There is something about the intellectual depth, social poise, and basic economy of this sub-continent, popularly known as Bharat or India, that defies categorization of a Western breed. In India, over millennia, education was never linked to literacy. It was oral in tradition, and mainly through two texts of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. These were orally transmitted across generations and learned as an approach to face life. Both texts were in Sanskrit, and over a period of time, they were rendered into local languages. Ramayana, for example, has its Tamil version and a North Indian version in Ramchartimanas. Mahabharata was also rendered into many Indian languages, where in some versions very identifiable changes took place. However, the core story remained the same. Perhaps the text was not a story; it was an exploration of life.
Ramayana had no revelations, no trips of ‘revelation’, either. It was a narrative, the story of a Maryada Purushottam (a very evolved human story of Ram). Mahabharata barring the narrative of Gita, was a history of an empire which rose and fell with its epic dimensions.
The recital of the Gita in the middle of a battlefield was more a lesson to Arjuna on the facts of life. Being on the battlefield, it was natural that the realities of birth and death were also touched upon, but there was no parting of the sky or of a ‘God’ communicating to earth. The recital was of Lord SriKrishna, who ultimately, like a normal mortal, met his end in a normal manner, in this case caused by an accident.
The coming in of Western education altered all that. It affected even the method of teaching of many communities. Illustratively, Islam, through the Madars as, was encouraging learning through sacred texts. Much of it is history, and much of that history is irrevocable. The Western form of education, placing all its emphasis on reading, writing, arithmetic, paper, and pen, obviously has its logic. One is entitled to ask if it does create the values which the Indian system of education imparted. Thus, the focus on professional earnings becomes the key output of the modern system of education.
The purpose of writing of these lines is not to praise one system of education or fault another. The writings of this paragraph and the ones that follow focus simply on the preparedness that education gives for life. It needs careful scrutiny to say that an education which does not create values cannot fulfil the objectives. Alphabets, and numerals do not give values.
Ramayana is the story of relationships. Even the worst culprits of the narrative still had some values which they practiced in this period. There were strong elements of interpersonal relationships. An important question therefore arises from all this, namely, how does one inculcate an education system which prepares for “values” and a life which is not only intellectually fulfilling, and emotionally rewarding (but also, in terms of norms and values) something which can be held out to everyone. It should be a fulfilling, peaceful life concurrently being realistic and futuristic.
The new education policy is a major contribution in that direction. It marks a beginning in an important direction by putting emphasis on the ‘Indianness’ of the content and the intellectual traditions on which traditional Indian education has survived. It’s good so far as it goes, but it needs to go further. The next level of human growth in India, will be the challenge to the education system’s content and structure.
Deciding upon an education system’s content and structure in a country as extensive and diverse as India is a unique situation to bat in. The unifying theme of ‘Indianness” is its tolerance and rootedness in mutual respect. Seeing unity from a diverse point of view is an elegantly Indian trait. This has to be one of the cornerstones for the direction of the education system in India.
Putting it in simple words, as in the above paragraph, makes it easy to comprehend. Yet, there is a major operational challenge ahead. If it is to be given expression in the design of instructions, the curriculum structure of educational institutions, and the nature of the books to be made available, then that is going to be a journey demanding patience, innovation, and foresight.
Above all, it will have to be rooted in mutual respect and patience to see the merit in other person’s point of view. Thus, it is that the foundations of general education will pan-out into the contents of specialized education. The challenges will be many, and at this stage, there has to be a search for any innovative integrated structure.
Mercifully, there are enough traditions in India which have kept this nation in a culturally unified mode that one has hope that the route marked above can be traversed.
The challenge will be on many fronts, one of them would be developing an idiom for the emergence of an integrative holistic model. Efforts in educational research will have to be intensified to chart out that path. It is going to be time-consuming and effortful.
At the same time, the nation must move forward, and until then, the present structure put in evolutionary mode may be the path-breaking effort to which all of us would need to contribute.
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