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Echoes from the Past: An Ode to Lost Gandhian Ideas of Education

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The year 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. His words are acknowledged far and wide for their deep-rooted wisdom which he presented in the most accessible language for all. Here is an intersectional piece on his ideas of social service and the education of children.

Since the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to interact with the children of the migrant labourers who were working in my college. Spending time with four of them made me realise and think deeply about a lot many things that are still happening, and are significantly pressing issues in India, which are sadly overlooked. Holding bricks in their little hands came more naturally to them than holding a book or a badminton racquet. This image, as simple as it might sound in its description, made me question the very living reality I am a part of.

In all of his seriousness, Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I would develop in the child his hands, his brains, his soul. Now the hands have almost atrophied and the soul has been ignored.” The words he spoke years ago ring a deathly cacophony in the face of modern India – an India built on hopes, dreams, and immense ambitions. Upon interacting with those children, I found how the very act of accessing good education is a dream too fancy to dream. They are a generation of unlettered Indians, much like their parents and grandparents. They will continue to be a part of the vicious labour cycle, because we have continued to sit quietly in our ignorance. In the actions on my part, I taught them to play badminton, how to read and write alphabets, and they taught me the value of privilege.

I hope that they all get an equal opportunity for a beautiful childhood because that is what every child deserves. That is a future our founding fathers longed for, and a future which they died for. It rattles me to the core, when we boast of the fact that India is developing and whatnot – is all of that true, or just a globalised facade while the local reality remains unnerving? There is a long way ahead of us with a long trail to tread. Are we mere paper tigers when it comes to implementation? It is here that Mahatma Gandhi’s words ring all the more true, in a dire need to be put into action, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” It surely is a battle, but one to be won with pen, patience, and systematic resistance, in going out and reaching to this parallel reality of India. It is at this powerful juncture the motto, “Each one, teach one” almost screams to me in all its naked truth. It screams how one person has the power to bring changes in their immediate ecosystems. It screams how we are just one action away from building our future and giving no individual effort in this pious task.

Every person has the right to lead a life of dignity, respect, and one where they are not exploited. Even spending as less as 15 minutes a day to teach something to an illiterate child can bring watershed changes in our society; one which have been lying dormant for the longest time. Brace up and buckle up, India. Every effort of every individual counts, and it is the time to contribute substantially to the cause of the leaders whose birth and death anniversaries we celebrate with pomp and show, while ironically rolling down our car windows to buy chai from young children who deserve an education.

Feature Image Credits: Amrashree Mishra for DU Beat

Amrashree Mishra

[email protected]

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Interviews

Katihar To Kennedy: The Road Less Travelled with Dr. Sanjay Kumar

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DU Beat engaged in a conversation with Dr. Sanjay Kumar, India Country Director, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University.

Priyanshu: Many students come from small towns and villages with dreams to pursue something big in life. But due to lack of exposure and good role models, they get stuck preparing for Government jobs or follow the conventional career path. As an academician and a social activist who went all the way from a small town in Bihar, Katihar, to Harvard Kennedy School, what can you suggest to these young minds?

Dr. Kumar: To begin with, it comes from parents initially. They try to condition you in a way that you should take up a particular line of action. To the students, I would like to suggest that each student is different and each human being has unique potential and, thus, they should explore that unique potential. Somehow, we believe that if the neighbour’s son is doing this, you should also be following the same. I faced this a lot. Even with my cousin brother my father used to say, “Yeh dekho CA ki padhai kar raha hai. Woh padhaai kar raha hai, usme bhi usko CA bana dete the. (Look at him, he is preparing to become a Chartered Accountant. If he is simply studying as well, then too they would make him a CA.)” It’s a wrong approach and every human being has a separate talent; and following the conventional path you do not get an opportunity to explore thing which you can explore as an individual. You don’t want to take chances in your life. At this age, I think one can definitely take chances. It is after midage that one requires security in life but early in life, one should try to discover what they are looking for. And nowadays, I am very happy to see that a few students from Delhi University are taking a break after their undergrad to explore themselves, which is a very Western concept. So, my answer to your question is: young students should explore various career paths, and career is not the end. Unfortunately, in our country everyone thinks that UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) is the goal. I am sorry to say but this is a big misconception. Being a civil servant can be a means to serve the end, but it cannot be the end. I would strongly suggest (that) the students should identify the purpose in life as early as possible. And purposes can be changed as well. It can be edited and altered. But then one can accordingly find means to serve the purpose.

