india on the move, our democracy, our education

8/13/2019 India on the Move, Our Democracy, Our Education

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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 .

india on the move, our democracy, our education

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