriage procession was turned into a battlefieldFF .he nobles robbed the
temples and fleeced the people .hey plundered the country .hey showed
utmost boorishness and brutality in their actions #I A'cerpt from chapter, #$ndia on the eve of Muslim con"uest7 in the beginning of th
century ,
7 )istory of medieval $ndia7 by 4 ; Mahajan I DJ
$t must have been an absolute hell for ordinary folks in those days
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( !ccording to ;r L 2al, the horrib%e sac# of &e%hi ['()*] was a crime as
barbarous as it was unwarranted )owever Ti ur +%eaded innocence," -hen he
-rote K
# y the will of 5od and by no wish or direction of mine all the three cities
of ;elhi had been plunderedF $t was my earnest wish that no evil might
happen to the people of the place But it -as ordained by .od that the city
shou%d be ruined/ )e therefore inspired the infidel inhabitants with a spirit of
resistance so that they brought on themselves that fate which was inevitable 7
.his was in reference to K
-9D-
( F on %riday night there were about 0111 men in the city, who were engaged
from early evening till morning in plundering & burning Gn the 8 th I;ecemberJthe like plundering went on Avery soldier obtained more than /1 persons as
slaves & some brought 11 men women & children as slaves out of the city .he
other plunder & spoils were K immense gems and jewels of all sorts, rubies,
diamonds F Gn the 9 th many infidel )indus had fled and taken refuge in a
mos"ue, where they were prepared to defend themselves Malik & ultan with
011 trusted men proceeded against them F dispatched them to hell )igh tower
were made of the heads of )indusF+I DJ
# $n D98 4asco da 5ama FF reached the $ndian coast .he open
harbour of Lo:hikode Ialso called 6alicutJ was filled with vessels of different
si:es and the beach was lined up with shop and ware housesFFF )e was
soon heading back to Aurope
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sei:ed it , that triggered riots in which a number of 3ortuguese were killed
6abral responded by lining up his ships and firing broadside into the city .he
amudrin was forced to flee from his palace ! number of merchant ships were
sei:ed and their sailors were burnt alive in full view of the people on shore
.hus began the Auropean domination of the $ndian ocean that would last
till the middle of twentieth centuryFFFF
ithin a few decades the 3ortuguese used their cannon to establish a
string of outposts in the $ndian ocean 6ontrol over cotra and Muscat allowed
-90-
them to control the red sea and 3ersian gulf respectively $n 0 1 they
con"uered 5oa FFF oon they had trading posts at Macau and >1 ,
which swept away a third of the population of engal and ihar ut it was all in
the cause of progress and engal can take pride in the fact that she helped
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greatly in giving birth to the industrial revolution in Angland .he !merican writer,
rooke !dams, tells us e'actly how this happened K .he influ' of $ndian
treasure , by adding consistently to the nation7s cash capital , not only increased
its stock of energy, but added much to its fle'ibility and the rapidity of its
movement
4ery soon after 3lassey, the engal plunder began to arrive in 2ondon
and the effect appears to have been instantaneous %or all authorities agree that
the industrial revolution began with year >>1FF 3lassey was fought in >0>
and probably nothing has e"ualed the rapidity of the change that followed $n
>=1 the flying shuttle appeared and coal began to replace the wood in smelting
-9=-
$n >=D )argreaves invented the spinning jenny, in >>= 6rompton contrived the
mule, in >80 6artwright patented the power loom and in >>= att matured the
steam engineFFFF $n themselves machines are passive F waiting for a
sufficient store of force to have accumulated to set them working .hat store
must take the shape of money, and money not hoarded but in motion efore the
influ' of $ndian treasure and the e'pansion of credit which followed , no force
sufficient for this purpose e'isted F 3ossibly since the world began, noinvestment has ever yielded the profit reaped from the $ndian plunder , because
nearly for fifty yeas 5reat ritain stood without a competitor # I//J
.he .able below, courtesy, # .he Bise and fall of 5reat 3owers7 by 3aul
Lennedy reinforces the above point of hri > = 8 = / 8 >
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ithin a period of 1 years I >01 to 881J, the share of manufacturing of
nited Lingdom multiplied more than / timesH where as that of $ndia E 3akistan