Priyanshu: What opportunities does the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University, provide to young students who come from underprivileged backgrounds?

Dr. Kumar: So, since last two years, Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University India office is the connector and convenor of the Harvard Programme in South Asia and it has a number of programmes but for youngsters we have a specific programme called ‘Crossroads’ where two of the Harvard faculties from Harvard Business School have come up with this idea of bringing youngsters from all over the world (it started from south Asia but now it’s all over the world) and we organise this in Dubai. It’s a fully funded programme. There are donors based out of Dubai. It’s a one-week training for students around leadership and exposing them towards the Harvard method of education and teaching. This is only for students who are first in their family to go to college. In a way, the programme is targeting underprivileged youngsters and the best thing about the programme is that all of them fly to Dubai and meet other students and teachers. (The link to apply for the programme is: https://mittalsouthasiainstitute. harvard.edu/crossroads/)

Priyanshu: You have talked about this in your book too and this concerns the nation at large as well. The decline of public education in our country is quite worrisome. Who do you blame for this? The Government or the private education ecosystem? How do you perceive this and what has your organisation, Edjustice, achieved in resolving this issue?

Dr. Kumar: It’s definitely the Government! Because the idea of privatisation comes from the Government, and the market always sees the opportunity. You cannot blame the private educators. If they see the opportunity, they will come forward. I don’t think it’s (privatisation) a good idea. For a country like India, we still need to continue with public education for 30 to 40 years, because a lot of people are still lagging behind in education and they can’t afford costly private education. The indicators are not good, and the kind of fees that the private universities charge – I am not taking about quality – not everyone can afford. What stops us to strengthen our public education system which can provide quality education? If you see, 20 years ago, all the big names were coming from public colleges. Even now, some of the big names are coming from public universities only. So, it’s just that the Government doesn’t wish to put attention on public colleges. I don’t blame the private players. I blame the Government. And, people also need to be blamed. We are not talking or protesting about it. We want the good pie in everything. For health, we want five star health-care. Our aim is to earn good money, so that we can avail good facilities and our children can go to good schools. Our aim is not to fix the system which used to exist. Take an example: when we talk about quality of air, we know that it is affecting everyone – the rich, the poor, and the middle class – everyone is harassed by air pollution. So, everyone is talking about the air pollution, but education is something which is not bothering them; no one is talking about that. So, if public education is not affecting my kid or my family, then I am not going to talk about it. But I am talking about air as it used to be very good. But then our public education also used to be very good. If we are taking about reviving or cleaning the air, why can’t we talk about reviving the public education system? So, the public is also responsible. I also wonder why students studying in DU colleges and the students’ unions do not raise the issue of high-quality teaching in colleges? Since you mentioned about my book, I would encourage students to read my book, Katihar To Kennedy: The Road Less Travelled. It depicts my life at DU and what all I gained being a DU student. It’s available on Amazon.

Priyanshu: A lot of students dream to pursue higher education from Ivy League or Russell group colleges after their graduation. The exorbitant fee and sustaining in foreign countries make scholarships a viable option. As a student who has fetched a scholarship to study in Harvard Kennedy School, can you suggest how an average student can grab one for themselves?

Dr. Kumar: For that, I think these universities look (at) leadership skills in you, how good you are at extracurricular activities, how good you are in the field you are pursuing, and what leadership role you have played. And it’s also important to let them know how your learning is going to help the humanity, at large. So, when you are writing your SOP (statement of purpose), these things matter a lot and it should come naturally. You can’t decide today that you want to apply for Harvard or Princeton, and someone suggest that you have to write an SOP and you start writing . That’s not a good thing to do. You need to start as early as possible. I don’t mean you have to start writing as early as possible, but you have to build your personality like that. You have to build your profile like that. There are a lot of scholarships available. One thing that I have observed is that if you have to go to foreign counties for higher studies and if you have the right intent, then nobody can stop you.

Priyanshu: How can a student be a part of your Edjustice People’s Campaign and contribute to the development of underprivileged children?

