(Please make sure you have read the previous post before reading this one)
1. Lack of discipline although not an enforced trait by the education, it is only because there is a lack of discipline training in the education curriculum.
2.Fascination of foreign things and Ability to do only as taught - are a direct result of the British education policy for the Indians.That was the prime goal of their education system.
3. Inability to judge relevance of present conventions is the result of Destruction of the "capability of original thought". The "cramming" method of education followed in our schools serves the purpose of destroying the ability of original thinking. The questions are given; the answers are taught. "THIS" is the method, "THIS" is where it is to be used. In this process there is no scope for original thinking on the students part. There is no scope for the students own contribution.
4. Thinking in rigid categories is also a result of the same thing. Our education system turns people into "the proverbial carriage horse with blinds".When all the answers are given to you and you are to answer only as taught, you start to think in categories. I do not need to elaborate or justify this any further. Just look around you and everywhere you will find this phenomenon.
5. Short sightedness goes in sync with inability to judge relevance of present conventions.Status quo status quo - fear of change, resistance to change,"Crisp" logic all contribute to create short-sightedness.
6. Fear of change and Resistance to change is the result of not knowing the boundaries and limitaions of everything that has been taught. In school or college, students are given a fixed framework and they have to work within that framework. They are not told what the boundaries are or why they are there. They are taught the techniques and the problems which can be solved using them .But the boundaries of applicability of those techniques is not taught properly to them. In other words, students do not have "Knowledge of Structure". They only know facts and techniques and where they have to be applied. They do not know where "else" they can be applied or where they "cannot" be applied.
7. The "chalta hai" attitude or indifference I think is the result of Destruction of Fascination of students about any subject. No matter how interesting a subject is, when it comes into academics, it loses its juice and becomes drab. This is true whether it is at school level or college level.All subjects irrespective of their potential for arousing interest become the same for students.The format for teaching them is the same - Questions and Answers supposed to be memorized. All subjects turn into a memory game with little or no scope for self-expression. Isn't that obvious? When there is no scope for you - the learner to express your views about the subject how can the fascination remain? And then all subjects start to appear the same.
8. False sense of tolerance is a degenerate effect of the "chalta hai" indifferent attitude.
9. The "I am superior, you are inferior" attitude is a grand legacy left by the British Raj. The British have psychologically ruled - no,owned Indians for 200 years and continue to do so. The slave mindset has not disappeared yet. Every person wants to dominate the other at the next opportunity. People want to take the role of the Sahib and bask in the feeling of superiority and get respect and all that comes along with it rather than enjoying equality and a mutual feeling of respect.When people rise high in the hierarchy they start dominating their juniors. There is a kind of superiority barrier between professors and students in India. Elsewhere professors treat students like friends and there is no communication barrier.
Most common thing is that Security personnel start abusing their powers. They take shots at their "subjects" and harass them whenever they wish to. They show supreme distrust towards the employees of that particular organisation as if they are the champions of the security of the organization and the employees are only there to breach it! Now we need to recognize the fact that "Trust" is the basis of any "organization". Otherwise we might as well ask what guarantee do we have that the armed security guards holding rifles will not shoot us in the head if they wish to. Nobody can give such a guarantee.No amount of paperwork will do that. No one can vouch for someone else. Do you see what I am trying to say?
All the so called leaders are addressed as Honorable so-and-so. One thing that often comes to my mind is this apparent projection that the ruler is a superior "being" as compared to his subjects. Aren't common people honorable? Aren't people distinguished in different fields like renowned scientists or singers honorable? By all means, leaders of the people are meant to serve the people and are supposed to be more humble than the people. I might be sounding utopic but the point I am trying to make is that this is precisely the legacy of the Raj. The elected representatives of the people are professionals just like any other professionals. Even if they are "ruling" the country or dispensing their duties they are by no means beings belonging to a "Higher Realm." This was the modus operandi of the British - to project an image of superiority of rulers over their subjects. This image was carefully preserved by them. And now we are doing the same!
10. I do not know from where Cynicism, Hypocricy and Difficulty to learn new things came from.
It seems that cynicism is widely observed among atheists.This education system has also succeeded in creating atheists who are aloof from any sort of religious beliefs. That was one more objective of the Macaulayian education system - To make sure that all idol worshipping is annihilated. Lord Macaulay stated that if proceeded according to his vision, in just 30 years there shall be no idolators left among the Indians. Read his statement in Wikipedia.
Here, I am not trying to argue in favour or against atheism. I am only trying to present my observations as they are. I just cant stop being amazed by Lord Macaulay's vision and its astounding success rate.
( Now dont start saying "yeah yeah, these things can be found universally. Its all the same. So whats new?" Some of them are indeed unique to Indians. And even if we know that others are erring and we are also erring in the same way, it is not the case that we are NO WORSE than them; it means we are GREATER fools!)
But overall , I call their generation as the "Bully" generation. They might have suffered a lot in olden days but they do not feel that the chain should stop with them. They want to continue with the same trend. For those who might not know - a Bully is a person who tries to dominate and harass others as a means of overcoming his own Insecurity which is the result of his facing atrocities and pain in his childhood, inflicted by someone else. It is that game of Kho-Kho which is observed in the convention of Ragging of juniors.
But I must say one thing. This same system has turned our generation into smart, fast, learning machines. But ironically - Machines lacking the "Knowledge of Structure". Machines lacking "Application-oriented" training. Machines working more in the theoretical domain rather than practical.
Therefore, Apropos the popular (junky) punchline - I was born intelligent but education ruined me!
The main thing to be conveyed is that this education system was never meant to do good. It wasn't meant to empower or to impart wisdom. It is just an assembly line for creating Instruments of control and propogation of British ideology. And that it has achieved with immaculate precision. It has created the educated Indian elite who takes pride in English education; carries a feeling of superiority over vernacular medium people; who despises core Indian beliefs and requires a stamp of authenticity from the west over anything Indian to make it worthy of being followed. Take Yoga for example.
And I reckon what consequently happened is that the intellectual demolition and automatisation served well when there was a guiding force of the British intellect. They wanted intellectual slaves to implement the British Raj decisions. Now that they are gone, there is nothing to guide the slave's energies. Therefore the slaves have now sunken deep into the quicksand of their own ignorance. All their own human negative tendencies have taken over the driving force of their decision making faculties or rather the lack of it. And the result can be seen EveryWhere (and EveryWhen) in our country!
And accordingly no changes are being made in the education system (..as per the guiding principles of Ignorance). Our intellectual roots where chopped off when we were conditioned by the system and we continue to do so to the next generations to come!