got s"uee:ed around 9 times Gf course one has to accept that, apart from the
undesirable colonial policies, this was also due to a high rise in productivity
arising from the machines introduced as part of the industrial revolution
%rom that background, let us step into democratic thinking
%ranklin ;elano Boosevelt, past 3resident of the nited tates of
!merica, author of the -# $t is difficult for us who live in the present day to reali:e what a
tremendous change this is from the time, a comparatively recent in the world7s
history , when the state was the instrument of despots for their own
aggrandi:ement and the great body of its citi:ens were mere serfs, chattels or
cannon fodder at the service of their overlords
e speak lightly of this being the era of democracy without reali:ing what
tremendous change has been brought about, or how it has revolutioni:ed theevery day e'istence of every one of us $n this building up of a theory of a
government , ( by the people, for the people+ our country has been the leader of
the civili:ed nations of the world 7 I/ J
$t is worthwhile remembering that over the last two centuries roughly, no
two democracies of the world have gone to war against each other # .here are
two things that will always be difficult for democratic people to doK to start a war
and finish it )e thought this was so because democracy cannot maintainidealism for too long a stretch K those who live under it put prosperity and material
well being above all ;emocracies can successfully only fight defensive wars7
says !le'is ;e .o"ueville in ;emocracy in !merica I/DJ
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ome notes form the famous author , %rancis %ukyama from his book,
#.he end of )istory and the last man7 would be very much in order K
!ccording to him the 5erman philosopher, )egel, attributes recognition as the
fundamental driver of human behaviour
$n the Master lave Belationship K .hose who were willing to fight and risk
their lives became mastersH and those unwilling to do so, preferring security
accepted to become slaves .he masters thus gained acceptance in the eyes of
the slaves that they are superior
)owever, they soon got fed up of this recognition from slaves .hus they
waged wars with neighbouring tribes, the neighbouring king to gain more
territory and thus prove that they are superior
-98-.hus the human story goes on K trying to prove that my community E caste
is superior, my religion is superior, my country E nation is superior etc
6hristianity is the st religion that raised the concept of e"uality in the eyes
of 5od ut it remained the religion of slaves, since in practice it did not push
the concept E aim to bring about change and accepted the status "uo as the
will of 5od !dvent of liberal democracy, is thus figuratively the end of history , since it
meets the human aspirations substantially .he slaves can overthrow the
masters after some interval 2iberal democracy has the added facet of being
able to voice your opinion on any theme E topic of your choice, which as a
slave was not possible
! better system is unlikely to be found, only refinement in practice is feasibleI.he end of )istory and the last man7 y %rancis %ukuyamaJ I/0J
$t would be worthwhile now to dwell on how well our democracy has done
when the same was ushered in with 6onstitution of $ndia being adopted by the
constituent assembly in 901
# %ew states created after the end of Auropean empire have been able to
maintain democratic routinesH and $ndia7s own past , as well as the contingencies
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of its unity, prepared it very poorly for democracy )uge, impoverished, crowded
with cultural and religious distinctions, with a hierarchical social order, almost
deliberately designed to resist the idea of political e"uality, $ndia had little
prospective reason to e'pect it could operate as a democracy Net fifty tears later
$ndia continues to have parliaments, courts of law, political parties and free
press, and elections for which hundreds of millions of voters turn out , as a result
governments fall and are formedFF the democratic idea has penetrated the
$ndian political imagination and has begun to corrode the authority of the social
order and of a paternalist state 7 I 0J
-99-
)aving been a witness to all the elections to the 3arliament and the state
assemblies right from 90 onwards, it can be stated with confidence that
elections have been held regularly, power has changed hands at the behest of
the electorate, the process has become more fair courtesy one man Mr .