Dr. Kumar: So, Edjustice is a campaign to rejuvenate public education system in India. It’s an all-volunteer run campaign, so it’s quite unique. The campaign started from Bihar, but the model is quite relicable and scalable, hence we will move to other states next year. So, any student from Delhi University who wants to be a part of this education camping and believes in strengthening and rejuvenating the public education system is very much welcome to join us. For more information, one can visit www.edjustice.in and the Facebook page is @edjusticeindia and if you want to write, the e-mail ID is [email protected]. With the active volunteers, the campaign expects eight hours per week, which is mostly off-site and we have meetings every week, and that too in the evening so that it suits everyone. The volunteers also travel to field areas like Bihar once in a while, but they also support us with designing the campaign and various programmes. Volunteers can join for one year and they can always renew after that. This is a very good opportunity for young students, especially for DU students and since I come from this varsity, I feel that students are very bright in DU and they can contribute a lot. Many students from LSR (Lady Shri Ram), Hindu, and Venkateswara College are a part of this campaign.

Feature Image Credits: Mr. Sanjay Kumar

Interviewed by Priyanshu and Maumil Mehraj for DU Beat

[email protected] [email protected]

Interview transcribed by Priyanshu for DU Beat

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Arts & Culture

Thighs Attract Boys: The Curious Case of St. Francis College

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Education is meant to liberate the educated. Read on to know what happens when there exists a polarity between the two.

Recently, a video of St. Francis College, Hyderabad, had made rounds on the internet. The video was received with widespread outrage across different social media platforms. The protesting students alleged that a faculty member had shamed a student for wearing a sleeveless dress. “The head of my department gave the example of actors who are paid to wear ‘such clothes’. That statement affected me. I have written down this incident verbatim in my book,” an enraged student said. “Sr. Sandra announced a new dress code change in the middle of the year and her colleagues told our representatives that a long kurta would get us good marriage proposals. They told our representatives that standing up for a cause is blasphemous, raising your voice is blasphemous.

This went against the very grain of our values as millennials of the 21st Century. Things got worse, every day we were all humiliated for wearing a kurta that was just an inch or less above the knee, we were made to stand outside the college, losing out on classes and tests. Things did not stop there, the college went ahead and hired female security guards in the pretext of security, these female guards were checking the length of our kurtas, they went ahead and pulled girls by their ID (identity) cards and even pulled their kurtas,” Zanobia Tumbi, who is a student at St. Francis, posted on her Facebook profile, along with the video. Eventually, the women decided to protest and were finally allowed to wear “long tops” to college. But that does not even begin to end the discourse. The Indian education system, specifically talking about higher education, has a way of putting unnecessary obligations on students.

Be it a certain way of dressing, a mandatory minimum attendance, or a particular way of writing the papers to fetch more marks, they all contribute to cease the liberty of students. What is worrying is that the students of these institutions have internalised this behaviour, and do not really seem to have a problem with it. When I asked a few students studying in a reputed college which followed the same practice, their answers ranged from, “I have never given it a thought,” to “No, I don’t have anything to say about it.” When humans are fed a diet of entirely problematic substances, they stop dissecting the reality to find out the truth.

Something similar seems to be happening with the Indian youth, and this is a cause of concern. Education is supposed to make them distinguish between real and false virtues, but in such cases, it is robbing them of it. When there is an imposition of uncalled-for rules, it tends to hamper with the real issues plaguing the country and the world as communities. India lags behind when it comes to research, innovations, and modifications in education. Instead of sanitising the post-millenials of their ungodly ways, the system should take a long, critical look within its cracks and make amends to the damage. While the whole world is progressing to form a more holistic approach towards education, actions such as these put a big question mark on the system.

There is also a debate about what the parents’ reaction is. According to the management of St. Francis, most of the parents had received this decision of their daughters wearing a kurta in a positive light. In this situation, dissent, and not the narrative of “disobedience” that we have been fed, is necessary. Across colleges, and especially in women’s educational institutions, patriarchy or moral policing should have no space. Such places in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, or across smaller cities, have given the country women that the world is proud of. If we limit them to, and define them by what they wear, these places will stop producing the kind of talent that they have. In an educational institution of the present time, moral policing on women’s bodies and clothing should be the topic of criticism and not a notice issued by the authorities who hold power. When it comes to learning, steps like these comply with the misogyny and sexism women in our country, and from all over the world, have actively been fighting to put in the past.