Shouldn't this 'Matrix' be shut down (...and revamped offcourse! ) before every single person is converted into 'Agent Smith'? What say?!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Symptoms of a disease plaguing an entire Generation
There are certain traits which I have observed in people from our "parent's generation". And these I have observed with startling consistency. Let me present them in front of you. I have given arbitrary examples along with them which indicate the presence of those traits, just for the sake of completion. I am certain you wise people know better!
(By saying our parents generation, I wish to highlight the point that the people presently at Decision making levels in all Indian organisations are people from that generation.)
1.Lack of discipline
e.g The lining of every public staircase is red (the red of paan), filth is littered everywhere on roads, railway lines ad infinitum.
2.Resistance to change
Do I need to elaborate on this? Anyways for the sake of it let me give some examples. When computerisation started people opposed it. Now if IT systems are brought in to minimise paperwork in govt.offices people with oppose.Introduction of digital meters for auto-rikshaws has been opposed.Any procedural change for improving efficiency is vigorously opposed by people. Forget organisations, even at your home if you try to change certain ways of doing things, just check the reactions of your parents. I don't need to say any more.
3."Chalta hai" i.e indifferent attitude
Ranging from potholed roads, open (red) distribution boxes on roads,tangled overhead distribution lines right upto terrorist attacks people are "getting used" to all these things!
4.Difficulty to learn new things
How many govt employees can make full fledged use of email? Forget email, how many can use all the features of their mobile phone?
5.Awestruck fascination for "foreign" things
e.g : Narain karthikeyan compared to Michael Schumacher, Mumbai compared with Shanghai, Brahmos compared with Tomahawk...
Other than that if a "Gora firangi" is seen in a public place just look at the awe with which people stare at him. I have heard my friend's experience onsite in England that our people stand up by default if a white collegue comes near them while they are working. That is an inner tendency to apparently show respect to a white as is successfully imbibed by the British 'Indian' education.
6.Ability to do things only as they have been taught
Old Govt. red tape still is as it was 50 yrs ago.Matter in govt.documents is still following same template followed on and on for generations.The industry has shifted to the American way of writing letters which is more direct, crisp and simple, unlike British way which is pompous and cumbersome for e.g "Kindly" is replaced by "Please", "Thank you" instead of "Thanking you",a simple "me" instead of "the undersigned".
Have you tried to understand any legal document like an agreement for Leave and License? Can someone tell me what "hereby" and "thereby" mean ?(really I mean it, I am sincerely asking this question..) Really is it required that legal documents be so cryptic and pompous?
7.Attitude between Parent and Child, Boss and Subordinate,Security personnel and Ordinary people, Customer and Waiter like British Sahib and Indian Slave
In short this can be called "I am superior, you are inferior attitude"
Majority Indian organisations have this problem.The sahib wants fear, respect and unconditional obedience from his slave and his job is to extract work from slave.A similar attitude is observed between senior and subordinate.This may give good results for manual abour and clerical jobs but it is being applied to creative
endeavours like research and development!
8.Inability to judge the relevance of present conventions
Check the colour of all government buildings- the same dull,dead,unenthusiatic colours used to paint even after 50 yrs. of independence. I am yet to see a govt. building with bright coloured walls.Ask anyone why do we need to used dull colours to paint govt. buildings. They will say there must be "some reason" but wont be able to point out exactly what it is.(..or maybe that they dont have the time to think about such insignificant issues!)
People do not realise that the aim of use of such colours by the Raj was to finish off every bit of enthusiasm of "clerks" and that they should not be inspired to get any creative ideas outside their sphere of work. Thus they become nothing more than "supressed and depressed" accounting machines.
Has anyone given this a thought that if the workplace is made vibrant with light and pleasant colours, what psychological effect it will have on people, that they would feel enthused and that they would like working there.
9.Fear of change
No admisnistrative, judicial or academic procedures are being revamped for the fear of the "unknown" repercussions...Everybody complains about bureaucracy and red tape but no one wants to do something about it.
10.Short-sightedness
Even when Dr.Ambedkar stated that reservations should only be enforced for 10 years after independence, it has continued for over 60 years. They are still not being removed for fear of losing votes. Look at the horrendous dimensions the reservation 'thing' has assumed. It has had the effect of degradation of the quality of HR and consequently the quality of work also.
Theres one funny analogy I wish to make. Suppose there are two regiments of soldiers - Brahmin and Quota Regiment. The former is trained with assault rifles and the latter managed to train only with pistols because of their "backwardness". Now in order to uplift the Quota regiment would you give them preference to go to War first by giving them reserved seats for war? Naturally the pistol training is going to prove inadequate and they are going to have maximum casualties. Would you rather make "sure" that the Quota regiment get proper assault rifle training for their upliftment?
Exactly the same is happening w.r.t higher education. Reserved category students get into Higher Ed. and are not able to cope up. The result is multiple KTs or worse - year drop. One direct example is that my own class strength in First year engineering was 60 but by the time we reached last year of engineering we were reduced to a little less than 40! And make no mistake, the ones getting KTs and drops were from reserved category. Merit.Defeated.
The people of their generation genuinely lack vision. I am not talking just about politics. Even about small household matters you will notice the same thing!
11.Failure to take responsibilty
After the recent terrorist attacks, not even a single authority accepts a failure of their functioning.No one takes responsibility for their failure.Its all a blame game.Our so called leaders lack the intestinal fortitude and humility to introspect.
12.Cynicism
Talk about any problem, talk about possible solution to the problem and anyone you talk to will respond "This wont achieve anything.Kuch nahi ho sakta.It has been this way and will continue this way.Yeh aisa hi rahega"
13.Thinking in rigid categories i.e crisp logic
Let me give a very relevent example. When I talked to people regarding the Govt. building colours and asked why should dull colours be used, why not vibrant colours then one of the arguments was " How can you use "bright" colours? They will look very offensive and shouting!" Then I had to clarify that when I say "not dull" that does not mean "Very bright" like Red, Crimson, Yellow,Green (i.e fundamental colours). I mean light and pleasant colours like light blue, light pink, cream, light violet etc
Do you see, these people only think in extremes. Take anything else for that matter. They will argue only in terms of extreme ends.Observe their line of thought next time you talk about some issue.
14.False sense of tolerance.
