Why NO Dharmic Education in our Indian Basic Education?

Krishna in Srimad Bhagavad Gita says “A Dharmic Life is necessary for purity in mind”.

It is such a simple thing. There is no dispute in that. We need pure mind with love for the world and no hatred for anyone and anything. A dharmic life will give that. Now how do we develop dharmic life? By developing children through dharmic education.

I feel we Indians are so stupid. We just ape the west! We are such a rich nation of religions, philosophies, diversity. We have given raise to such varied thoughts. So many religions co-exist peacefully here. It is so pervasive in our life. Our names are after our gods & prakrithi. But still we keep Dharmic education out of our primary education. Why?

Our society values are deteriorating. Child abuse, women abuse is rampant. Society is very corrupt. We care less for nature. Powerful people don’t care for lesser sections of the society. Economic disparity is all time high. There is no equality. We show pity but no empathy for the poor. We give alms but snatch their land & water.

Aren’t these a sign of deteriorating morals in the society as a whole? Should we not seriously debate to include Dharmic education in our primary education? We have made education as birth right. Almost every child in India goes to school now. Nook & corner of India has schools. Government infrastructure is good, not bad at least. School education covers basic maths, science, English & some language. It equips a youth to get a job & earn his living. But most important for life is goodness in life. Should we not impart that as an education to children of our country?

If we have taken in so much from western culture, should we also not take some good culture from our own ancient Gurukula system of education? In ancient education only Dharmic education was there as primary education. The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Geetha was primary education. The Shastras, Smrithi, Vedas, Upanishads, Kavya, Alankara were advanced studies. The maths, science, art, architecture, astrology, medicine, law were higher education depending upon interest evolved by the youth.

We got independence from British. But not from their education system. When are we actually going to get Independence then? Lord Macaulay architected an education system for Indians to neutralize the society of its pride & self-esteem & primarily to make them slaves. It makes the child bland, prideless of its culture.  In his own words the intention of imposing the British education system on the Indian largesse is:

“

to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect

“

His topics in his parliament paper presentation depict his intentions clearly:

19. 7. INDIANS CANNOT BE EDUCATED BY MEANS OF THEIR MOTHER-TONGUE: ENGLISH IS THE LANGAUGE

19. 13. EXPENDITURE ON SANSCRIT AND ARABIC LEARNING IS DEAD LOSS

The paper he presented to the British parliament in full text is in the below link:

http://www.languageinindia.com/april2003/macaulay.html#minute

Whatever his narrow minded intentions were, it has made a significant damage to our self-esteem across the nation, lasting for nearly 200 years now. Isn’t it time we open our minds and debate genuinely loss or gain by bringing back Moral Value Education back into our basic education?

When we debate the inclusion of Dharmic education in our primary education, several questions come up. Lets take a dig at it.

1.       Why Dharmic Education? Let it stay out of Basic Education. Let it be in Mutts, Temples only.

Answer: Why not? What is wrong with it making it universal? It builds up a good character in an individual. It teaches what is good and what is bad. It will bring out the inquisitiveness in individuals of determining what is good and what is bad. It teaches society living in harmony. It teaches ‘Be good, Do good’, ‘Speak the truth’, ‘Respect elders, women, children’, ‘Help the needy’, ‘Don’t hurt others’ ‘Don’t discriminate another human’ etc., It teaches these basic goodness through simple stories and ballads. The stories and prayers will imprint well upon the child’s mind. When they grow up and come across bad actions, situations, their subconscious mind will lead the person to tread the righteous path.

The mutts & temples are there for certain lucky sections of the society. And not all go there. And even those who go there ask God not education but results.

But the Indian government education is for all. It is common for all. It is basic. Dharmic education should be part of basic education. It should be made compulsory for all. Many institutions in India today teach Bhagavad Geeta recitation, Yoga, Pranayama as part of their curriculum. Ramayana, Mahabharata teaching and exams are conducted by certain institutions across India. But they are not under the ambit of Government’s basic education curriculum. By making it common for all, India should hope to build everyone as Dharmic citizens.

2.       What makes up Dharmic Education? There are too many scriptures. There is no end to it. What about language of teaching?

Answer: There is no end to anything in this world. But can we stop studying because of it. We must start somewhere. The scope, syllabus will all come out if there is a will. If we all ask for it, then the government is by the people for the people, so they’ll make a committee and do it.

Language should not be a barrier. At least for learning good way of life people should choose their mother tongue. I prey in god some pride prevails about our mother tongue in our mothers and fathers.

3.       What about Christians & Muslims? They’ll demand their holy texts to be part of it. Then it becomes religious education & not Dharmic education.