Feature Image Credits: The Hindu

Maumil Mehraj

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

Understanding the Business of Education in India

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As the opportunities in the service sector and manufacturing sector increased for the educated youth, the demand for educational institutions grew, and hence, education is turning into a business in our country.
In India, it is not legal to run educational institutions as business organisations, since only trusts can run such institutions on a non-profit basis. However, there appears to be a systemic method by which many trusts turn these non-profit institutions into their profit-making centres.
The entrepreneurs, taking advantage of the high demand for education, generally get land allotted at a nominal cost in the name of an educational community. In the initial stages, some temporary structures are put up. Later on, as students are admitted, funds begin to flow in the form of development fee, building fee, tuition fee, cultural event fee, etc. These institutions charge cost plus pricing for the services rendered by them. Therefore, over a period of time, these institutions were able to construct huge buildings and purchase costly equipment to modernise their establishments. In this way, a large percentage of unaided private schools and colleges have converted education into a business enterprise.

Earlier, these institutions were confined to metropolitan areas and big cities, but now they are spreading even to smaller towns. “This seriously undermines the selfless nature of education, especially in a country like ours where students are supposed to consider their teachers as Gods,” opined Bhavya, a first-year student pursuing B.A. (Honours) Economics from Daulat Ram College. Of late, the issue of charging capitation fee by educational institutions has also become a sensational topic of disccussion. The Supreme Court, in its judgement on the Mohini Jain versus the Government of Karnataka case in 1992, declared that the Right to Education was a fundamental right, and that the charging of capitation fee was arbitrary, unfair, and, therefore, in violation of the fundamental Right to Equality contained in Article 14 of the Constitution. Mohini Jain, the petitioner in the case, was admitted to the medical college in Karnataka, but she could not take advantage of admission as she could not pay INR 60,000 per year as capitation fee.

A distinction has to be made between privatisation and commercialisation of education. India has a long tradition of privatisation of higher education. Tilak, Karve, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and many other charitable trusts started educational institutions to widen educational opportunity in the society. But modern educational entrepreneurs are not guided by philanthropic motives of the earlier reformers. They intend to invest in educational institutions to maximise profits, because the demand for professional education is very high and the risk involved in this investment is minimal.
There have also been many instances of promoters of educational institutions getting involved in tax evasion and money laundering cases. Politicians and other investors create trust funds, citing education as the motive.

Corporate Social Responsibility funds flow into the trust through legitimate banking channels. These funds are returned to the promoters in cash, and the actual expenditure on the institution is met with the illicit hoard of black money. The expenditure is then inflated, helping launder the black money. In spite of these negative aspects, there are many positive aspects as well that have been brought in by the private investments in the education sector. They have filled up the investment deficit in the education sector. They have increased the availability of seats, creative subjects, and also developed the other centres including the urban areas.

Any development without proper regulations is hazardous for the society. Hence, there should be a strong regulatory body across India for the regulation of these institutions regularly. Benjamin Franklin wisely said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” One can sincerely hope the investment is not made to run education as a business to a point of extreme capitalistic individualism and exploitation, but in order to increase knowledge for the building of a stronger and a more reformed society.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Abhinandan Kaul

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DUB Speak

How Much Pythagoras Theorem do you use in Real Life?

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How many things have we learned in our school life expecting to use them in reality which, we found out were in fact, a total waste of brain space?

From a very young age, an average Indian student is fed a healthy diet of multiplication tables, and an abundant number of formulas that they tend to cram up and carry with them for a period of more than 12 years. We adhere to these concepts for so long that the very idea of education becomes restricted to the ability to score well and not flunk, doesn’t matter if we actually learn something from it or not. Hence, eventually losing the ability to question the system.

I am sure we all believed at the age of 12 that by the looks of it, we would be using geometry on a daily basis. Yet, another day has passed and how much Pythagoras Theorem have you applied in real life? At some point in high school, we all get into geometric theorems and proofs, comparing triangles to other triangles, and a few other things that the Greeks had already figured out for us. But when it comes to applying them in real life, people just don’t encounter triangles in the wild pleading to be proved identical. Let us not forget how much we struggled with long division back in fourth grade. It was added to our math curriculum in an era when people smoked for their health and calculators were rare. Basically, the only people who use long division now are fourth-grade teachers teaching it to fourth graders.

Archimedes, the famous Greek Mathematician that contributed his fair share of principles and theorems, was considered highly intellectual. Lesser-known truth about his life is the cause of his death. When his city was captured and there were rage and terror everywhere, he was killed by a soldier, who mistakenly thought, the mathematical instruments Archimedes was carrying were valuable weapons and thus, killed him with his sword in anger. Which tells us how there’s actually a quite thick line between Maths and intelligence.