This is essentially a derivative of "chalta hai" attitude but is a bit different. That the Indian public has tolerated anything and everything like pot holes, corruption, criminalisation of politics, inefficiency etc since the last 60 years is not an indicator of tolerance but of indifference and lethargy. These things are falsely projected as tolerance. What should never have been tolerated has been so. And that is why I feel that our generation is suffering because of the wrong tolerating policies of our parent's generation.
15.Hypocrisy
This is one thing I have widely observed in these people. That they do not want to admit the truth of the situation. Something like, if there is no work in office we will say that there is no work presently. But these people will never admit that. I must say our generation is frank and matter-of-fact about any situation which is not so with them.
16.Complacency.
These people will blatantly justify every single system they have been through whether it is education, work, life-take anything under the sun. The line of thought behind this phenomenon is : "(Since I have been through the given system or I am a product of this system) If I call the system flawed, it means that I am flawed". And then people get defensive about the system.
In the end, let me say a few words in general about people from that generation. Certain things that are too, tooo common you will agree.
They have this habit of comparing the salary, facilities, resources etc. they used to get with what we get now. Then if we say that certain improvements are required they will say you must be grateful what you get , when I was of your age, I used to get only...
They have this attitude that our generation people must be made to pay for whatever we get, that we must "earn" what all we get, including respect.Something like if they offer us a very competetive remuneration then it is imperative on them to "extract" an equivalent amount of work from us. This is what is called typically clerical attitude - if I pay one rupee I MUST get an equivalent payback i.e to extract every single drop of juice from every single rupee I pay. A simple example is that when the company orders new PC'c the Boss gets a new one and the assistant gets the Boss's old computer. This is the "We-will-make-you-pay-for-everything-you-get" attitude. Rather than thinking about the improvement in the organisation's efficiency by the new PC's everyone will get they have some other criteria of thinking.
And then there is : Because the systems in place presently are working, these are THE BEST systems. Whatever is going on presently is justified just because it is there. Something like : Just because I am alive, that means that I am living in the best possible way! That there are many ways of doing the same thing and that a more efficient sytem of doing the same thing could be used, never crosses these people's minds.
And last but not the least, the King of all tendencies: These people just LOVE complaining. Notice that "love" is in capital. In all matters from trivial to critical they prefer to keep complaining rather than getting up and doing something about it!
Majority of these traits can be directly traced back to the British 'Indian' education system. Let me elaborate in my next blog.
(By saying our parents generation, I wish to highlight the point that the people presently at Decision making levels in all Indian organisations are people from that generation.)
1.Lack of discipline
e.g The lining of every public staircase is red (the red of paan), filth is littered everywhere on roads, railway lines ad infinitum.
2.Resistance to change
Do I need to elaborate on this? Anyways for the sake of it let me give some examples. When computerisation started people opposed it. Now if IT systems are brought in to minimise paperwork in govt.offices people with oppose.Introduction of digital meters for auto-rikshaws has been opposed.Any procedural change for improving efficiency is vigorously opposed by people. Forget organisations, even at your home if you try to change certain ways of doing things, just check the reactions of your parents. I don't need to say any more.
3."Chalta hai" i.e indifferent attitude
Ranging from potholed roads, open (red) distribution boxes on roads,tangled overhead distribution lines right upto terrorist attacks people are "getting used" to all these things!
4.Difficulty to learn new things
How many govt employees can make full fledged use of email? Forget email, how many can use all the features of their mobile phone?
5.Awestruck fascination for "foreign" things
e.g : Narain karthikeyan compared to Michael Schumacher, Mumbai compared with Shanghai, Brahmos compared with Tomahawk...
Other than that if a "Gora firangi" is seen in a public place just look at the awe with which people stare at him. I have heard my friend's experience onsite in England that our people stand up by default if a white collegue comes near them while they are working. That is an inner tendency to apparently show respect to a white as is successfully imbibed by the British 'Indian' education.
6.Ability to do things only as they have been taught
Old Govt. red tape still is as it was 50 yrs ago.Matter in govt.documents is still following same template followed on and on for generations.The industry has shifted to the American way of writing letters which is more direct, crisp and simple, unlike British way which is pompous and cumbersome for e.g "Kindly" is replaced by "Please", "Thank you" instead of "Thanking you",a simple "me" instead of "the undersigned".
Have you tried to understand any legal document like an agreement for Leave and License? Can someone tell me what "hereby" and "thereby" mean ?(really I mean it, I am sincerely asking this question..) Really is it required that legal documents be so cryptic and pompous?
7.Attitude between Parent and Child, Boss and Subordinate,Security personnel and Ordinary people, Customer and Waiter like British Sahib and Indian Slave
In short this can be called "I am superior, you are inferior attitude"
Majority Indian organisations have this problem.The sahib wants fear, respect and unconditional obedience from his slave and his job is to extract work from slave.A similar attitude is observed between senior and subordinate.This may give good results for manual abour and clerical jobs but it is being applied to creative
endeavours like research and development!
8.Inability to judge the relevance of present conventions
Check the colour of all government buildings- the same dull,dead,unenthusiatic colours used to paint even after 50 yrs. of independence. I am yet to see a govt. building with bright coloured walls.Ask anyone why do we need to used dull colours to paint govt. buildings. They will say there must be "some reason" but wont be able to point out exactly what it is.(..or maybe that they dont have the time to think about such insignificant issues!)
People do not realise that the aim of use of such colours by the Raj was to finish off every bit of enthusiasm of "clerks" and that they should not be inspired to get any creative ideas outside their sphere of work. Thus they become nothing more than "supressed and depressed" accounting machines.
Has anyone given this a thought that if the workplace is made vibrant with light and pleasant colours, what psychological effect it will have on people, that they would feel enthused and that they would like working there.
9.Fear of change
No admisnistrative, judicial or academic procedures are being revamped for the fear of the "unknown" repercussions...Everybody complains about bureaucracy and red tape but no one wants to do something about it.
10.Short-sightedness
Even when Dr.Ambedkar stated that reservations should only be enforced for 10 years after independence, it has continued for over 60 years. They are still not being removed for fear of losing votes. Look at the horrendous dimensions the reservation 'thing' has assumed. It has had the effect of degradation of the quality of HR and consequently the quality of work also.
Theres one funny analogy I wish to make. Suppose there are two regiments of soldiers - Brahmin and Quota Regiment. The former is trained with assault rifles and the latter managed to train only with pistols because of their "backwardness". Now in order to uplift the Quota regiment would you give them preference to go to War first by giving them reserved seats for war? Naturally the pistol training is going to prove inadequate and they are going to have maximum casualties. Would you rather make "sure" that the Quota regiment get proper assault rifle training for their upliftment?