Answer: Fine. What is wrong? They are Indians. Their texts also teach Dharma. They have good texts, ballads, stories even if they are foreign. They can be taught in respective mother tongue. They should also form committee to recommend their syllabus. There are 100’s of sects and religions in our India. Jains, Veerashaivas, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsees etc.,. So let there be options to choose. Let Government form committees who recommend syllabi for all 10 standards of our basic education for each of the options.

It will all take few years to iron out what should be there. But right now there has to be a healthy debate for inclusion of Dharmic Education in our basic education. That is an absolute necessity. This is India. We should be tolerant. We should show the world the right way. We should develop tolerance to learn various tenets of all religions of the world.

I believe Dharmic education is different from Religious education. Religion is associated with specific God or Gods. Whereas Dharma is basically Manava Dharma teaching the basic essence of ‘Be Good & Do Good’ & what are our duties as world citizens.

Different religions give different names to God. And impart the Dharmic education in the name of that God. So it becomes difficult to differentiate and make a single syllabus. This is my feeling. But if we can crack it for our India, then it would be phenomenal. And we should make a sincere attempt.

4.       But some of the holy texts in some religions have hatred for specific named sects; Idol worshippers as non-believers; Hatred & Discrimination based on various differences in living. That will create hatred in the society. So it is equivalent to Government creating hatred groups through systemic education?

Answer: Those sections of hatred should be removed. It is that simple. But then there would be uproar by the custodians of that religion to edit & interpret their holy text. There should be open debate on why they support hatred by faith, way of life, way of worshipping. Such people should be alienated while creating the prescribed syllabus. The committee should hold responsibility to bring out moral value education through these religious texts to build up a good society by education kids in the right way.

5.       What about the infrastructure? Teachers? Equipping & training them? Exams, evaluation?

Answer: We already have much of infrastructure in place. This is just an additional subject. Of course it will have options. Many options. So accordingly the schools have to provide options as much as possible. According to the locality, demographics, teachers available in the village/ area, the schools will need to be equipped accordingly.

It is similar to how we are handling language options. World’s all languages are available as options to our kids in the curriculum. But not all schools can afford to give all that. But they do give local language for sure depending upon the demographics of that region.

Exams and evaluations need to be evolved slowly. Not necessarily it has to be made a compulsory passing subject. However the oral recitation should be given importance. I had written previously on the importance of Time & Memory: http://npraveer.blogspot.in/2014/09/time-memory-character-building-in-child.html

Also another unfortunate thing is parents are not caring for their mother tongue. So for example in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bangalore, there is no option for any of the Indian languages other than Hindi & Sanskrit.

In Kumaran’s a prestigious school in South Bangalore, 50% of the school kids choose foreign language at the cost of losing their mother tongue or local language. It is their parent’s choice that they grow up indifferent & ignorant of their own culture & richness of their mother tongue or local language.

6.       So the chances are that even in the Dharmic subject choices, the parents will choose different subject than their own religion?

Answer: That’s possible. How can we control that? It is upto parent’s intellect.

7.       What about default option? In rural, remote areas there will be limitations for multiple options?

Answer: It has to be localized. The villagers have to decide and implement what is good & feasible according to their demographics.

8.       They say State & Church should be separate. So they say Religious education should not come into universal primary education. Religion is personal and should not be enforced upon all.

Answer: This concept of State & Church is separate is a western concept. It should be properly debated. Should we follow blindly what the west says? Should we not look at our ancient times how well we prospered in peace? How did our society give raise to so many philosophies which is in practice today? How the different faith practitioners coexist peacefully and respectfully even today as they did yesterday? None of those saints who proposed alternate theories were hanged or crucified. It is a tolerant society yesterday and today.

So we should not be afraid of religious education giving raise to dogma as in the west. In fact we should oppose such education which will say only this text is holy, nothing else. That is what caused much friction in western world declaring finally State & Church are separate. Our holy texts should be allowed to be thoroughly questioned and explored. For example in India, as much we regard Sri Rama as Maryada Purushothama, we question his decisions from the first to last. Putting him to test and putting ourselves into exploring what is Dharma? Why did he kill Tadaka taking up Sthree Hathya papa? Why did he side with Sugreeva to kill Vali from back? There are 1000’s of such questions that our philosophy poses and answers convincingly. 

Our education should blossom a child’s mind, expand it and let it explore. We should bravely adopt this for the good of the society.

So my point is the implementation details will open up lot more questions and difficulties. But the educationists, policy makers have to seriously attempt to introduce Dharmic education in the universal primary education. It is the need of the hour. Dharma should be given equal importance if not more than Maths & English.