Our education system judges the mental level of students by seeing how accurate they are with math. Doesn’t matter if it’s anyone’s cup of tea or not. And it’s just not mathematics. We wouldn’t have struggled with History so much if instead of Jhum cultivation, or about how different rivers were named, we were made to read chapters on the stories written by the great Sadat Hasan Manto, who did not write words, but wrote emotions, covering every detail of those dark times, how various people of the society were affected differently.

Ironically, the word “Education” comes from the Greek word “Edukos”, which means ‘To Draw Forth From Within’. How very different from the prevailing schooling system which seeks the child’s soul to conform to the demands of a consumer-driven society, leaving us hackneyed. Imagine an education system so abominable that we make extra coaching, a thriving multimillion rupee industry with enough money to buy front-page ads, billboards and bus wraps.

When it’s said that education is the solution to various catastrophes of the world, it certainly doesn’t indicate what we studied about Mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell. Rather, it’s about educating and making the people aware about inequality, cyber crimes, taxes, poverty, homosexuality, and numerous other visions that give us the power and confidence to question the issues prevailing in the world. Seeing unhealthy patterns in the previous generations and deciding those patterns end with us is an extremely powerful decision which is, in fact, the basic expectation from this generation, something that can only be achieved from a liberal education system that doesn’t produce mules.

Now to answer the question, will you ever use Pythagoras theorem in real life? Dissentious. Unless one plans on making a career in mathematics, about which, are you sure?

 

Feature Image Credits: Pinterest

Avni Dhawan

[email protected]

 

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DUB Speak

Editorial – Real World 101: Lessons for Life

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Let’s look back at the first institution of education you were introduced to, and see how it failed to teach you ‘Real World 101’.

The Internet is a wonderful place. You have grown up listening to the incessant debates on how social media and communication are a drawback for our generation’s growth. Your parents almost always blame your wretched cell phones for everything – from your flu, to your accidents. But the greatest thing about the Internet today is not just its ability to connect; but its ability to connect meaningfully with a space for discourse, dissection, and analysis through forums like Quora, Reddit, Tumblr, etc., which never cease to amaze you with the bizarre, informative, and yet strangely comic variety of questions and answers. In the Indian school student’s world though, the questions searched for on Quora are a sadly discomforting reality.

‘How do I score 100 in English CBSE Boards class 12?’

‘Which books to study for MCQ IIT JEE preparation in class 10?’

‘What are the important pages to study in Class 10th Science book?’

The thing is- you should not be scoring 100/100 in a paper like English, or be concerned with the MCQ of a competitive exam without knowing the concepts, or be asking for pages to study from in a grade 10 textbook. But that’s what Indian schools make you think you need.

In a classroom of 50 to 60 students, majority of the school teachers bring a prescribed textbook to class, write formulae on the board, read the text as it is, make you mark the ‘important points’, give you answers for ‘expected questions in exams’, and leave without encouraging you to think beyond the text; even reference material is discouraged. Rushing through the syllabus is a common phenomenon. Honestly, most school students in India, instead of feeling robbed of precious learning methodologies, feel glad because their entire focus depends upon the coaching centers where another cycle of spoon-feeding and keyword-vomiting occurs at a much higher price. As your schooling ends and your college classes begin, you have already become systematically habitual to run away from research, opinion-making, questioning, a and most importantly, believing that learning things is worth it.

This is not to say that the higher educational institutions in India are devoid of flaws. Even the best colleges have fundamental or deep-rooted issues that need to change. But when you sit in a college classroom where people don’t know you at all, your opinions set you apart. Unfortunately, you have been taught to stay firm on your lack of opinion and graded on your keyword-clad answers.

Even the competitions held at schools tend to throw the spotlight on a few selected students who always bring either glory or loyalty through continual participation. This practice of extreme favouritism towards some and lack of initiative by most in an institution as small as a school, where you spend more than a decade of your life, kill the spark of curiosity.

Those who are good at things begin to fear rejection and failure in colleges, buzzing with talent and enthusiasm, while the ones who were left out in school develop a sense of confidence in the lack of their capabilities. To be politically correct and not offend people, schools in India have evolved towards a sad dearth of awareness.