Exactly the same is happening w.r.t higher education. Reserved category students get into Higher Ed. and are not able to cope up. The result is multiple KTs or worse - year drop. One direct example is that my own class strength in First year engineering was 60 but by the time we reached last year of engineering we were reduced to a little less than 40! And make no mistake, the ones getting KTs and drops were from reserved category. Merit.Defeated.
The people of their generation genuinely lack vision. I am not talking just about politics. Even about small household matters you will notice the same thing!
11.Failure to take responsibilty
After the recent terrorist attacks, not even a single authority accepts a failure of their functioning.No one takes responsibility for their failure.Its all a blame game.Our so called leaders lack the intestinal fortitude and humility to introspect.
12.Cynicism
Talk about any problem, talk about possible solution to the problem and anyone you talk to will respond "This wont achieve anything.Kuch nahi ho sakta.It has been this way and will continue this way.Yeh aisa hi rahega"
13.Thinking in rigid categories i.e crisp logic
Let me give a very relevent example. When I talked to people regarding the Govt. building colours and asked why should dull colours be used, why not vibrant colours then one of the arguments was " How can you use "bright" colours? They will look very offensive and shouting!" Then I had to clarify that when I say "not dull" that does not mean "Very bright" like Red, Crimson, Yellow,Green (i.e fundamental colours). I mean light and pleasant colours like light blue, light pink, cream, light violet etc
Do you see, these people only think in extremes. Take anything else for that matter. They will argue only in terms of extreme ends.Observe their line of thought next time you talk about some issue.
14.False sense of tolerance.
This is essentially a derivative of "chalta hai" attitude but is a bit different. That the Indian public has tolerated anything and everything like pot holes, corruption, criminalisation of politics, inefficiency etc since the last 60 years is not an indicator of tolerance but of indifference and lethargy. These things are falsely projected as tolerance. What should never have been tolerated has been so. And that is why I feel that our generation is suffering because of the wrong tolerating policies of our parent's generation.
15.Hypocrisy
This is one thing I have widely observed in these people. That they do not want to admit the truth of the situation. Something like, if there is no work in office we will say that there is no work presently. But these people will never admit that. I must say our generation is frank and matter-of-fact about any situation which is not so with them.
16.Complacency.
These people will blatantly justify every single system they have been through whether it is education, work, life-take anything under the sun. The line of thought behind this phenomenon is : "(Since I have been through the given system or I am a product of this system) If I call the system flawed, it means that I am flawed". And then people get defensive about the system.
In the end, let me say a few words in general about people from that generation. Certain things that are too, tooo common you will agree.
They have this habit of comparing the salary, facilities, resources etc. they used to get with what we get now. Then if we say that certain improvements are required they will say you must be grateful what you get , when I was of your age, I used to get only...
They have this attitude that our generation people must be made to pay for whatever we get, that we must "earn" what all we get, including respect.Something like if they offer us a very competetive remuneration then it is imperative on them to "extract" an equivalent amount of work from us. This is what is called typically clerical attitude - if I pay one rupee I MUST get an equivalent payback i.e to extract every single drop of juice from every single rupee I pay. A simple example is that when the company orders new PC'c the Boss gets a new one and the assistant gets the Boss's old computer. This is the "We-will-make-you-pay-for-everything-you-get" attitude. Rather than thinking about the improvement in the organisation's efficiency by the new PC's everyone will get they have some other criteria of thinking.
And then there is : Because the systems in place presently are working, these are THE BEST systems. Whatever is going on presently is justified just because it is there. Something like : Just because I am alive, that means that I am living in the best possible way! That there are many ways of doing the same thing and that a more efficient sytem of doing the same thing could be used, never crosses these people's minds.
And last but not the least, the King of all tendencies: These people just LOVE complaining. Notice that "love" is in capital. In all matters from trivial to critical they prefer to keep complaining rather than getting up and doing something about it!
Majority of these traits can be directly traced back to the British 'Indian' education system. Let me elaborate in my next blog.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
A closer view of the Intellectual "Demolition Drive"...
Coming to the details of our schooling system and onwards, lets see the method followed and the immediate effect.
In school there are basically two or three languages, history, geography,maths and science.Later on it becomes algebra,geometry, physics,chemistry, biology and the like.
1)Languages i.e English, Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit etc
First the alphabets or "vyanjans" are learnt by heart.Then comes the grammer with vocabulary along the way.And then, it is the Reign of the prose (lessons) and poetry.All along the journey from 1st to 10th standard lessons are "taught". We have to read the lessons and learn the questions and their answers by heart.When the questions are asked in the exams we have to write the answers as taught in class.Here, proverbial correctness is given importance over grammatical correctness and beauty of expression.Essentially memory training.When I was in school, I always heard from everyone that language papers are "tough", you can never get full marks
and it is difficult to score in languages.This thing is projected with quite some pride and an air of proverbial superiority. But then I realised that in a language paper of 3 hours a lot of things have to be solved i.e answer in brief, answer in one sentence, reference to context, essay writing, letter writing (formal and informal), precis writing etc.The tight schedule DURING the 3 hours of the exam
that makes it tough. Question answers are essentially cramming work. But it doesnt stop there.You get, say approximately 10 mins for essay writing and letter writing and similar activities in the end. There is hardly any time to show your creativity and hence even essays and letters are memorised by students. Also, consider this: Does it ever happen in practical life that you give yourself 10 mins to draft a formal letter, say an application for LPG connection, and after 10 mins keep your pen down and whatever you have managed to write is sent as it is to its destination? In that case what is the relevance of the format followed in the language exams?
In my opinion, in language, beauty of expression or efficient conveying of ideas should be given importance.Proverbial correctness should be given least importance.Something like, in the paper even if students answer wrongly to the question but the answer is grammatically correct and the way of expression is good then the student should be given close to max marks even if the answer is wrong in context of the lesson.Lets say, for a 5 mark question reserve just 1 mark for correctness and the remaining 3.5 marks for beauty of expression, grammer and ah! yes, reserve the remaing half mark unconditionally according to the language
paper ideology and never give it away even if China joins the NATO or the earth turns upside down. All the while remember that the students are NOT going to ALWAYS write grammatically correct, gracefully expressed, proverbially "wrong" answers if given such an opportunity. This kind of assesment is only to ensure that the importance of language does not get compromised for "correctness".
And offcourse there is alot to be said about Sanskrit. Till now I have only heard from people (that includes teachers) that Sanskrit is "the most perfect language." There has been no further acknowledgement or utilisation beyond that. Offcourse it is indeed the most "mathematically" perfect language and structurally unambiguous.It is just perfect.But it has never been used beyond academic barriers. Let me share something I have read in the newspapers.
There is an Irish school in which Sanskrit is taught right since lower standards i.e our equivalent of Jr, Sr. KG. The Principal of the school says that it being phonetically unambiguous the children learn it very easily. Since the building blocks or "vyanjans"(in Devnagri script) consist of curved figures e.g ka, kha,ga etc it leads to faster development of the motor neuron skills of the children
while writing such curved figures. Learning Sanskrit right from the start also helps the children to grasp mathematics faster.There are a lot many benefits of learning this language from a very young age.
We had Sanskrit since 8th standard.And what was our point of view toward Sanskrit? : A highly Scoring subject!
What a pity we never realised the MASSIVE potential of this divine language. When I think about it now, I just wonder how immaculate the language is.And we Indians have been blending mathematics and poetry since antiquity!.. Remember Siddhanta
Shiromani by Bhaskaracharya. And we never had use of any punctuation in Sansrit, it has been borrowed from western languages.It is the sheer beauty of this language that it could take a compact form and yet convey a thousand meanings that too without ambiguity!!!!
2)History and Geography:
Truly speaking we never learnt the essence of history. It was just a collection of events arranged chronologically with perfectly fabricated reasons behind them and resulting consequences. All I have heard from my teachers is "We need to study history so that we can learn from our past mistakes". Thats a cliche'.
We never felt the spirit of the struggle. The significance of events never reached our hearts. History was the subject with the worst "cramming" requirement. We coudn't even reason out ourselves like in science; the reasons were already written down for us. Hitlers atrocities were summarized in just one word - Anti-semitism.What would have happened if we were told in detail what holocaust
means - what is it that hatred causes.Now when I read about concentration camps, about Russian 'Gulag' camps,about invasion by Timur Lenk do I get some idea what it would have been like... Thus, History was reduced to nothing more than a subject of academics.
Geography was just a collection of facts and "fractal" figures.Which region has what characteristics, what minerals,climate,natural resources, what capital, human population etc. etc. We had everything starting from Bombay, Maharashtra, India, Asia, Europe,Tundra, Taiga,Mediterranean to the not-so-Mediterranean in our geography. But even today I cannot say with confidence which road goes to Goa, when I have to make use of it. Also, I always keep highlighting that Mumbai is famous for its textile industry even after all the mills have shut down. Seems that I might have taken too much effort to by-heart that Mumbai is well-known for its textiles...
So basically the purpose for teaching geography has failed miserably.(I don't blame myself.)
3)Maths and Science.
Mathematics was purely learning of numbers and techniques. The process can be described in entirety thus :"THIS is the technique.THIS is WHERE you use it and THIS is HOW you use it" The domain of applicability, the condition of applicability of the technique is not conveyed to the students. i .e The "Knowledge of Structure" is not imparted to students. That is why they can use the technique ONLY where they have been taught it can be used.
I myself have always had this nagging feeling from inside that I have learnt lot many techniques like Laplace transform,Fourier transform, vector calculus, Beta-Gamma functions etc. but I am not able to use them in an original way to an entirely NEW problem.
Coming to science, it also has a limited scope for the students to think or reason out themselves. It consists of facts,techniques, reasons to be crammed. What we perceive as the component of "understanding" in science can in reality be described thus: the phenomenon is explained, the reasons are told and also the reasons for reasons if possible.There is this "Phenomenon" and there are "Reasons". There are arrows pointing from the "Phenomenon" to the "Reasons". Associating those arrows in our minds is what we perceive as "Understanding". This process genuinely has no contribution from the "thinker" i.e the student and hence cannot be classified as "understanding".
If we consider experiments in science, then those are stereotyped. The aim is given and the result is expected. The emphasis of students and teachers or professors for that matter is on getting "correct" results (there's that word "Correct" again...) Honest results are not appreciated and therefore people resort to manipulation. The spirit of exploration is missing.Experiments are truly not experiments at all.(One far reaching implication is that we Indians have been reduced to nothing but manipulators, with unique "Jugaad" technology)
(One thing I would like to add, I always get the feeling that no matter how interesting or fascinating the subject maybe, when it enters the academic syllabus it loses all its "juice" and becomes drab and uninteresting.And this thing is applicable right from the school level to even engineering undergraduate course. Do you think this is a coincidence? Or there a deeper sinister reason?
In short, all subjects have been reduced to more or less the same thing in the given Academic framework.The boundaries are set.We have to work always within those academic boundaries.We never need to think about those boundaries and what is beyond.We have to memorize facts, techniques, and fool around with reasoning in between all the time perceiving that we are "understanding". And as a result
an average Indian has been reduced to the typical example of a carriage horse with those blinds on its eyes. This has imbibed in Indians what can be called "Compartmentalized Thinking". We always tend to think in categories. We try
to put all of our experiences in one of those compartments. For e.g something is good or bad...conventionally studying is good, TV is bad, computer games are bad, "working" is good, story books are bad. In reality nothing is good or bad,everything has both the aspects and depends on what the thing is used for. It is the use which makes it good or bad. Or other instance is something is considered as "right" or ideal and the rest are plainly "wrong". The truth - there are many different ways of doing things, some are more efficient than the others. This distortion in thinking can best be described using the classic Bushism :"Either you are with US or the TERRORISTS" We Indians find it difficult to think fuzzy, to see things as they are and not as we perceive them to be.
The British in essence wanted to create clerks when they started this education system - people who can do only as much as been taught and nothing more. Our schools are essentially massive assembly lines for "clerks".
Students are discouraged from reading anything other than texbooks out of the fear that they will get distracted from studies.As a result, they are not introduced to new ideas. Their minds remain closed to anything other than academics. As they grow up they develop aversion to reading, even otherwise. Thus the channels of introducing new ideas are closed. See, the everything fits so nicely to the same theme and scheme of things. I remember when I was in school I always hoped that I would get a nice storybook or novel as a competition-prize but what I got was some General Knowledge book or maybe a book of experiments. When I stood 2nd in 7th standard, I thought THIS time I will get something interesting but it turned out to be the same old story. To this day I keep on brooding over this disappointment...
As we can see, each and every detail of this picture fits so beautifully into the scheme. The British "Indian" education system has turned us Indians into accounting machines with fixed ideas and "Crisp" logic. The worst part is that such a mindset reflects in each and every sphere of activity down to personal life and personal decisions. It has affected the personal,professional, social, political and every other sphere that you can think of.