Above everything, what makes schools in India a funeral pyre of reality is the lie- ‘Study hard to score well in twelfth and you’ll enjoy for the rest of your life.’ This statement is a scam. It is an unsettling blow to the very principles of education. Your life will not be one of growth or joy unless you constantly learn, unlearn, research, analyse, and think with all your strength about your field of interest. There is no ‘thus, this is how it works’ to find success in your life beyond school. But the best plan is to know, and know it like your favourite song, your learning ends only with your life, and college is just the first step of learning- by unlearning.

 

Anushree Joshi 

[email protected]

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Campus Central

Mental Health Societies in DU

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India is confronting a mental health crisis, with one out of every three individual dealing with depression. The Mental Health societies in University of Delhi (DU) aim at improving this condition at student level, in the wake of Sri Venkateswara college’s new mental health club, “Empathise”.

Mental health is an indispensable part of character, and is more than the absence of mental disorders. It refers to a broad array of activities directly or indirectly related to the mental well-being, prevention of mental illnesses, treatment and rehabilitation of people affected by mental disorders.

According to the National Mental Health Survey of India 2015-16 (quoted by a 2017 World Health Organisation report), one in 20 people in India over the age of 18 have suffered from depression, and more than 80% of sufferers have not received any treatment. The National Crime Records Bureau reports that students made up almost 7% of recorded suicides in 2015.

The viewpoint of Indian people towards mental illness isn’t very comforting. There prevails a pervasive stigma that responds to it by maintaining a safe distance from those who are mentally ill or categorise people striving for mental help, as attention seekers. But over the past few years, Indian society has witnessed some changes and the number of people who deeply care for this cause has increased.

College societies play a very substantial role in developing students. They prove to be a good forum to generate changes, create acceptance and develop a healthier environment that is more than just attending classes and scoring well.

Bhavika Mehta, founder of “Empathise”, The Mental Health Club, Sri Venkateswara College said, “College can be a wonderful experience for many, but it could be miserable to a lot as well, given the fact that people from all backgrounds and pluralities come to one place. The objective of the club that will turn into a society would be to establish a safe and comfortable space for anyone who wishes to talk, our team would be there for them with open arms and listening ears.”

A society solely concerned with Mental Health is beneficial for the college and would eventually normalise the notion of needing mental help and stimulate people to not see depression, anxiety or any other discomfort as a call for attention, rather something really sensitive and severe.

There are several other colleges of DU amassing Mental Health societies that are working even on a larger scale. Friends’ corner, Hindu College is an active society that endeavours to make the college more empathetic. They also have a page called “Humans of Hindu” that encourages the students to share their stories. The White Rose Club, Gargi College, is another society that aims at spreading awareness, curtailing hate, and encouraging students to rise above their phobias. Apart from this, the colleges that are yet to have a Mental Health Cell, have shown their support to this cause on a secondary level. The NSS unit of Kamala Nehru College organised a peer mentoring session that encouraged freshers to reach out for any mental, emotional help, the society would provide them with assistance.

Students strongly believe that the fact that there is a need for such societies is an indication of how our educational institutions lack counsellors and therapists. A student instigated organisation cannot be a substitute for proper counsellors and psychological assistance. The Indian education system needs to realise the importance of this aspect and act on it on a wider scale.

Feature Image Credits: Mentalhealth

Avni Dhawan

[email protected]

 

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The Underbelly of Tradition: Teachers’ Day

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Let us explore a lesser-known tale of the
plagiarism controversy surrounding Dr.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the man whose
birthday is celebrated as Teachers’ Day.