In the light of this realization, think about what has been going on in this country for the past 60 years.. (and observe the pattern that emerges!)
In the next blog, I will discuss traits observed in the Indian psyche as a result of being conditioned by this system for decades.(I should say centuries)
In school there are basically two or three languages, history, geography,maths and science.Later on it becomes algebra,geometry, physics,chemistry, biology and the like.
1)Languages i.e English, Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit etc
First the alphabets or "vyanjans" are learnt by heart.Then comes the grammer with vocabulary along the way.And then, it is the Reign of the prose (lessons) and poetry.All along the journey from 1st to 10th standard lessons are "taught". We have to read the lessons and learn the questions and their answers by heart.When the questions are asked in the exams we have to write the answers as taught in class.Here, proverbial correctness is given importance over grammatical correctness and beauty of expression.Essentially memory training.When I was in school, I always heard from everyone that language papers are "tough", you can never get full marks
and it is difficult to score in languages.This thing is projected with quite some pride and an air of proverbial superiority. But then I realised that in a language paper of 3 hours a lot of things have to be solved i.e answer in brief, answer in one sentence, reference to context, essay writing, letter writing (formal and informal), precis writing etc.The tight schedule DURING the 3 hours of the exam
that makes it tough. Question answers are essentially cramming work. But it doesnt stop there.You get, say approximately 10 mins for essay writing and letter writing and similar activities in the end. There is hardly any time to show your creativity and hence even essays and letters are memorised by students. Also, consider this: Does it ever happen in practical life that you give yourself 10 mins to draft a formal letter, say an application for LPG connection, and after 10 mins keep your pen down and whatever you have managed to write is sent as it is to its destination? In that case what is the relevance of the format followed in the language exams?
In my opinion, in language, beauty of expression or efficient conveying of ideas should be given importance.Proverbial correctness should be given least importance.Something like, in the paper even if students answer wrongly to the question but the answer is grammatically correct and the way of expression is good then the student should be given close to max marks even if the answer is wrong in context of the lesson.Lets say, for a 5 mark question reserve just 1 mark for correctness and the remaining 3.5 marks for beauty of expression, grammer and ah! yes, reserve the remaing half mark unconditionally according to the language
paper ideology and never give it away even if China joins the NATO or the earth turns upside down. All the while remember that the students are NOT going to ALWAYS write grammatically correct, gracefully expressed, proverbially "wrong" answers if given such an opportunity. This kind of assesment is only to ensure that the importance of language does not get compromised for "correctness".
And offcourse there is alot to be said about Sanskrit. Till now I have only heard from people (that includes teachers) that Sanskrit is "the most perfect language." There has been no further acknowledgement or utilisation beyond that. Offcourse it is indeed the most "mathematically" perfect language and structurally unambiguous.It is just perfect.But it has never been used beyond academic barriers. Let me share something I have read in the newspapers.
There is an Irish school in which Sanskrit is taught right since lower standards i.e our equivalent of Jr, Sr. KG. The Principal of the school says that it being phonetically unambiguous the children learn it very easily. Since the building blocks or "vyanjans"(in Devnagri script) consist of curved figures e.g ka, kha,ga etc it leads to faster development of the motor neuron skills of the children
while writing such curved figures. Learning Sanskrit right from the start also helps the children to grasp mathematics faster.There are a lot many benefits of learning this language from a very young age.
We had Sanskrit since 8th standard.And what was our point of view toward Sanskrit? : A highly Scoring subject!
What a pity we never realised the MASSIVE potential of this divine language. When I think about it now, I just wonder how immaculate the language is.And we Indians have been blending mathematics and poetry since antiquity!.. Remember Siddhanta
Shiromani by Bhaskaracharya. And we never had use of any punctuation in Sansrit, it has been borrowed from western languages.It is the sheer beauty of this language that it could take a compact form and yet convey a thousand meanings that too without ambiguity!!!!
2)History and Geography:
Truly speaking we never learnt the essence of history. It was just a collection of events arranged chronologically with perfectly fabricated reasons behind them and resulting consequences. All I have heard from my teachers is "We need to study history so that we can learn from our past mistakes". Thats a cliche'.
We never felt the spirit of the struggle. The significance of events never reached our hearts. History was the subject with the worst "cramming" requirement. We coudn't even reason out ourselves like in science; the reasons were already written down for us. Hitlers atrocities were summarized in just one word - Anti-semitism.What would have happened if we were told in detail what holocaust
means - what is it that hatred causes.Now when I read about concentration camps, about Russian 'Gulag' camps,about invasion by Timur Lenk do I get some idea what it would have been like... Thus, History was reduced to nothing more than a subject of academics.
Geography was just a collection of facts and "fractal" figures.Which region has what characteristics, what minerals,climate,natural resources, what capital, human population etc. etc. We had everything starting from Bombay, Maharashtra, India, Asia, Europe,Tundra, Taiga,Mediterranean to the not-so-Mediterranean in our geography. But even today I cannot say with confidence which road goes to Goa, when I have to make use of it. Also, I always keep highlighting that Mumbai is famous for its textile industry even after all the mills have shut down. Seems that I might have taken too much effort to by-heart that Mumbai is well-known for its textiles...
So basically the purpose for teaching geography has failed miserably.(I don't blame myself.)
3)Maths and Science.
Mathematics was purely learning of numbers and techniques. The process can be described in entirety thus :"THIS is the technique.THIS is WHERE you use it and THIS is HOW you use it" The domain of applicability, the condition of applicability of the technique is not conveyed to the students. i .e The "Knowledge of Structure" is not imparted to students. That is why they can use the technique ONLY where they have been taught it can be used.
I myself have always had this nagging feeling from inside that I have learnt lot many techniques like Laplace transform,Fourier transform, vector calculus, Beta-Gamma functions etc. but I am not able to use them in an original way to an entirely NEW problem.
Coming to science, it also has a limited scope for the students to think or reason out themselves. It consists of facts,techniques, reasons to be crammed. What we perceive as the component of "understanding" in science can in reality be described thus: the phenomenon is explained, the reasons are told and also the reasons for reasons if possible.There is this "Phenomenon" and there are "Reasons". There are arrows pointing from the "Phenomenon" to the "Reasons". Associating those arrows in our minds is what we perceive as "Understanding". This process genuinely has no contribution from the "thinker" i.e the student and hence cannot be classified as "understanding".