Before being ordained as the second
President of the Republic of India, Dr.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a scholar
whose expertise on comparative religion
and philosophy was espoused with
extensive research and studies.
His academic career, which started as
an Assistant Professor at Presidency
College in 1911, allowed him to make
several disciples at various academic
stages of his life. When he eventually
became the President of India in 1962,
some of his students went to meet him
to seek permission to celebrate his
birthday on 5th September, which he
politely declined and rather asked them
to celebrate Teachers’ Day on that day.
And ever since then, 5th September is
celebrated as Teachers’ Day in India.
However, there is a controversial aspect
of his life that is not discussed very often.
It was an infamous case of literacy piracy
that blotted Radhakrishnan’s reputation
in the late 1920s.
In January 1929, Mr. Jadunath Sinha, one
of his students and a brilliant lecturer at
Meerut College, accused Radhakrishnan
of extensively plagiarising from the first
two parts of his thesis titled “Indian
Philosophy of Perception”. Mr. Sinha had
completed his master’s from Calcutta
University in 1917, and had then applied
for the prestigious Premchand Roychand
Studentship in 1922, for which he had
to submit his thesis in instalments. He
submitted the first and second parts in
1922 and 1923, respectively, and the
remaining installments by 1925. Dr.
Radhakrishnan was appointed as the
examiner for Sinha’s thesis, and had to
read the second volume, and the other
subsequent volumes of the thesis.
Professor Sinha revealed that though
Radhakrishnan’s book Indian Philosophy
Volume II was published in 1927, he
noticed the plagiarism in Radhakrishnan’s
book from his thesis only in November
1928. Two months later, Jadunath Sinha
vented out these allegations through
the magazine- Modern Review. In
the subsequent months, the matter
worsened for Radhakrishnan as another
book by him, titled The Vedanta
according to Sankara and Ramanujan was
accused to have paragraphs plagiarised
from Mr. Sinha’s thesis. Mr. Sinha wrote
three consecutive letters in the February,
March, and April editions of Modern
Review inhibiting his accusations.
In August 1929, Professor Sinha sued Dr.
Radhakrishnan in the Calcutta High Court
for the charge of copyright infringement
of his original works, claiming INR
20,000 as damages. In September,
Radhakrishnan counter-sued him for
defamation demanding INR one lakh.
Jadunath Sinha was a revered professor
and initially managed to get sympathy
as well as support from fellow Bengali
professors. They were convinced of
the plagiarism, but subsequently
refused to stand as a witness for him
in the court. On the other hand, Dr.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a relatively
powerful figure at that time, too. He
was brought to Calcutta University by
the eminent academician Professor
Ashutosh Mukherjee, whose son and
the founder of Jan Sangh, Mr. Shyama
Prashad Mukharjee was a dear friend of
Dr. Radhakrishnan. He forced Professor
Sinha to settle the matter out of court
and, owing to the pressure, he finally
succumbed.
Power and politics play an essential role
in academia. The recent English syllabus
controversy proves that academics is
not free of powerful political influences.
The story of Mr. Jadunath Sinha and Dr.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is symbolic of
this power-play in academics. It makes
us wonder if the traditions we follow
need to be reviewed and analysed for the
power dynamics they bring to life, over
and over again.

Feature Image Credits: Round Table India

Priyanshu
[email protected]

 

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Arts & Culture

The Eco-Feminist Village of Piplantri

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In Rajasthan, a state often characterised by low sex ratio and an arid climate, the villagers of Piplantri in Rajsamand have resorted to planting 111 trees with the birth of every girl child to battle female foeticide and climate issues.

In Piplantri, whenever a girl child was born, the family pushed a hard, jagged grain into her mouth to cause infection and ensure her death. Shyam Lal Paliwal never understood this practice.He had always loved his daughter. So when Sarpanch Shyam Lal Paliwal’s 16-year old daughter Kiran died in 2006, he planted a burflower tree in her remembrance and vowed that no one would mourn the birth of a baby-girl in Piplantri anymore. Instead, it would be celebrated with the planting of trees.

Before 2005, Piplantri had been a drought-prone area. Shyam Lal recalls that once in 2005, the drought had been so bad that the government were forced to send water trains to the village. But it all ended with Kiran’s tree and Shyam Lal’s vision.

Alongside planting 111 trees, whenever a girl child is born in Piplantri, donations are collected so that INR 31,000 can be saved and put aside, so that with investment, there is a sum to match a potential dowry, allowing the families to become financially independent and in turn, be able to send their daughters to school, not marry them before they turn 18, and care for the planted trees as well. Along with this, getting inspiration from his wife, Shyam Lal also helped establish an aloe vera business in the village. After training, women can make and market aloe vera gel, juice and pickle, and some earn up to INR 6,000 a month.  The Sarpanch has also started a rainwater harvesting plant in the village.

Aloe Vera gel made by the women of Piplantri village. image Credits: Lifegate
Aloe Vera gel made by the women of Piplantri village.
image Credits: Lifegate

The government of Rajasthan, which has been shamed with a concerning sex ratio for years, decided to introduce a yojana (scheme) inspired by Paliwal’s work. Under the policy, the family receives INR 2,500 on her birth and the same amount on her first birthday. This is doubled to INR 5,000 if she finishes class five and class eight. When girls complete their senior secondary education i.e. class 12th, they get INR 35,000, making an overall total of  INR 50,000.

Piplantri has become an inspiration to various villages in rural India and holds itself up to be an important symbol of not only women empowerment, but also sustainable development in India.