If we consider experiments in science, then those are stereotyped. The aim is given and the result is expected. The emphasis of students and teachers or professors for that matter is on getting "correct" results (there's that word "Correct" again...) Honest results are not appreciated and therefore people resort to manipulation. The spirit of exploration is missing.Experiments are truly not experiments at all.(One far reaching implication is that we Indians have been reduced to nothing but manipulators, with unique "Jugaad" technology)
(One thing I would like to add, I always get the feeling that no matter how interesting or fascinating the subject maybe, when it enters the academic syllabus it loses all its "juice" and becomes drab and uninteresting.And this thing is applicable right from the school level to even engineering undergraduate course. Do you think this is a coincidence? Or there a deeper sinister reason?
In short, all subjects have been reduced to more or less the same thing in the given Academic framework.The boundaries are set.We have to work always within those academic boundaries.We never need to think about those boundaries and what is beyond.We have to memorize facts, techniques, and fool around with reasoning in between all the time perceiving that we are "understanding". And as a result
an average Indian has been reduced to the typical example of a carriage horse with those blinds on its eyes. This has imbibed in Indians what can be called "Compartmentalized Thinking". We always tend to think in categories. We try
to put all of our experiences in one of those compartments. For e.g something is good or bad...conventionally studying is good, TV is bad, computer games are bad, "working" is good, story books are bad. In reality nothing is good or bad,everything has both the aspects and depends on what the thing is used for. It is the use which makes it good or bad. Or other instance is something is considered as "right" or ideal and the rest are plainly "wrong". The truth - there are many different ways of doing things, some are more efficient than the others. This distortion in thinking can best be described using the classic Bushism :"Either you are with US or the TERRORISTS" We Indians find it difficult to think fuzzy, to see things as they are and not as we perceive them to be.
The British in essence wanted to create clerks when they started this education system - people who can do only as much as been taught and nothing more. Our schools are essentially massive assembly lines for "clerks".
Students are discouraged from reading anything other than texbooks out of the fear that they will get distracted from studies.As a result, they are not introduced to new ideas. Their minds remain closed to anything other than academics. As they grow up they develop aversion to reading, even otherwise. Thus the channels of introducing new ideas are closed. See, the everything fits so nicely to the same theme and scheme of things. I remember when I was in school I always hoped that I would get a nice storybook or novel as a competition-prize but what I got was some General Knowledge book or maybe a book of experiments. When I stood 2nd in 7th standard, I thought THIS time I will get something interesting but it turned out to be the same old story. To this day I keep on brooding over this disappointment...
As we can see, each and every detail of this picture fits so beautifully into the scheme. The British "Indian" education system has turned us Indians into accounting machines with fixed ideas and "Crisp" logic. The worst part is that such a mindset reflects in each and every sphere of activity down to personal life and personal decisions. It has affected the personal,professional, social, political and every other sphere that you can think of.
In the light of this realization, think about what has been going on in this country for the past 60 years.. (and observe the pattern that emerges!)
In the next blog, I will discuss traits observed in the Indian psyche as a result of being conditioned by this system for decades.(I should say centuries)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Legendary Vision, Legendary Impact !
When I thought in detail about the statement of Lord Macaulay, I realised how each and every objective in his vision had been accomplished.
1)The moral value of our country has almost been demolished.
We can see public apathy toward all issues ranging from trivial to critical.The "chalta hai" attitude is rampant.There is a horrendous lack of discipline in the Indian public.I dont think I need to give examples; but I am yet to see a public staircase without a Red lining(courtesy: paan) The people have become insensitive to events around them.
2)A typical "clerk" type attitude has been inculcated i.e the ability to do only as much as been taught.
People are unable to think beyond boundaries.People are afraid of change.They dont know what might happen if something is changed in the system.They cannot judge the relevance of present conventions and systems and hence old and obsolete systems of administration,education,economics etc have been followed for decades without thinking about their applicability in the present.
3)Indians have an awestruck fascination of foreign things.
It used to be a thing of prestiege to possess "imported" things before the advent of globalisation.Even today our attitude toward 'white' visitors has an element of awe in it.Other than this, Indian achievements are always compared with a non-Indian reference.For e.g Does the Indo-Russian Brahmos missile have to be compared with American Tomahawk to prove its lethality? The Indian
AAD Ballistic missile defense compared with American PAC-3(Patriot Advanced Capability -3)? Narain Karthikeyan was compared with Michael Schumacher in his debut year!Shoudn't utility be the criterion for assessing the value of our achievements?We always need a Non-Indian endorsement to prove the value of our work.Even the top-most people in Indian organisations have this tendency to project Indian achievements as "Best in the world" or "first in the world".Rather than let the product speak for itself, they have to speak for it!
We indeed have a feeling of inferiority compared to other countries like US,Japan or the EU.Although foreign technology in indeed superior to Indian one (I am yet to hear of a genuine "Indian" technology),for e.g Manufacturing capabilities of EU or US are far better than India, nevertheless, that feeling is innate in us.
4)India has indeed forgotten her cultural heritage.
Indians have forgotten their ancient and immensely scientific and pragmatic way of life.Each and every thing in the Indian way of life i.e customs, traditions, rituals had a reason, a relevance.They have either been forgotten, or degenerated in some distorted manner or been followed blindly witout knowing its relevance.When the entire world is turning to the old and ancient Indian way of life for its sound, scientific basis , we Indians are busy apeing the West.There a millions of examples which are unworthy of mention by the virtue of their abundance; the food habits being just one among those.
Recently I saw an example on the ETV news :an Australian farmer/ researcher practised and studied the ancient Indian ritual of performing yagya for better harvest for about 20 years.The yagya makes use of dried cowdung and homemade ghee as an offering in the holy fire.There is a certain sequence of chanting mantras and lighting the sacrificial fire. As a result of the yagya the air gets purified and about 50 acres of land is influenced.He says that the resulting harvest is 50 % greater than otherwise and the fruits also are tastier! He has benefitted from the technique since 20 years and is now teaching the same to farmers in Pune! ( I am extremely happy to know that AND I am absolutely flabbergasted!!!!!!)
There is an even closer example.When I was discussing the same point about Indians forgetting their ancient traditions with my aunt and uncle they (retaliated and )told me about this.They know a farmer in their native place Rajapur.He makes use of only cowdung as manure and cow urine i.e "Gomutra" as a pesticide in his mango farm.He has bought 50 cows for this purpose.He gets an excellent harvest of alphonso mangoes and now has even started to export them to Europe!( A very heartening example indeed!) Such is the importance of cow in human life.
This is how the Grand vision of Lord Macaulay has been realised to the last bit.But there even deeper and far reaching manifestations of the British "Indian" education system.I will elaborate on them in my consequent blogs.
After going through the macro level perspective of the education system let me discuss the micro level picture of education and its immediate effects in my next blog.
1)The moral value of our country has almost been demolished.
We can see public apathy toward all issues ranging from trivial to critical.The "chalta hai" attitude is rampant.There is a horrendous lack of discipline in the Indian public.I dont think I need to give examples; but I am yet to see a public staircase without a Red lining(courtesy: paan) The people have become insensitive to events around them.
2)A typical "clerk" type attitude has been inculcated i.e the ability to do only as much as been taught.
People are unable to think beyond boundaries.People are afraid of change.They dont know what might happen if something is changed in the system.They cannot judge the relevance of present conventions and systems and hence old and obsolete systems of administration,education,economics etc have been followed for decades without thinking about their applicability in the present.
3)Indians have an awestruck fascination of foreign things.
It used to be a thing of prestiege to possess "imported" things before the advent of globalisation.Even today our attitude toward 'white' visitors has an element of awe in it.Other than this, Indian achievements are always compared with a non-Indian reference.For e.g Does the Indo-Russian Brahmos missile have to be compared with American Tomahawk to prove its lethality? The Indian
AAD Ballistic missile defense compared with American PAC-3(Patriot Advanced Capability -3)? Narain Karthikeyan was compared with Michael Schumacher in his debut year!Shoudn't utility be the criterion for assessing the value of our achievements?We always need a Non-Indian endorsement to prove the value of our work.Even the top-most people in Indian organisations have this tendency to project Indian achievements as "Best in the world" or "first in the world".Rather than let the product speak for itself, they have to speak for it!
We indeed have a feeling of inferiority compared to other countries like US,Japan or the EU.Although foreign technology in indeed superior to Indian one (I am yet to hear of a genuine "Indian" technology),for e.g Manufacturing capabilities of EU or US are far better than India, nevertheless, that feeling is innate in us.
4)India has indeed forgotten her cultural heritage.
Indians have forgotten their ancient and immensely scientific and pragmatic way of life.Each and every thing in the Indian way of life i.e customs, traditions, rituals had a reason, a relevance.They have either been forgotten, or degenerated in some distorted manner or been followed blindly witout knowing its relevance.When the entire world is turning to the old and ancient Indian way of life for its sound, scientific basis , we Indians are busy apeing the West.There a millions of examples which are unworthy of mention by the virtue of their abundance; the food habits being just one among those.
Recently I saw an example on the ETV news :an Australian farmer/ researcher practised and studied the ancient Indian ritual of performing yagya for better harvest for about 20 years.The yagya makes use of dried cowdung and homemade ghee as an offering in the holy fire.There is a certain sequence of chanting mantras and lighting the sacrificial fire. As a result of the yagya the air gets purified and about 50 acres of land is influenced.He says that the resulting harvest is 50 % greater than otherwise and the fruits also are tastier! He has benefitted from the technique since 20 years and is now teaching the same to farmers in Pune! ( I am extremely happy to know that AND I am absolutely flabbergasted!!!!!!)
There is an even closer example.When I was discussing the same point about Indians forgetting their ancient traditions with my aunt and uncle they (retaliated and )told me about this.They know a farmer in their native place Rajapur.He makes use of only cowdung as manure and cow urine i.e "Gomutra" as a pesticide in his mango farm.He has bought 50 cows for this purpose.He gets an excellent harvest of alphonso mangoes and now has even started to export them to Europe!( A very heartening example indeed!) Such is the importance of cow in human life.
This is how the Grand vision of Lord Macaulay has been realised to the last bit.But there even deeper and far reaching manifestations of the British "Indian" education system.I will elaborate on them in my consequent blogs.
After going through the macro level perspective of the education system let me discuss the micro level picture of education and its immediate effects in my next blog.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Silent storm...
it began when i first read Lord Macaulay's statement. here it is:
" I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and i have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth i have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that i do not think that we would ever conquer this country unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore i propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their culture and will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."
...and then i began to realise how powerful this man's vision was. Each and every objective in this statement has been accomplished. And Now the more i observe, the more i realise the how this "poison" is running through the veins of this once Great country called "Bharat"...manifestations of this vision i can see at every step - starting from my home,in school, in Indian organisations, on the streets, everywhere i can see...
The second thing that was, the seed of the storm is something i read in an exhibition by HBCSE- Homi Bhabha centre for science education.
In the 1960's American scientists were worried about the state of education in America. They set up a committee of scientists and thinkers to give recommendation on educational reforms.
The main finding of the committee was :
"The knowledge of structure is far more important than mastering of facts and techniques" .
Till today in our entire academic life, what else have we been doing other than mastering facts and techniques?! "Kya aap paanchvi paas se Tej hain?" ,Kyon?
Guess thats enough to start with, for today.
One last thing i would like to mention. the manifestions of these as i see them form an immaculately consistent picture. everything fits like a charm! I wish to convey to ye, the picture exactly as i see it...
As the entire picture opens up, i will keep posting. Even though there is tooo much to say even now, lots of observations till now but will be back later...
Good Night! and God Bless!
" I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and i have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth i have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that i do not think that we would ever conquer this country unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore i propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their culture and will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."
...and then i began to realise how powerful this man's vision was. Each and every objective in this statement has been accomplished. And Now the more i observe, the more i realise the how this "poison" is running through the veins of this once Great country called "Bharat"...manifestations of this vision i can see at every step - starting from my home,in school, in Indian organisations, on the streets, everywhere i can see...
The second thing that was, the seed of the storm is something i read in an exhibition by HBCSE- Homi Bhabha centre for science education.
In the 1960's American scientists were worried about the state of education in America. They set up a committee of scientists and thinkers to give recommendation on educational reforms.
The main finding of the committee was :
"The knowledge of structure is far more important than mastering of facts and techniques" .
Till today in our entire academic life, what else have we been doing other than mastering facts and techniques?! "Kya aap paanchvi paas se Tej hain?" ,Kyon?
Guess thats enough to start with, for today.
One last thing i would like to mention. the manifestions of these as i see them form an immaculately consistent picture. everything fits like a charm! I wish to convey to ye, the picture exactly as i see it...
As the entire picture opens up, i will keep posting. Even though there is tooo much to say even now, lots of observations till now but will be back later...
Good Night! and God Bless!
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