Feature Image Credits: Procaffenation

Shreya Juyal

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DUB Speak

Should our schools be more like our colleges?

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Schools and colleges are vastly different in many aspects, each with their own functions and purposes. Yet, could schools be better off in some way by imitating the institutions of higher education?

One of the most glaring contrasts between school and college that one experiences after stepping foot in the latter is the access to vast, almost limitless, freedom associated with it. Certain rules and regulations – hostel curfews and the like – notwithstanding, college majorly outshines school in terms of what a student can or can not do. From classes to clothing and attendance to activities and the rest, students are given numerous opportunities to experiment, explore and experience.

The mere agency that students have of visiting the stacked college libraries at their convenience or of listening to eminent speakers at some seminar is no small feat compared to the strict timetables and mechanical workings of a school. Consider how these resources can be used to develop oneself and you have a treasure trove of knowledge and learning, accessible almost entirely at will. Contrasting this with the fixed schedules, homework and mostly bookish education of school classrooms brings forth a rather grim picture.

This is not to say that schools don’t have a functional use or a practical purpose. It makes sense for a school to follow fixed daily timetables to instil qualities of punctuality in students, or to prescribe some homework so that students keep up with their studies, especially in their junior classes. But on the whole these features tend to become restrictive in nature, curbing creativity and freedom to no small extent and making students work within a closely regulated system.

Psychologist Peter Gray writes in Psychology Today, “Children hate school because in school they are not free. Joyful learning requires freedom”. In a separate article on the same platform, he further writes, “Children’s education is children’s responsibility, not ours. Only they can do it. The more we try to control it, the more we interfere”.

It’s common to watch children learn a multitude of skills and tasks simply by playing and experimenting. In many of the world’s most unique and innovative schools, like the Steve Jobs School in Amsterdam or the Green School in Bali, students are encouraged to choose what they want to learn and when in a model that stresses experiential learning.

However, the point of this article is not how teaching methods can be modernised but how schools can be made more liberal on a whole, most importantly in higher classes, say, from class ninth or tenth onwards. This would work out in three ways.

One, school students should be given greater freedom to choose how they want to attend classes. A more open timetable, which gives them the choice to experiment and alternate between classes on the one hand and library, club activities or workshops on the other will not only open up multifaceted opportunities of learning but also give the agency and responsibility of handling their own matters into the hands of the students. An argument can be made that students would become careless and stop attending classes in such a system. This comes from a highly paternalistic notion of how students should behave and the assumption that they can’t figure out what’s good for them. As long as this assumption exists, we won’t give agency and responsibility to students. Sure, not everyone would make the best use of this system. But even for that, the accountability would exist with the students – something that’s essential for an adult.

Two, more seminars, interactive sessions and discussions on academic topics or social issues by eminent speakers would not only expose students to important questions but also provide for a more holistic beyond-the-book education.

Third and perhaps most importantly, schools should be more political. This doesn’t mean that we need an ABVP or an NSUI in schools, but that a culture of democratic protests and discussions should be fostered. None of us has gone through school without facing a situation where we wanted to raise our voice, make some reasonable demands or show solidarity for a cause. Yet, what stops us is the fear of authoritative action. The threat of a suspension or a letter home is enough to deter dissent. Buttressed by feeble claims that students shouldn’t be engaged in politics and focus only on studies, schools are able to get away with unfair and sometimes frivolous rules and regulations. What is being envisioned here is not active politics per se, but the expression of dissent in a democratic manner, giving students an avenue to experience how authority, resistance and engagement work, for these are inescapable realities of life.

The preliminary step for all this is to make teacher-student hierarchies more equitable and balanced, such that students are not seen as subordinates who have to be kept under constant paternal guidance but active and equal players in the learning process, while teachers are not seen as commanding figures but coaches and team leaders who simply aid in the said process. At the core of this vision lies the freedom that Gray talks about.

“College environment is more flexible, there students are expected to take charge of their own education. Therefore they need to be mentally stable in order to make use of the flexibility and various opportunities available to them… (qualities) which they should have developed in the protective school environment”, says Ms Piya Narang, a teacher or History at Delhi’s Birla Vidya Niketan school.

Our opinion is that schools can foster better- prepared students by not keeping them sheltered but by exposing them to the one quality humans heavily desire – the state of being free.

Image credits – Glasbergen

Prateek Pankaj
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